Another Attempt to Waterdown the Three-Strikes Law
LA Voice has a disturbing report:
Welcome news in the legal world: Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley and Johnnie Cochran attorney Brian Dunn are pushing for reform of California’s merciless Three Strikes law. The two just filed the “Three Strikes Reform Act of 2006” with the attorney general’s office in a bid for inclusion on the November ballot, proposing to make only violent or “serious” felonies (and exceptions such as burglary) count as third strikes.
This is good news, since California has led the nation in Three Strikes convictions ever since law-and-order Californians decided 11 years ago to damn all back-sliding two-timers to 25-to-life for something as simple as shoplifting razor blades or swiping a slice of pizza …
When will the politicians learn that Californians support the Three-Strikes law as written, giving the judges and prosecutors the discretion regarding the use of non-violent third strikes. You can read the new initiative here.
Cross-posted at the Southern California Law Blog
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 11th, 2006 at 11:13 am and is filed under Author: Jeff Lewis, California, Crime, Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 24th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
If three strikes is such a good law,why don’t you give it to everybody that qualifies for it? Why are blacks and hispanic the main recipients of the three strikes Law? Why is a black or hispanic defendent 7 times more likely to get 25, 50,and75 years to life for a petty or non-seriuos crime than a white defendent?