Californians were determined to never again let a repeat offender get the chance to commit such a horrendous crime again and so a year after, they passed the Three Strikes Law, which stipulates that criminals convicted for a second time must serve double the normal sentence, and that those with three strikes (i.e. third time offenders) must get 25 years to life.
This may not sound unfair to you until you know that the “third strike” need not be serious or violent. People have been sentenced to life in prison for stealing a slice of pizza, a pair of baby shoes, possessing 0.09g of heroin, which brings us to the sad case of Curtis Wilkerson who stole a pair of socks worth $2.50.
Curtis Wilkerson had grown up without a father and with a drug addicted mother who died when he was a teenager. When he was 19, he served as a lookout in a series of robberies, got caught and was imprisoned for six years. On the 15th of July, 1995, Curtis Wilkerson stepped into a department store called Mervyn’s in southern California and stole a pair of socks worth $2.50. When quizzed by an interviewer about whether the socks were in any way special, Wilkerson said "No, they were ordinary white socks, didn't even have any stripes."
Wilkerson was caught at the exit and handed over to the police and soon realized he had caught himself in the unexpected legal web which had only been spun just about a year earlier. The two prior convictions he had garnered back in 1981 were brought into reckoning and unexpectedly, the shoplifting charge was counted as a third strike against him. He was sentenced to life in prison with a chance at parole after 25 years.
It is however important to note that a whooping 80 percent of parole applications are rejected by parole boards, and a further 50 percent of the 20 percent accepted by parole boards are eventually vetoed by governors, which means there is a 90 percent probability that Curtis Wilkerson will spend the rest of his life in prison for stealing a pair of socks worth $2.50.
Other unfortunate people who have felt the sting of the Third Strike Law include Jerry DeWayne Williams who was given a 25 to life sentence for stealing a slice of pizza from a bunch of kids near Redondo Beach but was released after five years because of public outrage, a Mexican immigrant sent to prison for life for taking the written portion of a DMV exam for a cousin who didn't speak English and a man named Willie Joseph received a life sentence after helping an undercover policeman set up a $5 crack deal.
The Third Strike Law was amended in 2012 to the effect that if the third conviction is not violent, the life sentence will not be imposed and re-sentencing for people who have been sentenced prior to the date of the amendment may be carried out but Curtis Wilkerson and several others like him and are still behind bars.
Sources
1. Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Shame of Three Strikes Laws
2. A voice for the forsaken
3. It's Time to Reform Three Strikes
No comments:
Post a Comment