Eastern District of California Blog

Prop 36: A Remedy For Three-Strikes Of Injustice

In the last few years, I've represented clients in federal habeas proceedings who received California three-strikes sentences for the crimes of DUI with a prior (Santa Clara County), theft of three computer monitors (Placer County), and receiving stolen property (Shasta County).  These are not unusual.  The Sacramento Bee, 10/7/12 reports that, among those serving three-strikes sentences, there are 327 whose third strike was petty theft, 2,515 with a final strike for property crimes, and 1,345 locked-up for drug crimes.  I don't think taxpayers had in mind spending over $50,000/year to incarcerate these persons for 25-years-to-life.  The Bee endorses Prop 36, which will soften the statute so that only those whose third strike was a "violent" or "serious" felony would qualify.  This will permit approximately one-third of the existing 9,000 three-strikers to petition to have their sentences reviewed by a judge.  Besides the tax savings, locking-up individuals for what may be life sentences for relatively minor crimes is fundamentally unjust.  It's causing more to start Rethinking California's Three-Strikes Law and support Prop 36.

This video NYT Op-Doc piece entitled "Three Strikes of Injustice," shows we're talking real lives here--not just numbers.  It's by Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway, the sister of Sacramento Assistant Federal Defender Ben Galloway:   

 

Rethinking California's Three-Strikes Law

 
There were three news pieces last week on the California three-strikes law. 

The San Francisco Chronicle's "Rethinking California's three-strikes law," SF Gate, 7/3/11, highlights the case of Shane Taylor--a 42-year old man who has already served 15 years on a 25-years to life sentence for possessing a small bag of methamphetamine--a sentence the prosecutor and sentencing judge now agree is too harsh.  The San Jose Mercury News, 7/1/11 notes that cases like recently-released Kelly Turner, who had been serving a 3-strikes sentence for writing a bad check for $146, might garner attention in upcoming battles to reform California's three-strikes law.  And, the Sacramento Bee, 7/4/11's article "California three-strike sentences used less often 15 years later" suggests that prosecutors have begun to internally reform the harshest aspects of the law by seeking the maximum penalty less often.

Cal Attorney General Will Not Seek Cert In Ninth Circuit Wilson v Knowles 3-Strikes Case

The California Attorney General announced today that she will not file a petition for writ of certiorari from the Ninth Circuit's Wilson v Knowles, 07-17318 3-Strikes, Apprendi decision. So the decision becomes final and the mandate should issue soon. More blogging when I return from the East Coast next week.

Ninth Circuit Overturns California Three-Strikes Sentence For Apprendi Error

In Wilson v. Knowles, No. 07-17318, the Ninth Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, granted habeas relief in a California 3-strikes case based on the trial court's Apprendi error in ruling that a prior DUI offense qualified as a "strike" by finding additional facts from the offense beyond the mere "fact of the prior conviction." For a fuller summary, see Ninth Circuit Blog, 2/8/11; and Sentencing Law & Policy Blog, 2/8/11.  No EDCA connection here except for the defense attorney on appeal, me.  Here's a summary from the SF Chronicle, 2/10/11:

A federal appeals court has overturned the 25-years-to-life sentence of a South Bay man who was caught driving while intoxicated in 1999, six years after a drunken accident that killed a passenger.

A Santa Clara County judge based his decision to sentence Rick Wilson under California's "three strikes and you're out" law on findings he made about Wilson's previous crime. That violated Wilson's right to have a jury decide those questions, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said in a 2-1 ruling Tuesday.     

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Wilson, a salesman at a San Jose construction supply company, was arrested in February 1999 when he ran a red light and refused to take a blood test. A jury convicted him of a drunken driving charge that was a felony because he had pleaded no contest in 1993 to vehicular manslaughter.

The 1993 accident in Nevada County killed passenger John Haessly, whom Wilson had picked up hitchhiking, and sent Wilson's girlfriend, Debra Horvat, to the hospital.

According to court records, both Horvat and Wilson had been drinking. Horvat started driving but then gave her keys to Wilson, and Wilson told police Horvat had grabbed the wheel just before the accident, an allegation she denied.

At a nonjury sentencing hearing in 2000, Superior Court Judge Kevin Murphy found that the 1993 accident amounted to two strikes - manslaughter and infliction of great bodily injury on Horvat - and imposed the three-strikes sentence of 25 years to life.

State courts and U.S. District Judge James Ware upheld Wilson's sentence. But the appeals court said Murphy had reached conclusions on issues that should have gone to a jury - including whether Horvat suffered great bodily injury, whether she had taken part in the crime by giving Wilson the keys, and whether she had caused the accident by grabbing the wheel.