May 15th: California 3-strikes bill--AB2447--gutted because of Gov.
Davis
With the realization that getting a 2/3rds vote by the legislature as
slim and any signature by Governor Davis as impossible, Assemblymember Rod
Wright has amended AB2447 (originally a proposal to amend the 3-strikes law so
the third strike could not be used for nonviolent and non-serious offenses) so
that the language of the California Supreme Court in the Romero
decision--stating Judges have the ability to use their discretion to waive
prior strikes in the interests of justice--is included in the statutes and also
additional lanuage to encourage judges to use their discretion for nonviolent
and non-serious cases.
While such language in the statutes may have the
opportunity to help a few cases in the future, it should be realized that it
will probably have no affect on the cases that have already been decided
(unless a striker wins a lucky appeal on another matter) and is only a drop in
the ocean compared to the injustices that need to be corrected in the 3-strikes
law.
Click
here to find the language of the amendment to AB2447.
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3-Strikes.
Date last modified: 01/03/01.