FreeRepublic , LLC
PO BOX 9771
FRESNO, CA 93794
STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD
Posted on 01/15/2003 10:53:47 AM PST by Imal
Yes, the felons themselves make a conscious decision to kill or not kill.
But we all know how smart it is to leave decisions to felons.
These laws were passed by legislatures because judges were too lenient in their sentencing - in other words, judges were allowed to pass sentence without having to experience the real world impact of their decisions - increased crime, etc.
So the law incentivizes felons to behave worse, and it does not incentivize judges to behave better.
A better law might be one that mandates dismissing judges whose sentencing leads to recidivism and to jail time for judges who are negligent regarding the safety concerns of the communities they supposedly serve.
The unacknowledged assumption behind this claim is that three strikes laws unfairly impose "hard time" for offenses they shouldn't.
Your argument presumes no deterrent effect to punishment under law. I disagree with that presumption, because it is equivalent to claiming that there is no point in dispensing punishment for any crime.
That is a moral surrender I cannot agree with.
Not necessarily. Here in Washington, where it started, back in '94, it was by initiative sold on the basis of "90% of the crimes are committed by 10% of the criminals; this will cut crime way down."
Something didn't seem right about this; I discovered the feds had conducted recidivism studies, and the results of those studies did not support the assertion. And in fact, having 3 strikes hasn't cut down on crime the way it was supposed to.
In other words, "the law makes the murderer". I think I addressed this fallacy rather thoroughly in the article.
Yes, the felons themselves make a conscious decision to kill or not kill.
But we all know how smart it is to leave decisions to felons.
How would you propose that we take these decisions away? Aside from mind control or killing them outright, we are left with incarceration or incapacitation of some kind. But it doesn't happen on its own.
These laws were passed by legislatures because judges were too lenient in their sentencing - in other words, judges were allowed to pass sentence without having to experience the real world impact of their decisions - increased crime, etc.
I am unfamiliar with any cases related to "three strikes" in which judges issued sentences in violation of the law. If the law allows a judge or jury to pronounce a light sentence, then objections to that fact should be addressed to the law, not to the people who are obeying it.
So the law incentivizes felons to behave worse, and it does not incentivize judges to behave better.
I truly fail to see how tougher sentences lead criminals to commit more crime. I understand the "they wouldn't shoot at cops if they weren't two-strikers" argument, but cannot agree with it anymore than I can agree that tough penalties for committing any crime are the motive behind committing them.
A criminal with a gun and the will to shoot it at someone is a potential murderer, regardless of his legal status. To argue that laws should be weakened to prevent criminals from killing lacks a reasonable moral foundation, however well-intentioned the motive.
A better law might be one that mandates dismissing judges whose sentencing leads to recidivism and to jail time for judges who are negligent regarding the safety concerns of the communities they supposedly serve.
How about laws requiring tougher sentences for committing violent crimes? Wasn't that the problem in the first place?
Yes, although they are by no means alone in that regard, and that doesn't mean they are unworthy of pursuing.
Before three strikes, if you awoke to find a burglar in your home the guy would run. He knows the odds are that you won't be able to identify him.
Now, he won't take that chance and is going to kill you.
Therefore, we should soften the laws so that criminals won't kill us. Is that a fair interpretation?
March 6, 1967:
At age 12, Davis has his first contact with law enforcement when he was arrested for burglary in Chowchilla, where he lived with his grandmother.
May 24, 1967:
Arrested again for forging a $10 money order. He was briefly in Juvenile Hall before his father moved him and his siblings to La Honda.
Nov. 15, 1969:
Arrested for the burglary of a La Honda home.
Nov. 16, 1969:
The first of several occasions when Davis' father turns Davis and his older brother over to juvenile authorities for ``incorrigibility.''
September 15, 1970:
Arrested for participating in a motorcycle theft. A probation officer and judge accept his father's suggestion that he enlist in the Army to avoid being sent to the California Youth Authority.
July 1971:
Entered the Army. His military record reflects several infractions for AWOL, fighting, failure to report and morphine use.
Aug. 1972:
General discharge from the military.
Feb. 12, 1973:
Arrested in Redwood City for public drunkenness and resisting arrest. Placed on one-year summary probation.
April 21, 1973:
Arrested in Redwood City for being a minor in possession of liquor, burglary and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Charged with trespassing, later dismissed.
Aug. 13, 1973:
Arrested in Redwood City leaning against hedges extremely intoxicated. Released when he was sober.
Oct. 24, 1973:
Arrested in Redwood City on traffic warrants. Between April and October, he was implicated in more than 20 La Honda burglaries, leading a probation officer to report that residents were so angry at him, he might be in danger if he returned to La Honda. He pleaded guilty to burglary and was sentenced to six months in county jail and placed on three-years probation.
May 13, 1974:
Arrested for burglarizing South San Francisco High School. He is sent to the California Medical Facility, Vacaville, for a 90-diagnostic study. A county probation officer recommends prison, but proceedings are suspended when Davis enrolls in a Veterans Administration alcohol treatment program. He quits on the second day.
Sept. 16, 1974:
Sentenced to one year in county jail for the school burglary. He was allowed to leave jail to attend a Native American drug and alcohol treatment program. He failed to return, leaving behind two angry fellow inmates who had given Davis money to buy drugs and bring the contraband back to jail.
March 2, 1975:
After being released, the two inmates tracked Davis down and shot him in the back. He is rearrested on a probation violation for failing to return to jail. Later, he testified against the inmates, earning him the epithet of ``snitch'' from fellow inmates. He was placed in protective custody.
April 11, 1975:
Arrested for parole violation.
July 11, 1975:
Arrested for auto theft and possession of marijuana. Received 10-day jail sentence.
Aug. 13, 1975:
Probation revoked after arrest for San Francisco burglary and grand theft. He was sentenced to a term of from six months to 15 years in prison.
Aug. 2, 1976:
Paroled from Vacaville.
Sept. 24, 1976:
Abducted Frances Mays, a 26-year-old legal secretary, from the South Hayward BART station and attempted to sexually assault her. She escaped, hailed a passing car, in which California Highway Patrol Officer Jim Wentz was riding. Wentz arrested Davis.
Dec. 8, 1976:
Transferred to Napa State Hospital for psychiatric evaluation after he tried to hang himself in a cell at Alameda County Jail. He later admitted he faked the suicide attempt in order to be sent to a state hospital, where he could more easily escape. He was mistakenly admitted as a voluntarily patient rather than a prisoner.
Dec. 16, 1976:
Escaped from Napa State Hospital to went on a four-day crime spree in Napa. He broke into the home of Marjorie Mitchell, a nurse at the state hospital, and beat her on the head with a fire poker while she slept. He broke into the Napa County animal shelter and stole a shotgun. He used the shotgun to try to kidnap Hazel Frost, a bartender, as she climbed into her Cadillac outside a bar. When she saw he had bindings, she rolled out of the car, grabbed a gun from beneath the seat and fired six shots at the fleeing Davis.
Dec. 21, 1976:
Broke into the home of Josephine Kreiger, a bank employee, in La Honda. He was arrested by a San Mateo County sheriff's deputy hiding in brush behind the home with a shotgun.
June 1, 1977:
Sentenced to a term of one to 25 years in prison for the Mays kidnapping. A sexual assault charged is dropped as part of a plea bargain. He is later sentenced to concurrent terms for the Napa crime spree and the La Honda break-in.
March 4, 1982:
Paroled from the Deuel Vocational Institute in Tracy.
Nov. 30, 1984:
With new girlfriend-accomplice Sue Edwards, he pistol-whipped Selina Varich, a friend of Edwards' sister, in her Redwood City apartment and forced her to withdraw $6,000 from her bank account. Davis and Edwards make a successful escape.
March 22, 1985:
Arrested in Modesto when a police officer noticed a defective taillight. He and Edwards were charged with robbing a Yogurt Cup shop and the Delta National Bank in Modesto. Authorities in Kenniwick, Wash., were unaware for several years that the pair had robbed a bank, a Value Giant store and the Red Steer restaurant during the winter of 1984-85. Davis later confessed to the crimes in an attempt to implicate Edwards, whom he believed to have welched on a promise to help him while he was in prison.
June 27, 1993:
Paroled from the California Men's Colony, San Luis Obispo, after serving half of a 16-year sentence for the Varich kidnapping.
Oct. 1, 1993:
Davis kidnapped Polly Klaas during a slumber party at her Petaluma home and murdered her.
Oct. 19, 1993:
Arrested in Ukiah for drunken driving during the search for Polly. He failed to appear in court.
Nov. 30, 1993:
Arrested for parole violation on the Coyote Valley Indian reservation north of Ukiah, he is identified as the prime suspect in the kidnapping.
Dec. 4, 1993:
Davis provides investigators with information that leads them to Polly's body off Highway 101 near Cloverdale.
Dec. 7, 1993:
Charged with the kidnap-murder of Polly.
June 18, 1996:
Convicted of kidnap-murder of Polly.
August 5, 1996:
Superior Court jury in San Jose recommends death sentence.
Source: Sonoma County district attorney's office, court records, trial testimony.
This is an interesting observation, because it logically leads to the question "then what should we do about it?"
For my part, I don't think "three strikes" laws are the right way to go. Punishments fitting the crimes associated with them are.
However, sentencing for any crime should consider past offenses, and many statutes are written in such a way as to address exactly that.
Instead of the sledgehammer of "three strikes", progressively stronger sentences, proportionate to both the crime and the criminal, for repeat offenders seems far more reasonable to me.
Instead of falling off a precipice into a life sentence, habitual criminals that can't be reformed are methodically guided to old age, probably spending most of their lives in prison. Sad, but pretty much the only treatment option currently available. And would mind control really be a good idea, if we had the option of using it?
But capitulating to violent criminals and pulling the teeth of our criminal legal system is never a good idea, and only leads to far worse problems than it could possibly correct.
Just this paragraph alone goes a long way in explaining what is wrong with California's legal system.
If California is truly concerned at all about violent crime, they may want to 1) increase penalties for violent crimes (one year for kidnapping?), and 2) prosecute criminals for those crimes.
Beware, because that is a rather controversial idea. :P
Makes you wonder how many other crimes, including violent crimes, the average career criminal commits that he doesn't get arrested for. So even if stealing a bike is a criminal's 3rd strike that sends him back to prison for the next 25 years, rest assured that he got away with many other crimes that he had committed. So he is really getting punished, not legally but in reality, for a number of additional crimes, and not just for stealing the bike.
So in a state with a "3 strikes" law and the death sentence, the difference between not killing a police officer and killing a police officer, who is trying to arrest you for what would be your 3rd strike, is receiving 25 years in prison or receiving a death sentence after being tried in a court of law.
Any large police department will tell you that there are unsolved cases of copkillers - capture is not inevitable.
Many researches feel that the one of the main reasons that violent crime is on the decline in the US is because career criminals are spending more time in prison and less time on the streets.
I remember a case about 15 years ago where a guy got out on parole for rape, committed another rape, was on bail for that, and while on bail raped and murdered an LSU student. That case and Richard Allen Davies are the two that I remember when people start arguing against three strike rules.
I think that it's unfortunate that we ever got to the point where people felt we needed these. But lenient sentences for career criminals are what drove them. In one example I saw that happened in the 70s, a career criminal with two prior felony convictions received a 20 year sentence, but ended up serving only two years before his release. He went on to commit more crimes before killing someone.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.