Fighting Three Strikes

by Matt Kelley · 2009-05-13 09:26:00 UTC
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Students in a Stanford Law School clinic are working to address long sentences for minor crimes under California's three-strikes law - and they're having success.

Norman Williams was serving a possible life sentence for stealing tools from a truck when Stanford students showed up to visit him. They said it would be a long shot to fight his case on appeal, but they would try. Two weeks ago he walked free.

Students and their instructors hope to redress what they call grossly unfair sentences for minor crimes and spur changes in the law. Their clients, they say, illustrate how the justice system has unfairly ensnared low-level defendants whose crimes are often linked to mental illness, drug abuse or extreme poverty.

"These people fall between the cracks," said Jennifer Robinson, who recently graduated. "It's an awful situation that I don't think that the voters envisioned."

More than 8,400 inmates are serving possible life terms under the three-strikes law, according to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Of those, more than 1,300 were sentenced for drug offenses and nearly 2,500 for property crimes. A department spokeswoman said the agency has not compiled data on what serious or violent felonies those inmates previously committed.

I wrote earlier today about the efforts of Florida lawmakers to reign in the growth of prisons in this recession. Laws like California's notorious three-strikes statute are a major contributor to our prison overpopulation, and hopefully they get a second look in this economy.

(Via The Crime Report)

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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