Students at Stanford Law School’s Criminal Defense Clinic are tackling a thorny issue by representing some prisoners who have been convicted for petty offenses, yet sentenced to life. Peter Mandel and Josh Weddle are just two of the students who take on the California Judicial System for prisoners like the one referred to as Mark, in the May 26, 2010 issue of SF Gate.
Mark has been incarcerated for 14 years for a shoplifting conviction. Because Mark has two other convictions for burglary that date back 12 years ago, he is facing life in prison under California’s “3 Strikes” law. The “3 Strikes” law allowed the prosecutor in Mark’s case to raise his petty larceny charge to a felony based on his prior burglary convictions when Mark was 19 years old. If the shoplifting case had been his first charge, Mark would have been fined $1,000 and sentenced to six months in jail.
Mandel and Weddle are doing their best to make sure that the 14 years already served for shoplifting a tool and some costume jewelry does not end up a life sentence for Mark. Mandel and Weddle are waiting to represent Mark in court, and hoping the judge hearing their case will agree that Mark had been mentally ill, and untreated for years when he committed his crime, and therefore should not be put away for life.
If successful, Mandel and Weddle will join other students from the Criminal Defense Clinic at Stanford who have freed almost a dozen victims of the “3 Strikes” law. The clinic claims, that those who were freed have turned their lives around by getting treatment for mental health or substance abuse issues, finding employment, reconnecting with their families, and continuing to be crime-free.
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