• From: BELGIUM
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 3,403

Topic: 3 STRIKES

Let's say I am a musician and I live in CALIFORNIA.
I am addicted or I drunk too much alcohol and
1) I have a "hit and run" crash with wounded people in the other car. They arrest me, punish me.
2) A couple of months later or a year they find "coke" (not THE bottle) in my car and in my blood.
Probably arrested again.
3) To end, I have a bar fight with a guy who tells me that my music sucks and I beat the man so bad that he is no longer able to work.

THESE "CRIMINAL" Acts and Facts occurred 3 times, will I be sentenced for the rest of my life in jail? Isn't that what the "3" strikes mean?

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gitaardocphil's Website

  • From: North Carolina
  • Registered: 2007-02-08
  • Posts: 1,914

Re: 3 STRIKES

As long as you are charged with felonies on each of these counts, than yes it's a life term.

[b][color=#FF0000]If your brain is part of the process, you're missing it. You should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. If you can trap that feeling, then you have something.
[/color][/b]         [b]Peace of mind. That's my piece of mind...[/b]

Guitarpix's Website

  • Zurf
  • Zurf
  • Blunt but well meaning moderator
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  • From: Virginia, USA
  • Registered: 2007-06-27
  • Posts: 7,522

Re: 3 STRIKES

I don't know if all three of those crimes are felonies.  If they are, and you are convicted (not arrested - you have to be convicted), then yeah, that's three strikes.  You're wearing soap on a rope for the rest of your days.  Fair or not, I don't really know.  I haven't thought about it much.  I think maybe it's not too fair in that it considers past crimes for which you've already paid your "debt to society" in the conviction of a current crime.  Seems like a debt paid is a debt paid and ought not to be re-opened.  Now, if the person is still on parole and the debt isn't fully paid yet - hey, well maybe that's something else.  Like I said, haven't thought about it much.  The most trouble I get into with the law is trying not to laugh at their silly hats.

- Zurf

Granted B chord amnesty by King of the Mutants (Long live the king).
If it comes from the heart and you add a few beers... it'll be awesome! - Mekidsmom
When in doubt ... hats. - B.G. Dude
  • From: Stockton Ca
  • Registered: 2007-10-19
  • Posts: 192

Re: 3 STRIKES

The Three crimes you listed are

Felony Hit and Run with a DUI enhancement.  (Driving Under the Influance of a controled substance)
Felony Possession and Use of a Controled Substance.
Felony Assault and Battery

These crimes do not just occur,  an indvidual made choices that caused them.  There are usually smaller crimes for which that Individual was never caught or punished that led to these progresivly greater crimes.  There were probably more crimes of a similar or possibly greater nature that were commited before that person was arrested and convited of these.  If this individual is released into society, the odds are that his crimes will become progresivly more serious and violent.  I personaly would rather lock this man away for the rest of his life, than give him the opportunity to take the life of someone else.

I lived in the City where Three Strikes was first championed,  It was started by a man whose daughter was killed in a mugging by a man with a long record of small felonies.
Its objective is to put criminals away before they can become violent.  Crime statistics in the USA have gone down dramatically in every state where It has been adopted.

  • From: Tooele Ut
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 4,049

Re: 3 STRIKES

The reason for this law is that a bad pattern has been established and there is no reason for the law to believe that it won't happen again.

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  • Zurf
  • Zurf
  • Blunt but well meaning moderator
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  • From: Virginia, USA
  • Registered: 2007-06-27
  • Posts: 7,522

Re: 3 STRIKES

bensonp wrote:

The reason for this law is that a bad pattern has been established and there is no reason for the law to believe that it won't happen again.

Oh, I understand that very well.  I am just a little bit queesy about sentencing someone for crimes they haven't committed yet.  It's a little - I don't know - Tower of Londony for my taste.  On the other hand, there are scofflaws who do not belong in civil society.  What do you do with them?  There's an old saying in the legal field - hard cases made for bad law. 

- Zurf

Granted B chord amnesty by King of the Mutants (Long live the king).
If it comes from the heart and you add a few beers... it'll be awesome! - Mekidsmom
When in doubt ... hats. - B.G. Dude
  • From: Belfast, Northern Ireland
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 338

Re: 3 STRIKES

Sounds more sound bite than sound law ;

"What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understandin' ."    Elvis Costello

alansheeran's Website

  • From: Bellevue, WA
  • Registered: 2006-06-15
  • Posts: 3,336

Re: 3 STRIKES

Judges have some lattitude in sentencing.  However, if a person has shown habitual disregard for laws regarding violent crime, and placing the public in danger, then I have no problem at all with sequestering them away forever.  It's a matter of public health, when you get right down to it.

Someday we'll win this thing...

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jerome.oneil's Website

  • From: my cave
  • Registered: 2007-11-07
  • Posts: 34

Re: 3 STRIKES

they all have to be felonies.

here's to us and those like us,damn few of us left.

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