Three Strikes You

’re Out Law Essay, Research Paper

We have all heard of the newest anti-crime

law, the “Three strikes and you.re out” law. It wasn.t easy getting this

law from the bill stage in Sacramento to the law stage, because it is not

a criminal friendly law. Meaning that this law.s purpose is to bring pain,

suffering, and intimidation to criminals. Our state government was basically

ran by the Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, now mayor of San Francisco. Brown

had the power to choose who sat on what committee in the house, and using

this he could terminate any bill he did not agree with. And with this attitude

it took a lot of patients and perseverance by the people trying to pass

this bill. But how did the bill become a bill. I will answer this question

with help of the Kimber Reynolds story.

Monday, June 29, 1992 in Fresno, California

a young woman was brutally murdered outside The Daily Planet, a restaurant

patronized by the local young people. The girl was visiting home for the

summer after being in the Los Angeles area attending school. Her and a

friend were getting into their car when two guys on a motorcycle rode up

next to Kimber Reynolds blocking her in, taking her purse, and beating

her into submission. The story made the 11 o.clock news only minutes after

her father had gone to bed. When police ran a background check on the two

suspected men, Joeseph Micheal Davis and Douglas Walker, both men had recently

been released on parole with multiple offenses on their records. Unfortunately

Davis was never brought in because when police were attempting to arrest

him he began firing, wounding unsuspecting police officers and ultimately

being killed. Douglas Walker was convicted of accessory to murder.

Mike Reynolds, Kimber.s father, went on

the radio on a local radio show called the Ray Appleton Show, KMJ 580.

There he would discuss his outrage about how he was sick of repeat offenders

being locked up only to be released after a fraction of the sentence was

completed. He swore to the people listening that he was going to do something

about the problem, even if it takes him forever. Listening to that show

was Fresno Assemblyman Bill Jones (R). He was interested in the issue and

arranged a meeting with Mike. They discussed ideas about how they could

solve this problem.

With that in mind Mike used some connections

and gathered one superior, one appellate, and one municipal court judge,

as well as a well-known local defense attorney, a representative from the

Fresno Police Department, an expert in juvenile justice and Ray Appleton.

The men did some research and drew up some ideas. Their final legislative

proposal was as follows:

Double the sentence for a conviction of

any felony if there is a previous serious or violent felony conviction.

Triple the sentence or twenty-five years

to life, whichever is greater, for any combination of two prior violent

or serious felony convictions coupled with any new felony.

Probation, a suspended sentence, or a commitment

to a diversion program as a substitute for serving time in prison is prohibited

for felons with at least one prior conviction of a serious or violent felony.

Any felon with at least one prior serious

or violent felony conviction must serve any subsequent felony sentence

in a state prison (as opposed to a county jail).

Terms are to be served consecutively, rather

than concurrently.

Maximum allowable time off for good behavior

is reduced to 20 percent.

Juvenile convictions for serious of violent

felonies count as prior convictions if the felony was committed when the

juvenile was sixteen or seventeen years old.

When a defendant has at least one prior

conviction for a serious or violent felony, the district attorney is required

to plead and prove all known prior felony convictions. Prior felony convictions

cannot be used as part of a plea-bargain.

Now that Mike had the proposal he had Bill

Jones submit it to the state legislature. Right away the bill was sent

to the Assembly Public Safety committee to be approved. This committee

is known as a killer of tough-on-crime bills, and consisted of eight members,

Paula Boland, Richard Rainey, Tom Umberg, Tom Bates, John Burton, Barbara

Lee, and committee chairman Robert Epple. Both Boland and Rainey were Republicans

while the rest were Democrats, and one vacant seat due to unknown reasons.

This committee was moderate or even moderately conservative, but because

Willie Brown had the power to choose members of the committee he chose

those people whom he thought would sway the vote towards a liberal direction,

which did not reflect the philosophy of the whole assembly. Mike also had

asked Fresno Assemblyman Jim Costa (D) to be a co-author of their proposal,

Mike wanted a bipartisan approach to th

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