Our interest in this issue deepened when we read the results of a 2010
report, shared with us by the Three Strikes Project at Stanford Law
School. The study showed that more than 4,000 inmates in California are
serving life sentences for nonviolent offenses under the three-strikes
law. While it is possible that some of the inmates may be eligible for
parole after 25 years, a majority face the prospect of decades of prison
time. Many of these stiff sentences struck us as egregious.
Although judges have sentencing discretion in a very narrow band of
three-strikes cases, the reality is that judges almost universally
consider themselves bound under California law to impose a life sentence
for a third felony offense, no matter how minor.
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