The Three Strikes Laws create injustices for everyone including the defendants, their families, and the taxpayers. What we are doing with our present Three Strikes Laws is often heartless, and makes no sense.
The original Three Strikes Laws were passed when people thought judges were not sentencing harshly enough on violent offenses. But they were intended to apply only to violent offenders.
Unfortunately, the Three Strikes Laws were not written to conform to the intent of the voters. A "violent" crime for the first two strikes under present law can be a teenager taking a bicycle out of someone's open garage (which is a residential burglary), or setting fire to the trash in a trash can (arson). Then the third strike can be any felony, such as the possession of narcotics, or a third shoplifting conviction (which constitutes as a felony in California).
As a result, 64.5 percent of everyone serving a second or third strike in California today is serving time for what virtually all people would agree is a non-violent offense. In fact, California presently has three times more people serving a third strike sentence of 25 years to life for marijuana offenses than for robbery, rape and murder combined!
Proposition 66 will amend the Three Strikes Laws to conform with the voter's original intent, and reserve our prison space for people who commit violent crimes.
Opponents of Prop. 66 are saying it would allow "thousands of violent offenders and career criminals to roam free," and "Prop. 66 will release over 26,000 felons now serving time for '3 Strikes' offenses." In truth, only those sentenced for non-violent offenses would be affected at all by Prop. 66 - And no one is directly released. They would only qualify for re-sentencing with the original judge, and with the prosecutor present. That way the judge can reconsider the sentence in light of the new law, as well as the defendant's post-conviction conduct. The public will be protected, and justice will be served.
The present law is wrong. Help us fix it by voting in favor of Proposition 66.
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The above thoughts were excerpted from Gray-Gram #18 from the campaign of Judge JIM GRAY, Libertarian Candidate for US Senate, As a trial judge in Orange County for more than 20 years, and as a former federal prosecutor, Judge Jim Gray is one of the most knowledgeable people in California on the three strikes law. WWW.JudgeJim.Com <http://www.JudgeJim.Com>
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