3_Strikes

3 Strikes California’s three strikes law is an effective tool in cleaning our streets of criminals and deterring future crime. The law requires that if an offender is convicted of any felony (second strike) and has a previous "violent or serious felony" (first strike) the court is required to sentence the offender to twice the normal sentence. In addition to this “second strike rule”, offenders who commit a third felony (third strike) after already having two previous strikes will receive a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life in prison. The three strikes law has been a fiercely debated issue due to many publicized cases of criminals receiving stiff sentences (which were mandated by the law) for what three strikes opponents believe were “petty” crimes. The three strikes law came about in 1994 in response to a highly publicized murder case in California. In 1994, 12 year-old Polly Klass was murdered by Richard Allen Davis, a parolee and repeat offender. In response to this brutal act, the Legislature adopted the “three-strikes-you're-out law”. “It passed with 72 percent voter approval. It requires a judge to impose a 25 years to life sentence for a felony law, strikes, three, crime, criminals, sentence, felony, according, years, violent, strike, rape, percent, life, cases, california, 25, statistics, serious, sentenced, robbery, rate, previous, opponents, offenders, offender, murder, include, herrerra, harsh, dropped, delgado, two