Election 2000 Results: Proposition 36 and Cooley Win!

Proposition 36 Wins!

Proposition 36 amends the California Three Strikes law. The change to the 3-strikes law will not be too significant, but it still is a good sign that the public may be wary of simply putting people in cages for nonviolent offenses.

The initiative will affect the California Three Strikes law by allowing people charged with simple possession of drugs to go into treatment programs--rather than suffer a 3-strikes penalty--if the drug possession "occurred after a period of 5 years in which the defendant remained free of both prison custody and the commission of an offense which results in (a) a felony conviction other than a non-violent drug possession offense or (b) a misdemeanor conviction involving physical injury or the threat of physical injury to another person."

As of December 31, 1999 there were 578 people who were convicted under the California 3-Strikes law for "possession of a controlled substance" and received at least a 25 years-to-life sentence. Although some of these 578 may meet the conditions above, we are not sure whether the initiative will apply to them. Unfortunately, the language of the initiative states that if enacted it will not become effective until July 1, 2001, "and its provisions shall be applied prospectively." There will undoubtedly be appeals to say that the act should be applied retrospectively, but the California Supreme Court currently has a reputation for following the "wording" of a statute unless it clearly violates the U.S. or state constitution--and, at this time we are not sure whether there are such grounds or not.

Still--at least the victory of Proposity 36 is finally a step in the right direction.

Cooley Wins!

Steve Cooley defeated the incumbent, Gil Garcetti, in the District Attorney's race in Los Angeles County. Since 42% of all 3-Strike cases have come from Los Angeles County (and 45% of the FACTS top 100 Three Strikes stories come from Los Angeles County) this will probably have a significant affect on how the 3-strikes law is applied in the future. Cooley has claimed that he will put a new policy in place where nonviolent and non-serious 3rd strikes will not be used under the 3-strikes law but rather offenders will only be sentenced as if they have only received a second strike (thus only doubling their sentence rather than giving them a minimum of 25 years to life).

Unfortunately, this still does not do anything for those who were already sentenced under the 3-strikes law in the past when Garcetti was in office--which is one of the major reasons we still need to amend the 3-Strikes law.

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Date last modified: 12/05/00.