SECTION: ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, Pg. B-2, LECTURE REVIEW

LENGTH: 453 words

HEADLINE: ESTRICH DECRIES POLITICIANS' APPROACH TO CRIME

BYLINE: BOB HOOVER, POST-GAZETTE BOOK EDITOR

BODY:


One of the enduring legacies of the 1988 presidential campaign is the "Willie Horton" factor because it continues to hinder reform of America's criminal justice system, argued a political victim of the infamous criminal.

Susan Estrich was directing Michael Dukakis' presidential campaign when it was torpedoed by George Bush's campaign ads portraying the former Massachusetts governor as soft on crime.

Horton, a killer, had been furloughed from a Massachusetts prison when he raped a woman in Maryland and Bush pinned the crime on his Democratic opponent. "Now, for a politician, there's no such thing as being called too tough on crime," Estrich said last night as she opened the second half of the Heinz Lecture Series season at Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland.

Now a law professor at the University of Southern California, she offered example after example of how politics and the legal system are closely intertwined and how this partnership has made that system more inequitable.

She recalled how President Clinton - "a good friend of mine" - broke off his primary campaign in 1992 to return to Arkansas in order to keep the execution of a braindamaged man on track.

The condemned man had been lobotomized to the point that he saved his dessert from his last meal because he thought he could come back for it, Estrich said.

He also offered to help his executioners with the lethal injection system.

"But, Bill Clinton said, ' No more Willie Hortons,' and that was that," Estrich said.

She also cited the "three strikes and you're out" laws endorsed by politicians in many states, saying they've caused criminals to be given mandatory life sentences for crimes as trivial as stealing a slice of pizza.

Another Estrich example is the difference in sentences for possession of cocaine and for possession of crack cocaine, which can bring jail time that's up to 10 times longer.

"Even the president agrees that this is a bad law, but he refuses to take the lead on changing it," she said. "He's afraid of being a guy who's ' soft' on drugs."

Estrich covered a lot of ground in her nearly 90-minute talk that opened with the O.J. Simpson verdict, analyzed affirmative action, offered a justification for racial profiling by police and revealed that she had been a victim of rape.

Her wide-ranging talk didn't leave enough time for a full discussion of her solutions to the justice system's inequality, however. She was only able to say that in this time of lower violent crime rates, "we have the opportunity now to work on crime prevention instead of punishment."

Estrich replaced publishing executive Michael Korda on the lecture schedule. He had canceled due to illness.

LOAD-DATE: January 25, 2000