LAT: (CA) Voters Favor Scaling Back 3-Strikes Law

[question everything]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-poll20oct20,1,6007392.story?coll=la-headlines-california

THE TIMES POLL

Voters Favor Scaling Back 3-Strikes Law

A decade after passing strict sentencing rules, most want changes. They also support a stem cell research measure, one of 16 on the ballot.
By Megan Garvey
Times Staff Writer

October 20, 2004


(snip)

The Times Poll, supervised by polling director Susan Pinkus, interviewed 1,345 registered voters, of whom 925 were considered likely to vote in November. It was conducted statewide Oct. 14 to 18. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Proposition 66

The measure to change the state's tough "three strikes" sentencing law was backed by 62% of likely voters in the survey and opposed by 21%, with 17% undecided. The degree of support for the measure has startled many political experts. Just a decade ago, voters approved the three-strikes law with 74% support. At that time, concern about crime was high, and the highly publicized kidnapping and murder of a 12-year-old girl, Polly Klaas, helped generate support for tougher measures.

But most Californians now appear ready to reconsider. The current law allows sentences of 25 years to life for defendants convicted of a third felony — regardless of its seriousness — if they have two convictions on their record for serious or violent felonies.

The new statute would greatly scale back who can be sentenced under the three-strikes law. It would make several changes, including requiring that only serious or violent felonies trigger a life sentence. The changes would cure what critics consider to be the current law's worst extreme: the imposition of sentences of 25 years to life for crimes such as shoplifting or check-kiting.


(snip)

[rpannier]

1. It's About F**KING time

The voice of reason is starting to take hold. That was the most assinine thing on the ballot 10 years ago.

[bemildred]

2. Good.

Incarceration is expensive.
Let's save it for serious cases.

[Heyo]

3. So...

....nobody will be doing 25 years for stealing a slice of pizza anymore? That's too bad. Damn those pizza theives. :o

/sarc

Heyo

[truthisfreedom]

4. thinking humans.

i love it when they show up to vote.

[nolabels]

5. So much for the moderate republican Arnie

I hope he continues to be stupid so we can get rid of him easily, but will send this letter just in case one of his two brain cells is still functioning.

Take Action!
Prop. 66: Urge the Governor to Reconsider His Position

On July 1, Governor Schwarzenegger announced through a staff member to a gathering of prosecutors that he plans to oppose Proposition 66, an initiative that would bring California's Three Strikes law into conformity with every other Three Strikes law in the nation by applying indeterminate life sentences ONLY to those convicted of serious and violent crimes, not to people who commit petty offenses, such as stealing cookies, batteries, or videotapes (all real examples of the way our current Three Strikes law has been applied). No doubt Governor Schwarzenegger was listening to the arguments of prison guards and prosecutors, who have long favored the law, but those arguments are MISLEADING, DECEPTIVE, and simply UNTRUE. Please RESPECTFULLY ask the Governor to reconsider his position based on the best available legal analysis to date, prepared by one of California's preeminent law firms for the ACLU of Southern California. Tell me more
The message below will be sent
(snip)
http://ga1.org/campaign/gov66

[prayin4rain]

6. That 3 strikes law is a nightmare. I don't see how anyone EVER thought

it was a good idea.