Week Five Worksheet Essay

Brown, Brian, and Greg Jolivette. "A Primer: Three Strikes - The Impact After More Than a Decade." Legislative Analyst’s Office. Web. October 2005.

The Three Strikes Law has been a subject of much debate since its introduction as a regulation in 1993. The Three Strikes law was enacted in 1994 and is widely recognized as the harshest sentencing law in the United States. “The State of Texas was the first State to enact such a law in 1974.” (Laws.com) California passed its own law enacting a Three Strikes Law that mandates a sentence of 25 years to life for a third felony conviction. The reality of the Three Strikes Law will lead to a significant increase in the nation's

Describe what the fundamental issue(s) were that formed the basis of this case from the point of view of the plaintiffs. For this assignment, please discuss this in humanistic terms – not legal technicalities – so that we may understand the dynamics that led L. C. and E. W. and their advocates to seek legal remedy in the first place.

Messerli, Joe." Three Strikes Law" (Pros and Cons, arguments for and against , advantages and disadvantages) 20:1 40 (2015) 50-55. Print.

This involved of a very detailed outline of my HCP essay about my new topic on Three Strikes law in New Mexico. It has concepts that is associated with what define Three Strikes Law in New Mexico and some examples what led the Three Strikes law to be passed in 1994 and some of the argument points that helped me to reinforce my evidences in my paper. This helped me a lot to create a good multi-modal composition project.

Most stages of the criminal justice system revolve around the sentencing process, in that the primary focus is determining the guilt or innocence of the accused (Neubauer & Pradella, 2011). As a result, numerous laws, policies, and practices have been implemented throughout the system as a means to make sentencing procedures less complex. However, most of these sentencing laws have produced an adverse effect, and generated barriers during this stage of the justice process. Therefore, the purpose of this analysis is to provide further insight on challenges within the sentencing process in regard to sentencing laws. More specifically, three strikes laws are discussed in-detail as a means to present the positive and negative impacts they have

Reserved for those who previously committed serious or violent felonies the three-strike law states that the most severe prison terms. In general, California law defines violent felonies as those that cause injury to the victim or threaten the victim with a deadly weapon (for example, murder and voluntary manslaughter, mayhem, most forcible sexual offenses, and some categories of robbery, assault, and burglary). Serious felonies include all violent felonies, plus others where there is a potential for injury to the victim (for example, arson and the remaining categories of robbery, assault, and burglary).

California’s three strikes laws are the harshest, most ambitious and most frequently mentioned of any of the other states. They want the maximum possible impact on criminal punishments. The have one of the largest criminal justice systems in the free world. They want tom end habitual crime. (Zimring, pgs.3-5)

The three strikes law came out of the “get tough” era in the late 70’s. The era was based on the idea that crime is the result of an offender’s choice’s and personal responsibility. During this time, the criminal justice system focused on punishment instead of rehabilitation, as the government switched to determinate based, or individualized sentencing where conviction was served in a jail or prison with a defined length of sentence, and can not be changed by a parole board or other agency. It was fair and just sentences based on the crime committed and its severity. The three strikes law was a policy that was started in Washington in 1993, and Governor Pete Wilson adopted a broader version of it in California that requires a criminal to serve a sentence of twenty-five years to life after they have been caught and convicted of a third felony. There are a total of twenty-three states and the federal government who have adopted some for of the three strikes policy. The policy varies by each state and what crimes fall under felonies is the states discretion. For example, in Georgia, it only requires two violent felony convictions instead of three. In other states, it does not have to be a violent crime to be sent away for twenty-five to life. Different influences can lead to these types of policies. Public opinion and moral outrage are some of the ways that a policy can come about. Three

There are many states that have the three strike law, it was first established in Washington in 1993 and other states followed in the upcoming years, some have amended the law so that it applies to more violent criminals, but in the state of California that is not the case. The state of California implements their three strike to offenders who have committed two violent or serious felonies, once they commit a third felony regardless of the nature of the felony the individual is sentenced to life in prison. The problem with this is the great amount of individuals who are being sentenced to life on a none violent felony, for example if an individual has two different felonies for robbery and then gets caught stealing loose change from a car that

According to the Portland State University (2012), the three strikes law means that a person convicted of three or more serious crimes can receive a life sentence, usually with the possibility of parole. The purpose of this law is to increase the prison sentence for those who repeat serious offenses. In addition, it is assumed that this law would deter criminals from committing further felonies once they have been convicted once or twice. In the United States, this law has been adopted in 1995 under the assumption that its adoption would help in the fight against violent crime and serious drug offenses.

The “three strikes and you’re out” law or some form of the law was put into place or created in order to stop “persistent offenders” or “prior and persistent offenders.” Now the term came from baseball where a batter has to receive three strikes before they are out which in this case a criminal has to receive three strikes before they get a life sentence or a longer sentence in prison. This was done because there were a number of people who were receiving felony convictions on top of felony convictions as well as being habitual offenders of other laws that were not felonies but serious criminal crimes and getting out of prison within five to ten years and going back to their old ways. Therefore, something had to be done because it was becoming

The issue of the death penalty has been of great concern and debate for a number of years now. Prior to 1976, the death penalty was banned in the United States. In 1976, though, the ban was lifted, and many states adopted the death penalty in their constitutions. Currently, there are 38 states that use the death penalty, and only 12 states that do not. The states that have the death penalty use a number of ways to go about executing the defendant. Thirty-two states use lethal injection, 10 use electrocution, 6 use the gas chamber, 2 use hanging, and 2 states use a firing squad (Death Penalty Information Center, 1997). The 12 states that do not have the death penalty are Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,

Kovandzic, T., Sloan, J., and Vieraitis, L. (2004. “’Striking Out’ as Crime Reduction Policy: The Impact of ‘Three Strikes’ Laws on Crime Rates in U.S. Cities.” Justice Quarterly, 21(2): 207-239.

In 1994, legislators in the state of California enacted the “Three-Strikes” law (Proposition 184); a law designed with the intent to keep violent offenders incarcerated longer in order to reduce crime and discourage offenders from committing new crimes