From: "Dave Emery" <die@pig.die.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 05:21:21 +0800
To: stewarts@ix.netcom.com (Bill Stewart)
Subject: Re: Another Motivation for the CDA (Federal Sentencing Guid
In-Reply-To: <199603090558.VAA18420@ix7.ix.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <9603090715.AA16941@pig.die.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


	Bill Stewart wrote:
> 
> Not much - Government Radio said tonight that they're not allowed to
> plea-bargain third strike felonies down to misdemeanors.  The LA public
> defender's office is absolutely swamped, partly because third-strike
> cases are supposed to get diligent support, and partly because they
> have to go to trial rather than plea-bargaining a guilty, which is less work.
> The county jails are also having serious crowding problems, because
> prospective third-strikers are being kept in them pending trial
> to avoid risk of flight, so non-third-strike jailees are getting out
> early (especially drug violators.)
> 
	The Friday (3/8/95) NYT has an article by Fox Butterfield on
this which points out that CA is unique in having a three strikes law
that does not require three violent felonies.  Apparently most other
states do require three serious violent felonies. Wilson (the CA
governer and would be presidential candidate) is claiming that the
extremely harsh CA law is reducing crime rates for two straight years
for the first time - but others point out that they have been falling
nationally, including in states without three strike laws.  The article
also points out that in a state with a 7% black population 43% of the
three time losers are black.

	The article mentions that 192 people were sentenced under
the law for marijuana possesion compared to 40 murderers, 25 rapists
and 24 kidnappers.

	Sorry for the digression from crypto ...

						Dave Emery
						die@die.com