Three Strikes and You're Out!

Mike Reynolds is the father of Kimber Reynolds, 18, who was gunned down in 1992 by two muggers as she exited a restaurant in Fresno, California. Mr. Reynolds became part of the victims' movement when his daughter became a crime statistic. In recent years, more and more Americans are demanding harsher sentences for violent habitual criminals.

Kimber's death, along with several other murder victims who died at the hands of predators, prompted Mr. Reynolds to crusade on their behalf. He is responsible for initiating two prominent California crime laws that have been adopted in many states: “Three Strikes and You're Out!” and “Ten, Twenty, Life.” These tough laws have affected how we classify and punish violent habitual offenders.

In 1994, California voters approved the ballot initiative known as “Three Strikes and You're Out.” It means that people who are convicted of three felonies could end up spending life in prison. The actual “law” has five components: The ballot initiative (i.e., Proposition 184), the actual statute that was passed (California Penal Code Section 667 b through i), and three other code sections that identify the types of violations that count as “strikes” against an offender. The controversy that continues to surround the law, now nearly 10 years old, is determining just how serious a third strike has to be before sentencing an offender to 25 years to life. Proponents of the law argue that the strikes are meant for serious crimes and that judges have discretion whether or not to attach a strike to an offender. Critics contend that some offenders are being discriminated against and sent to life terms for relatively minor offenses determined to be their third strikes. In April 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review California's three strikes law to decide whether sentences of 25 years to life in prison are unconstitutionally cruel when the third strike is relatively minor. In 2003, the decision of the Court upheld the constitutionality of the California law.

The following is a statement given to the media by California Secretary Bill Jones, titled “Three Strikes and You're Out: A Focused, Flexible and Highly Effective Approach to Combat Career Criminals.” In 1993, as a member of the California State Assembly, Mr. Jones wrote the initiative that would eventually become the three strikes law.

Anytime a public official predicts that a new law will reduce crime more than expected, cost less than expected and prompt parolees and career criminals to head for the state border as soon as possible, be skeptical. But in the case of California's Three Strikes and You're Out law, it is not a prediction, it is a factual history of what we have experienced since the adoption of the nation's toughest repeat offender statute in 1994.

When crime goes up in a city or a state, citizens expect action and lawmakers usually respond.

Responses in California have run the gamut from self-esteem courses and midnight basketball to increased police activity and sentence enhancements with varying degrees of success, failure and taxpayer expense.

In 1993, the people of California were confronted with a murder every 2 hours, a rape every 41 minutes, a robbery every four minutes, an aggravated assault every 3 minutes and a car theft every 18 seconds (FBI Uniform Crime Reports, 1992).

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