More than a name

Newly offered amendments won’t jeopardize my bill to allow wrongly convicted prisoners to present newly discovered evidence.

At this late hour, prosecutors are proposing changes to my bill creating a writ of innocence. They would be offered in a conference committee, except the conferees won’t be meeting.

The Senate crossfile of this legislation has already passed. That bill can be signed by the Governor.

I’m not going to accept weakening amendments to my bill so that it too can be reviewed and then signed by the Governor.

If both bills were to pass the legislature, the prosecutors would lobby the Governor to sign only the one with my name and their amendments.

So my chairman has agreed not to have the House conferees meet.

You can get a lot done, the old saying goes, if you don’t have to get all the credit for doing so.