Three Strikes Law change by David Bash

2/9/2005 Two Bills to change the state’s infamous Three Strikes Law, which has imprisoned an inordinate number of African Americans in the state’s prisons for life without the possibility of release, were proposed to State Legislators over the last months by State Senator Adam Kline (D – 37th District). Kline, who had met with the Black Prisoner’s Caucus in Monroe Penitentiary last fall, said “…the legislature made a big mistake on the three-strikes law…” and promised to keep up the pressure to make the law more equitable. And to date Kline is keeping his part of the promise. But despite Kline’s persistence, his proposed Bill to change the law might die in committee today unless Kline can get the necessary votes to move the Bill out of committee and onto the Senate calendar for a vote. “It’s not looking very good and it’s getting kind of late,” said a spokesperson in Sen. Kline’s office in Olympia. Under the current law, people who are convicted of three separate “most serious offenses” get a life sentence with no chance of release (except by clemency from the governor, which has never happened). Crimes classified as “most serious offenses” include: Murder, first-degree assault, first- or second-degree rape, first-degree child molesting, any Class A felony, other serious violent crimes and any felony committed with a deadly weapon. But some Class B and any attempted Class B felonies (Class C) including fighting (second degree assault) and taking money or property by threat (second degree robbery), neither of which involves the use of a weapon, are also considered “strikes,” And under the current Three Strikes Law, crimes such as shop lifting or “till tapping,” and where an unarmed thief hits, or even shoves the clerk in a panicked effort to flee, becomes a second-degree robbery Class B felony – “a strike.” And that’s a main contention with those opposed to Robbery 2 being a strike. Some conservatives, like John Carlson, who wrote the original Three Strikes initiative, were asking that residential burglary and methamphetamine production be added to the strikes list as a trade-off for taking Class B felonies off the strikes list. Senate Bill 5284, proposed by Kline, would have removed second-degree robbery from the list of most serious offenses or strikes. But that Bill never made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by Kline. Kline’s other Senate Bill 5760, which is strongly supported by the Washington Defender Association and the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, would allow those persons convicted of the three “most serious offenses” but without Class A felonies to be sentenced to life imprisonment – and be eligible for conditional release after serving a mandatory 20 year sentence. The provisions of the Bill calls for “Offenders with a criminal history or a current offense that includes a completed or attempted Class A felony or sex offense to continue to be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of release. If, however, the offenders criminal history or current offense do not include any class A felony or sex offenses, the offender is sentenced to life imprisonment” – eligible for conditional release after serving 20 years. And if that were to happen the new law would have the Parole Board give “public safety and future dangerousness in the community considerations the highest priority when making its decision.” The law, if amended, would apply to all current three-strikes offenders who do not have a criminal history or a current offense that includes a Class A or attempted class A felony, or a sex offense. This is extremely good news for 38 current “three-strikes” inmates, none of whom have committed any of the “most serious” felonies. Yet, despite having strong support from the legal community this Bill, which was passed out of the Judiciary Committee, will probably not receive the necessary votes today to pass out of committee and onto the Senate calendar for a vote. Kline, a judge, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and academic researchers all testified in support of both Bills at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last month. The proponents argued that: the state was housing people for life when at an older age they do not pose a risk to society and that there is no reason to keep people incarcerated when statistics show that they are past their crime committing years; money being used to keep class B felony offenders in prison would be better spent on education or other social programs; the persistent offender [three strikes] law is racially discriminatory; people are receiving grossly disproportionate penalties under the provisions of the law; and that the mandatory nature of the law’s provisions eliminate judicial discretion to impose just sentences when dangerousness to the community should be the paramount criteria for release. “Racial disparity is extreme in three strikes sentences,” said Wes Richards, a representative of the Washington Defender’s Association and the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “African Americans are sentenced at a rate 18 times higher than Caucasians.” “It makes no sense to punish theft offenders to the same degree as Gary Ridgeway, who killed 48 women and got off a life sentence,” testified Ramona Brandes, an attorney with the Northwest Defender’s Association. But one prosecuting attorneys saw it differently. “This legislation was passed by the will of the people,” said Kitsap County Prosecuting Attorney Russ Hauge, who is also president of the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys. “You have to draw the line somewhere. The [three strikes] initiative drew it.” Though they do not seem hard-lined against letting those who have committed only Class B and C felonies a chance at freedom after serving long sentences, prosecutors seem solid that third-strike sex offenders won’t be seeing freedom. “I’m a crime victim,” said Sharon Dozier, a Black woman who went to Olympia to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “All criminals deserve punishment. But this law has been used as a dragnet. The money to keep Class B offenders in prison for life could be better used for education for our young.” And according to Senate fiduciary reports, it costs approximately $26,000 per year to house a healthy inmate (more when they are older and sick) and about $1 million to imprison someone convicted in their twenties for life.