The state House Judiciary Committee agreed yesterday on a bill that would require criminals to serve a mandatory 30 years to life in prison after being convicted of a third violent felony, but added a provision that would allow criminals to ask the courts for lesser sentences in extraordinary circumstances.

House lawmakers also reduced the number of crimes that would qualify as violent, removing such crimes as burglary and promoting child abuse, and placed a five-year sunset so the state can review the impact of the law on prisons. The committee vote makes it likely a three-strikes penalty will become law this year, since the state Senate has already approved a version of the bill.

"Judges should have some ability to consider extraordinary circumstances. Otherwise, it's a cookie-cutter approach to justice," said state Rep. Blake Oshiro, D-33rd (Halawa, 'Aiea, Pearlridge), the vice chairman of the committee.

Attorney General Mark Bennett said he was pleased the bill is moving but concerned that giving courts discretion to lessen sentences could undermine the law. The Senate draft would allow prosecutors to ask for reduced sentences if defendants agree to cooperate in the case or in other investigations.

"It's not a mandatory minimum if it can be avoided," Bennett said. "That is our most serious concern with the bill."

Other three-strikes proposals modeled after a California law have failed at the Legislature in the past, but lawmakers appear more receptive this session because the targets are violent criminals. The California law, approved by voters and upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, sets mandatory sentences of 25 years to life after a third conviction for any felony, including property crimes.

Public defenders and civil liberties groups have argued that three-strikes laws are too draconian and strip the courts of the ability to base sentences on the circumstances of each crime.

Jack Tonaki, the state's public defender, said the changes made yesterday in the House alleviate some of his objections but he still believes the bill is unnecessary. Judges have the power to impose enhanced sentences on violent or repeat offenders.

"I think this bill is purely political so politicians can say they're being tough on crime," Tonaki said.

The House wants the courts, if the law passes, to track how many criminals are sentenced under the law and how many were subject to existing repeat offender or enhanced sentencing provisions. House lawmakers also want the state Department of Public Safety to study the effect of the law on the state's overcrowded prisons.

Lawmakers would use the data to help decide whether to extend the law after it sunsets in five years.

Bennett said he would ask lawmakers to restore burglary and other crimes to the list of offenses that count toward three strikes when they discuss the different drafts of the bill in conference committee. The House also removed crimes such as promoting child abuse, continuous sexual assault of a minor under 14 that includes sexual penetration, and possessing a firearm while committing a felony.

"To me, a home burglary is a crime of violence," Bennett said. "I think if you ask a hundred homeowners who have had their homes burglarized, 'Do you look at this as a crime of violence?' Based on what people have told me, almost all of them would say, 'Of course.' "

State Sen. Sam Slom, R-8th (Kahala, Hawai'i Kai), called the House changes outrageous. "It shows a complete disregard for the community and a complete disregard to victims," he said.

The U.S. Department of Justice, when it compiles crime statistics, classifies burglary as a property crime. Opponents had cited the inclusion of burglary in the Senate version of the bill as an example of how the proposal is flawed and could lead to some of the same results as California, where one criminal got the maximum sentence for stealing golf clubs.

A review of the law by the California legislative analyst's office found that 46 percent of criminals received their third strikes for nonviolent offenses.

Oshiro said burglary and the other crimes the House removed yesterday are reprehensible but should not be covered by the three-strikes law.

"They didn't qualify in our view as violent," he said.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.