What Is the California Sentencing Law?

California's "three strikes" measure is considered one of the strictest of such statutes in the country.

California's "three strikes" measure is a form of enhanced sentencing in which a person with two prior serious or violent felonies who is convicted of a third felony is given a mandatory sentence of 25 years-to-life in prison. Several states have similar "three strikes" laws, but California's--which was passed overwhelmingly in 1994--is considered one of the strictest of such statutes.

Origins

The "Three Strikes and You're Out" criminal-sentencing measure was passed by the California Legislature, then the electorate as Proposition 184 in 1994. The second of such laws in the United States (the first being in Washington), California's "three strikes" law was passed after a series of high-profile crimes, including an incident in which 12-year-old Polly Klass was kidnapped from her home and raped and murdered by Richard Allen Davis, a drifter with a long history of violent crimes.

Sentencing

Under the law, a person with a prior violent or serious felony who is convicted of a second felony receives a sentence twice as long as would otherwise be required. If someone has two prior convictions for serious or violent felonies, his third felony conviction carries a minimum sentence of 25 years. Violent crimes include murder, robbery of a residence with a deadly or dangerous weapon, rape or other sex offenses. Serious crimes include burglary of a residence and assault with intent to commit robbery or rape.

The "three strikes" measure requires that a felon's first two convictions be for violent or serious crimes, but the third strike can be given for any felony conviction. Sentences are consecutive--meaning they can't be combined--and must be served at a prison facility. There is no option for probation, suspension or diversions, and time between convictions is not considered during sentencing.

Arguments in Favor

According to the California Legislative Analyst's Office, proponents of the law say it reduces crime rates by keeping violent criminals out of the general population for longer periods of time and by serving as a deterrent to those who might commit violent crimes. A 1998 report conducted by then-California Attorney General Dan Lungren found a 27 percent drop in violent crimes, with a 40 percent drop in homicides, in the four years after the law passed.

Since the passage of the law, California's violent crime rate has dropped from 336,381 in 1993 to 185,173 in 2008, according to DisasterCenter.com, which keeps a database of yearly crime statistics. However, the FBI's website reports that violent crimes nationwide dropped from 1.9 million in 1992 to 1.4 million in 2005.

Arguments Against

Critics of the measure say it violates the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment, according to the California Legislative Analyst's Office. They argue that sentencing repeat offenders to long prison terms for relatively minor crimes conflicts with the "proportionality rule" that says that "the punishment must fit the crime."

They point to such examples as Leandro Andrade, a California man twice convicted of burglary who was given his third strike for shoplifting videotapes in November 1995. Andrade, sentenced to 50 years in prison for two counts of stealing $153.34 worth of videotapes, challenged the ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 5 to 4 in against in favor of the "three strikes" measure.

Cost

The San Diego News Network reports that as of 2008, 41,284 people were in the California prison system serving sentences under the "three strikes" measure. The average cost of housing a "third striker" was $31,000 a year, and the total cost for housing prisoners under the measure was $500 million a year.

References

• California Legislative Analyst's Office: Three Strikes and You're Out Law
• California Criminal Law Observer: The Three "Strikes and You're Out" Law
• California Legislative Analyst's Office: Three Strikes - The Impact After More Than a Decade
• San Diego News Network: California's Three Strikes Law, 15 Years Later
• CBSNews.com: Three Strikes - 60 Minutes