On May 29, 2010 Reentry Central reported that Stanford Law School’s Criminal Defense Clinic was working diligently to help a man who was convicted of stealing a tool and costume jewelry, and was facing life in prison. According to the article, the man, 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.”
Last November, Reentry Central was happy to post an article on November 9, 2012 announcing that California voters overwhelmingly voted to amend a 1994 law which called for those with three felony convictions to be sentenced to life imprisonment even a felony was not be violent, or considered serious in nature. Opponents of the Three-Strikes law had been fighting for over two decades to amend, or repeal, the law.
Now there is another reason to celebrate. The Los Angeles Times reports that a California Judge has started hearing the cases of over 1,000 individuals sentenced under the Three-Strikes Law. Judge William C. Ryan used the powers given to him with the passage of Proposition 36 to shorten the sentences of five inmates, including one who is 74 years-old, and another who is 81.
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