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No, the argument in #47 is wrong. The punishment is not for stealing the golf clubs, the severe punishment is for the series of crimes that led to the final court appearance. It is the accumulative debt that the perpetrator owes to society. It is like a debtor who is given grace on his mortgage payment time and time again. Finally he misses a payment without asking for grace and the bank hits him with a repo notice.

Between 1984 and 1993, he was found guilty of four thefts and a battery. He should have been in jail for such crimes if he was such a threat to the community.

Put people in jail for violent crimes. Do not let them roam free, then make some crazy law that makes a non-violent offense the one that puts them away. Its stupid and shows no responsibility for the protection of the rights and lives of citizens. Three Strikes are two too many.

No, the argument in #47 is wrong. The punishment is not for stealing the golf clubs, the severe punishment is for the series of crimes that led to the final court appearance. It is the accumulative debt that the perpetrator owes to society. It is like a debtor who is given grace on his mortgage payment time and time again. Finally he misses a payment without asking for grace and the bank hits him with a repo notice.

I have no particular problem with this philosophy provided that all three offenses occur after the passage of the "three-strikes" statute. Since the function of the three-strikes statute is to add a temporarily-waived additional punishment to the earlier crimes, such a statute would constitute ex-post-facto legislation were it applied to crimes committed before its passage.

On a related note, I think that there should be some provision indicating that convicted felons who go crime-free for some period of time after completion of prison and probation terms should have all their rights restored, and have some degree of lenity on the three-strikes law (another felony could throw them in the slammer for a long time, but a misdemeanor probably shouldn't).