Thursday, May 29, 2008

argument

If you killed someone today, would you be able to walk the streets in California as a free person?

One thing that the individuals who have created this law want us to believe is that without this law we have no chance of putting criminals away for a long time. That is misleading and untrue. As it currently stands we have had laws on the books since the creation of our laws that will punish criminals for serious crimes. So we really need to ask ourselves in all honesty is the Three Strikes Law really needed or is it just a buffer to our current laws.

The max for 1st degree murder is 99 years in prison. If a person is convicted of 1st degree murder a jury of his/her peers will decide what the sentence should be. In a recent case involving the murder of an Alaska girl, the convicted murderer Mr. Lawson was convicted of 2nd degree murder and the judge sentenced him to 99 years in prison.

In this case there was no mention of the The Three Strikes Law in fact his past crimes were not disclosed to the jury. The judge said that he needed the jury to make a judgment on the current case and not on actions from this man’s past.

This case proves that we do in fact have great laws that have existed prior to the creation of the Three Strikes Law. This case further proves that a person can be sentenced to a life sentence for their crime without the three strikes law ever being used.

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