The law imposed a life sentence for almost any crime, no matter how minor, if the defendant had two prior convictions for crimes defined as serious or violent by the California Penal Code. The Three Strikes Project exclusively represents these individuals. Project clients have been given life sentences for offenses including stealing one dollar in loose change from a parked car, possessing less than a gram of narcotics, and attempting to break into a soup kitchen. Statistics from the California Department of Corrections show that the law disproportionately affects minority populations.
Three strikes laws currently exist in more than 20 different states. The original "Three strikes and you're out" campaign was launched by the father of an year-old young woman who was murdered in by a man with an extensive criminal record.
The law didn't come to fruition until after the abduction and murder of a year-old California girl. After that murder, more than , people signed a petition to enact the state's first legislation designed to not only deter repeat offenders but to enforce a stringent 25 years to life sentence on those individuals who were convicted of a third consecutive criminal offense.
Over the years the three strikes laws have faced serious controversy. One of the most controversial aspects of the initial three strikes law was that the third strike need not be a conviction for a violent or serious crime. Any conviction, even those involving a non-violent crime, could lead to a 25 years to life sentence. As a result of the three strikes laws our nation amassed the largest prison population in the world. Then in voters went to the ballots to adjust the three strikes law so that it would only apply to those individual convicted of committing a third violent or serious felony offense.
The extraordinarily high arrest rates resulting from the "war on drugs" have placed enormous burdens on prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges, whose caseloads have grown exponentially over the past decade. Faced with a mandatory life sentence, repeat offenders will demand costly and time-consuming trials rather than submit to plea bargaining.
Since most of the defendants will be indigent and require public defenders, the expense of their defense will be borne by taxpayers. The "3 Strikes" proposals differ from most habitual offender laws in that they make life sentences without parole mandatory. Thus, they tie the hands of judges who have traditionally been responsible for weighing both mitigating and aggravating circumstances before imposing sentence.
Judicial discretion in sentencing, which is admired all over the world for treating people as individuals, is one of the hallmarks of our justice system.
But the rigid formula imposed by "3 Strikes" renders the role of sentencing judges almost superfluous. Eliminating the possibility of parole ignores the fact that even the most incorrigible offenders can be transformed while in prison.
Countless examples are on record of convicts who have reformed themselves through study, good works, religious conversion or other efforts during years spent behind bars. Such people ought deserve a second chance that "3 Strikes" laws make impossible. The passage of "3 Strikes" laws will lead to a significant increase in the nation's already swollen prison population, at enormous cost to taxpayers.
But "3 Strikes" laws would create a huge, geriatric prison population that would be far more expensive to care for. The cost might be worth it if older prisoners represented a danger to society.
But experts tell us that age is the most powerful crime reducer. Most crimes are committed by men between the ages of 15 and Only one percent of all serious crimes are committed by people over age Racial bias in the criminal justice system is rampant. African American men, in particular, are overrepresented in all criminal justice statistics: arrests, victimizations, incarceration and executions. This imbalance is largely the result of the "war on drugs. Today, one in four young black men is are under some form of criminal sanction, be it incarceration, probation or parole.
Because many of these laws include drug offenses as prior "strikes," more black than white offenders will be subject to life sentences under a "3 Strikes" law. Although "3 Strikes" sponsors claim that their purpose is to protect society from only the most dangerous felons, many of the "3 Strikes" proposals encompass a broad range of criminal conduct, from rape to minor assaults.
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