Introduction
In 1994, a law by the name of the Three Strikes Law was passed and given a heavy hammer that would change sentencing laws in California and other states for many years to come. The law is made to keep repeat violent offenders off the streets. The catchy baseball name explains the law in a crude fashion, the offender is allowed two offenses (strikes) and on the third offense they receive a 25-year to life sentence. The first strike would be sentenced the same as any other felony, no excess punitive action would be inflicted by the law yet. As the offender commits a second “serious or violent” crime, for example he or she commits a burglary of a residence, the law would begin to take punitive power over the offender’s sentence-- …show more content…
Her father, Mike Reynolds, would be the man to draw up the law in order to clean the streets of the kind of criminals that took his little girl from him. With anger and revenge burning in Reynolds stomach, he spend a great deal of his time advocating for the law and trying to gain signatures so that the law could be placed on the next ballot. The signatures staggered in and it began to look as if the law would soon be forgotten by all but Reynolds. Some time later, the state of California and the most of the country were on the lookout for missing 12-year old Polly Klaas. As the search grew, Polly was found. She had been kidnapped, raped and murdered by repeat offender Richard Allen Davis-- according to Michael Moore’s The Legacy: Murder and Media, Politics and Prison (1999). The nation felt a sense of anger and need for revenge, a sudden realization of their lack of safety from men like Richard Allen Davis, this gave way to a need for a law like Mike Reynold’s Three Strikes Law. The people of California sent in signatures and soon the signatures were in and the law was placed on the ballot. By the time, people had begun to look at the law and the unintentional consequences it would yield, it was too late. The people of California and the politicians running for office all wanted to see the law passed-- despite the …show more content…
My research will ultimately close in examining proposed amendments and solutions for the law, finding a fix for the unjust sentencing for nonviolent offenders. In exposing possible amendments, the reader will be able to leave my research with knowledge of the unintended consequences caused by the the Three Strikes Law and exactly what kind of proposition will amend the law to a justly functionable
In 1994, a law by the name of the Three Strikes Law was passed and given a heavy hammer that would change sentencing laws in California and other states for many years to come. The law is made to keep repeat violent offenders off the streets. The catchy baseball name explains the law in a crude fashion, the offender is allowed two offenses (strikes) and on the third offense they receive a 25-year to life sentence. The first strike would be sentenced the same as any other felony, no excess punitive action would be inflicted by the law yet. As the offender commits a second “serious or violent” crime, for example he or she commits a burglary of a residence, the law would begin to take punitive power over the offender’s sentence-- …show more content…
Her father, Mike Reynolds, would be the man to draw up the law in order to clean the streets of the kind of criminals that took his little girl from him. With anger and revenge burning in Reynolds stomach, he spend a great deal of his time advocating for the law and trying to gain signatures so that the law could be placed on the next ballot. The signatures staggered in and it began to look as if the law would soon be forgotten by all but Reynolds. Some time later, the state of California and the most of the country were on the lookout for missing 12-year old Polly Klaas. As the search grew, Polly was found. She had been kidnapped, raped and murdered by repeat offender Richard Allen Davis-- according to Michael Moore’s The Legacy: Murder and Media, Politics and Prison (1999). The nation felt a sense of anger and need for revenge, a sudden realization of their lack of safety from men like Richard Allen Davis, this gave way to a need for a law like Mike Reynold’s Three Strikes Law. The people of California sent in signatures and soon the signatures were in and the law was placed on the ballot. By the time, people had begun to look at the law and the unintentional consequences it would yield, it was too late. The people of California and the politicians running for office all wanted to see the law passed-- despite the …show more content…
My research will ultimately close in examining proposed amendments and solutions for the law, finding a fix for the unjust sentencing for nonviolent offenders. In exposing possible amendments, the reader will be able to leave my research with knowledge of the unintended consequences caused by the the Three Strikes Law and exactly what kind of proposition will amend the law to a justly functionable