A woman whose son faces 10 years in prison will appeal to lawmakers Thursday to modify the state's 10-20-Life gun law.
By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published December 1, 2003
Pauline Shelton desperately wants Florida's 10-20-Life gun law modified. That is the message she is prepared to bring to three state lawmakers at the annual Citrus County Legislative Delegation meeting Thursday.
In doing so, she will break from the typical appropriations requests and concerns that residents and local elected officials voice at the meeting state lawmakers are required to hold each year in every county they represent.
Her cause, however, is one life has forced her to undertake. Standing at the podium inside the Citrus County Commission Chambers, she will be propelled more by maternal duty than civic expectation.
Not that the issue isn't one with greater repercussions than the case of her son, 20-year-old James Christopher Shelton. In late August, a judge sentenced the young man to 111/2 years in prison for a series of burglaries in Citrus County.
In one break-in, Shelton stole a gun. Under the 10-20-Life law, he will be required to serve a minimum mandatory 10-year sentence for arming himself during the crime.
That reality was a crushing blow for his mother. Just talking about the sentence brought her to tears.
But she is finding the courage to do something about her pain. At the delegation meeting Thursday, she will ask state Sens. Mike Fasano and Nancy Argenziano and Rep. Charles Dean to introduce legislation that would revise the Florida's gun sentencing law.
Shelton thinks a person who steals a handgun during a nonviolent crime should not be sentenced under 10-20-Life.
"I think it should be under burglarly," she said.
She also thinks it unfair that first-time, nonviolent offenders are sentenced under the gun law. That was the case for her son before he participated in 10 burglaries during early 2002.
Now, he sits in the Madison Correctional Institute, 150 miles from his Hernando home.
"It was very, very troubling for me when I went to see him," she said Friday. "He's in fear for his life in there."
Pauline Shelton will have an attentive audience in the state lawmakers. The issue already has piqued the interest of Argenziano, R-Crystal River, who as a state representative sponsored the legislation.
She still supports 10-20-Life but acknowledged Friday that the get-tough-on-crime law is not without contradictions. James Shelton never used the gun he stole; still, he faced at least 10 years in prison. Yet the law calls for only a three-year minimum-mandatory prison sentence for the more violent aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
"It's a good law except that there are some snags," she said.
Argenziano said Shelton deserved to be punished for the crimes he committed but argued it was not the intent of the law to punish him for crimes that could have been committed had he sold the gun to someone who in turn used it violently.
"I'm very nervous when government assumes what you may do," she said. "That's not what this (law) is about."
The senator has gotten a jump start on this issue, trying to convince her colleagues that some clarification of the law deserves attention in their committee meetings. Support from advocates will be important, she said.
"We're going to try," she said.
The lawmakers also will be presented with a petition signed by Citrus County residents who favor modification to the 10-20-Life law, said Mark Fields, a Beverly Hills man who has gotten involved with the fight for change.
The Sheltons aren't the only ones who think aspects of the legislation are unfair to offenders who steal a gun but don't use it, he said.
"They deserve to be punished but not to the extent that the Shelton kid was," Fields said. "I hope it's the silent majority who are going to turn out in support of (change to the law)."
County commissioners, City Council members from Crystal River and Inverness and directors of various nonprofit agencies also will have a place on Thursday's agenda. In past years, these officials have used their time to update legislators on their status and to share their appropriations desires for the upcoming session, which begins in March.
Other residents who want to address the legislators should fill out a speaker card before the meeting, which begins at 1 p.m. The commission chambers are in the Citrus County Courthouse at 110 N Apopka Ave.
Seating will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.
"It's a great opportunity," said Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who represents Citrus west of U.S. 19. "It gives us an opportunity to hear what the citizens are thinking, what they have to say, and also what their concerns are so we can take their concerns back to Tallahassee."
