Pros And Cons Of The Three Strike Sentencing

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In 1994 under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. The Three Strikes sentencing was established (Harris, 1995). In this act, the law of three strike sentencing gives a mandatory life imprisonment sentence for repeat offenders with multiple prior serious or violent felony conviction (Brown & Jolivette, 2005). The three strike law came to fruition in the murders of two California girls 18 year-old Kimber Reynolds in 1992 and the murder a year later of 12 year old Polly Klass in the hands of prior felons, different from thousands of senseless killings whose only legacy left is pain these two murders led to the enactment of the toughest sentencing law known as the three strike law. Twenty four states passed the "three strikes and you're out" laws. The crimes range from murder, rape, kidnapping, aggravated robbery, aggravated assault, and sexual abuse. Some states also…show more content…
It raised a lot of question about the federal Constitution’s Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Cases like the Ewing v. California brought light to the issue the case involve a repeat offender sentenced to prison for 25 years to life under the three strike law for stealing golf clubs from a Los Angeles country club after previously being convicted of burglary, and armed robbery. One of the many cases where defendants were put away for life after receiving a third strike for a nonviolent offense. Cases like this one in return didn’t necessarily reduce violent crime, but instead put away more criminals for non-violent and petty crimes, dramatically raising the prison
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