State Legislature Reconvenes for 'Lame Duck' Session

The state legislature opened its lame duck session yesterday with work on pay raises and drug law reform--high priority items on an agenda influenced by the recent state elections.

The senators and representatives will also soon consider a piece of legislation implementing the death penalty and another delaying the effective date of the bottle bill. Some supplemental appropriations and minor appointments will probably come up before the current session adjourns for good, sometime before next January.

The impending change of leadership in the State House will heavily influence the next two months for the legislators, Gov. Edward J. King, forced into retirement by his loss in the September primary, will be looking to leave his mark in the final weeks in office, and is apparently rushing to get some pet projects accepted before the more liberal Gov.-elect Michael S. Dukakis comes into power.

King's legislative liaison said yesterday that the governor will push a spate of proposals which he has introduced to toughen the Commonwealth's criminal codes. The main priority will be to pass legislation implementing the death penalty. State voters last Tuesday approved by an overwhelming majority a referendum making capital punishment constitutional in Massachusetts.

The House will not begin debating the death penalty this afternoon. The Senate may not take it up until next week.

King will also lobby for laws forcing certain juvenile criminals to be tried as adults, increasing criminal penalties for those who harm the elderly, and implementing "determinate sentencing" that would automatically set a range of penalties for certain offenses.

Fair Course

Another project of the governor's is stiffening provisions against certain drug dealers in response to a recent Supreme Judicial Court ruling that the existing law was unconstitutional.

The Senate yesterday approved, 23-13, legislation that would increase the salaries of state legislators, the governor and other statewide officers, and judges.

Republican legislators charged yesterday that patronage and favors would also dominate the final days of this session. Rep. Andrew H. Card Jr. (R--Holbrook), who gave up his seat for an unsuccessful bid for the governor ship, said the Democratic leadership "has a friendly governor." He added that "the system is ready for abuse and the leadership will provide it."

Several Democratic legislators, however, denied the allegations. Sen. Michael J. LoPresti Jr. '70 (D--Cambridge) said there would be a "modest amount of patronage," but nothing out of the ordinary.