As Ollin Crawford’s district attorney, she has served more than enough time for four crimes using a fake weapon and committed the crimes within two months apart back in 1984. Unlike, Sue Kennon who received a much lower sentence. Ms. Kennon also used a fake weapon and committed four crimes within eight days apart. Both woman were tried under the Virginia’s Three-Strike law. The intent of the, “Three-Strike law was described by its proponents as targeting the most violent career criminals and gained public favor in the wake of such heinous crimes as the Polly Klass murder,” (criminal justice pg, 111). The Polly Klass murder occurred back in 1993 in the state of California. She was only 12 years only, she was kidnapped from her home and strangled to death. This is an example of a violent crime which is far from the crimes that Ms. Crawford …show more content…
Crawford’s attorney, I do agree that she made some bad decisions in her life. On the other hand, while in prison she received her college degree and did some good deeds, she was a model prisoner. I would argue that this case is an injustice in the judicial system. Both Ms. Crawford and Ms. Kennon crimes were similar yet Ms. Kennon only received 48 year sentence, but got paroled after only servicing 14 years and since then received an award for developing a program while she was in prison. Ms. Crawford on the other hand received a 70 year sentence.
The prosecutor has too much power and not enough knowledge when it comes to how the three-strike laws should be carried out. According to the Criminal Justice book, “ as is true nationally, African-Americans and Hispanic are disproportionately represented in the California penal system, comprising 31.3% and 34% of the inmate population respectively, compared to the general population,” (criminal justice book, pg 113). Ms. Crawford should not be discipline due to her being a poor African American woman and does not have the resources such as, Ms. Kennon