STRIKES: Local cases
IN THEIR WORDS |
| In the first five years of the three-strikes law's existence, 192 men and women were sentenced under it in the Long Beach Courthouse. Here are excerpts from some of their letters: |
| "I feel if I were more educated about three strikes, or on how to make a living, I would not be here. ... The three-strikes law could be a good law, if it were applied to the right type of criminal, and if the judges had total discretion on how to apply it." |
| - Luca Argilago, 42. Sentenced to 25 years to life in October 1997 for selling cocaine. Prior strikes: Two residential burglaries. |
 "I had served my sentences prior to the bill passing. I was punished for the crimes I was charged with. I feel that it is double jeoprady to use them against me once more, and for a petty theft years later to seal my fate. ... Stealing two pairs of boxers from JCPenney costing $24 has cost me my life in prison." |
| - Terry Bryant, 40. Sentenced in April 1998 to 25 years to life for petty theft with a prior theft conviction. Prior strikes: Two robberies and an assault with a deadly weapon. |
| had at least four prior strikes on their records at the time of their arrest. Among the 191 cases, the number of prior strikes ranged from two to 15. The average was three. |
| About 12 percent had never been convicted of a violent crime, meaning residential burglary was the worst crime on their records. |
| Fifty percent had committed no prior crime more violent than robbery at the time of their latest arrest. Robbery means taking property from another person by means of force or fear. |
| Twelve percent had committed some type of sexual offense in their past. Three-quarters of these sex offenders were locked up for nonviolent third strikes. |
| Drug possession was logged as the third strike in 17 percent of the cases, and drug sales in another 4 percent. All the possession cases involved cocaine, heroin or methamphetamines; marijuana possession was never counted as a strike. |
| Juvenile crimes were counted as first or second strikes in 5 percent of the cases. Violent juvenile offenses - such as rape, armed robbery or murder -may be counted as prior strikes if the juvenile was at least 16 years old at the time of the crime. |
| In scores of other cases, juvenile felonies were present but weren't counted - either because there were at least two adult felonies that could count instead or because a prosecutor opted to ignore the juvenile offense. |
| Grocery theft Marlene Jamison's misdemeanor record worked against her, too. In 1995, Jamison walked into a Ralphs grocery store in Long Beach and walked out with a shopping cart full of groceries, worth about $360. Jamison, now 46, already had two robbery convictions and more than a dozen misdemeanor convictions for prostitution. She was sentenced to 27 years to life for theft. |
| Some of the law's toughest critics, such as Los Angeles County District Attorney candidate Steve Cooley, say people such as J~mison should be treated much less harshly, despite their repeated offenses. They say judges and prosecutors should assign third-strike penalties only to violent or serious offenders. |
| Families to Amend California's Three Strikes, a Los Angeles-based group formed in 1996, says nonviolent or non-serious felonies should be erased from the list of eligible crimes, just as they are in the more than 30 other states with three-strikes laws. |
| Too often, the group argues, the law is being applied to people who are no longer violent - or who have never been violent. |
| Isiah Lucas, 36, a three-time residential burglar, is serving a 50-year-to-life sentence for two counts of receiving stolen property. He recently wrote a letter to the Press-Telegram about life as a "lifer" in Lancaster State Prison. |
| "We have to share space with the worst of the worst, such as killers, violent gang members, rapists, people with assaults," he wrote. "Why would the system do this to us and why do the people, the (Legislature) and even the president allow it to happen!" |
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