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Former Senate President Russell Pearce is citing an urban legend that was a punch line in a Jim Carrey comedy to rally support for a ballot measure that bars criminals from suing their victims.
Pearce is telling the state's 3 million registered voters that Proposition 114 would prevent lawsuits such as one in which a burglar successfully sued a homeowner after he fell through a skylight and impaled himself on a knife on a kitchen counter.
The story appears in Pearce's "pro'' arguments in the Secretary of State's Publicity Pamphlet, which has been sent to 1.2 million households, and is very similar to dialogue in the 1997 comedy "Liar Liar." Pearce told the Judiciary committees of the House and Senate in 2011 the same story when the referral he sponsored was before them.
He said his source for the story was the Arizona Citizens Defense League, the Second-Amendment advocacy group pushing the measure.
"I was told it was accurate," Pearce said.
He said he should have perhaps used a better example, but the real issue is protecting victims from being sued by criminals.
The measure would provide an exception to state constitutional provisions that prohibit restrictions on lawsuits. It is necessary because criminals have successfully sued victims in Arizona, said Charles Heller, spokesman for the Arizona Citizens Defense League.
Heller said Pearce speaks for himself.
"I'm not refuting Russell, but we're not aware of the case he's talking about," Heller said. "But it's not germane to the issue of whether or not people vote for it. This is called right versus wrong. It's right for people to defend themselves, it's wrong for criminals to attack them."
A professor and a lawyer, both from Washington, said the story has a basis in truth, but it most likely was based on a case that was legendary and far more tragic. The case became an advocacy tool for tort reform...