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STRIKES: Counties differ on 3-strikes enforcement |
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| and 1999, 306 ended in 25-to-life sentences and 148 had strikes stricken by prosecutors or judges. It was unclear how many had strikes stricken by prosecutors. | ||||||
| The other 365 cases ended in dismissals, acquittals or reductions in charges. | ||||||
| The greatest number of Orange County three-strikes inmates -126 - were sentenced during the 1996-97 fiscal year. That was an election year, notes Orange County District Attorney spokeswoman Tori Richards. | ||||||
| Different world At the opposite end of the spectrum is San Francisco, a jurisdiction that prosecutor Paul Cummins calls "its own universe." |
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| There, only serious or violent felonies are filed as three-strikes cases, says Cummins, chief of the San Francisco District Attorney's felony division. It's a policy that clearly violates the law as written, but one that reflects the will of the city's liberal citizens and "progressive" district attorney, Cummins say. | ||||||
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| John Lynch, head deputy prosecutor at Norwalk Superior Court, says the three-strikes law has always been unrealistic. He points to the sheer volume of cases handled by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office - about 70,000 felonies and 300,000 misdemeanors a year - to justify dealmaking. | ||||||
| "I tend to look at (anti-plea bargaining policies) with a little bit of a jaundiced eye," he says. | ||||||
| Lynch says the three-strikes initiative passed by voters, in November 1994, was unenforceable and simply reflected the people's blanket desire to crack down on convicts. | ||||||
| "If you put on the ballot, 'Let's just kill all the criminals,' it would probably pass," be says. But "reality shapes policy." | ||||||
| Lynch also stresses that plea bargaining hasn't led to appreciably fewer three-strikes convictions in Los Angeles than in San Diego. In the end, most counties wind up with similar numbers. | ||||||
| "Forget the rhetoric, forget what people say," Lynch says. "And keep your eye on the output bucket as to what happens to people." | ||||||
| Mike Concha, head of the Long Beach Public Defender's Office, acknowledges that the voters' original conception of the law probably didn't include plea deals. And he acknowledges that plea deals don't automatically mean light sentences. | ||||||
| The bottom line, Concha says, is that defense attorneys are not going to question a tactic such as plea bargaining that could spare their clients a life behind bars. | ||||||
| "There are things that occur that may not be technically allowed by the law but that everyone agrees is justice," Concha says. "And unless someone complains, a higher court isn't going to reverse it." Next Page -> | ||||||
| To conduct this project... reporter Wendy Thomas Russell studied the court files of 191 defendants who received third-strike sentences in the Long Beach courthouse during the law's first five years. | ||||||
| Thomas also interviewed numerous attorneys, judges, prisoners and others involved in the application of California's Three Strikes Law. | ||||||
| Readers are invited to respond to the series in writing, addressing comments to: Letters to the Editor, Press-Telegram, 604 Pine Ave., Long Beach, CA 90844. | ||||||
| Readers may also respond by phone to the Press-Telegrams Speakout line, open 24 hours a day, at (562)499-1295. | ||||||
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