The three strikes law refers to a “category of statutes” that substantially increases the length of imprisonment for anyone found guilty of three or more felony offenses (Legal). A strike is incurred each time an individual is convicted of a serious, or violent felony. The felonies that are included within this category are: “burglary, robbery, kidnapping, murder, rape, child molestation involving the use of a weapon, any offense that results in severe bodily injury, arson, and crimes that involve explosive materials.” (Randolph).
Baumes law, was the precursor to the three strikes law that are in place today. Baumes law was enacted in 1926 and was the first acknowledged repeat offender law implemented in the United States. Baumes law was written
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“Currently, 28 states impose substantially harsher penalties for repeat offenders.” Those states are “Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin” …show more content…
In the case of Andrade v. Attorney General of California, Leandro Andrade was arrested on November 4, 1995 for shoplifting $84.70 worth of videotapes from a K-mart store. He was again arrested on November 18, 1995 for shoplifting $68.84 worth of videotapes from a different K-mart store. Under normal circumstances, these crimes would have been considered the misdemeanor crime of petty theft, and would have been punishable by “fine, a jail sentence of six months or less, or both”. In this case however, Mr. Andrade had prior convictions for the non-violent crime of burglary. “Under the three strikes law, Mr. Andrade was sentenced “to an indeterminate life sentence without the possibility of parole for fifty years”, (Chemerinsky) despite the fact that these crimes did not involve an act of violence, nor the threat of violence to any