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CounterPunch
November
12, 2002
Three Strikes
Laws:
Only the Poor Need Apply
by WILLIAM HUGHES
In Victor Hugo's immortal "Les Miserables,"
Jean Valjean does 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread
to feed his starving nephews. After his release, he is re-arrested
for attempting to steal from a cleric and sent to Toulon Prison.
When he escapes from that hell hole, and totally rehabilitates
himself, he is nevertheless pursued through the sewers of Paris
by the fanatical Police Inspector Javert. California's "Three-Strikes"
Law reminds me of that unrelenting Javert.
In 1994, Polly Klass, age 12, was murdered
in California by parolee and repeat offender, the degenerate
Richard Allen Davis. In response to this gruesome killing, the
Legislature adopted, with a 72 percent voters' approval, a draconian
three-strikes-you're-out law. It requires a judge to impose a
25 years to life sentence for a felony third-strikes offense
committed after two serious or violent felonies.
According to California state officials,
there presently are 7100 three-strikes prisoners incarcerated
under that law. Most triggered their sentences by committing
serious crimes. They include 294 convictions for murder, 34 for
manslaughter, 1,408 robbery, 241 for child molesters, 136 for
rape, and 83 for kidnapping.
However, there are also 344 prisoners
convicted of petty theft, who are languishing, too, under the
25-years-to-life sentencing device. The Supreme Court heard oral
arguments in two test cases, on November 5, that challenged the
constitutionality of the California statue. The defendants are
claiming the law violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition
against "cruel and unusual punishment." Twenty-six
states, and the federal government, also, have comparable three-strike
laws on their books.
One of the cases pending before the highest
tribunal involves Leandro Andrade. He got hit with a 50-year-to-life
sentence for shoplifting Kmart video tapes, like "Snow White"
and "Free Willie," valued at $153, years after his
convictions for two home burglary offenses. Another target of
the "three-strike" law is Gary Ewing. He got socked
with a 25 years to life sentence for stealing three Callaway
golf clubs worth $1,197. This, too, was years after his earlier
convictions for robbery and burglary. The prosecutor in Ewing's
case could have elected to charge him with a misdemeanor, which
would not have triggered the three-strikes law. Instead, the
D.A. decided to charge him with a felony.
The U.S. 9th Circuit agreed with Andrade
that his sentence was unconstitutional, but affirmed Ewing's
conviction. Unfortunately, for both defendants, the Supreme Court,
under strict constructionist Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist,
tends to defer to the wisdom of state legislatures, when dealing
with the appropriateness of the punishment for crimes committed
under their laws.
One result of the "Three-Strikes"
law is that California's penal system is overflowing with inmates,
mostly African-Americans and Latinos. And, for the first time
in history, the "state's budget for corrections has just
equaled that for education and will soon surpass it" (Philip
Zimbardo, <frictionmagazine.com>). Interestedly, if Hollywood
actress Winona Ryder, were to get two more shoplifting convictions,
she could be added to those statistics.
Law and Order types have a long history
of bashing the poor and the working class, when it comes to their
violation of the criminal law. That tough penal philosophy, however,
doesn't extend to corporate and white collar thugs. The FBI estimates
that burglary and robbery costs the nation $3.8 billion a year.
Compare this to the hundreds of billions of dollars stolen from
Americans via corporate and white collar fraud, like the massive
savings and loan scandal a few years back. That rip off alone
cost the taxpayers $300 to $500 billion. According to motherjones.com,
Health Care fraud, too, cost $100 to $400 billion a year.
Convicted recidivist corporate criminals
are usually left off with a slap on the wrist and civil penalties.
If it's a really notorious case, some flunky is thrown to the
lions. He usually serves his sentence at one of the Feds' country
club-like prisons, where his golf game generally improves.
Actually, the "Top 100 Corporate
Criminals of the 1990s" are listed online (motherjones.com).
The usual repeated offenders are found there, like: Exxon; Warner
Lambert; United Technologies and General Electric. The crimes
of the listed corporate wrongdoers run the gambit from Antitrust,
Environmental, Food & Drug violations; to workers' deaths,
campaign financing irregularities, illegal boycotts, political
bribery and outright fraud, particularly dealing with the sieve-like
procurement of government contracts from the friendly boy-ohs
at the Pentagon.
The celebrated author Ferdinand Lundberg,
in his massive study of who really owns America, entitled, "The
Rich and the Super-Rich," documented corporate wrongdoers
and their traditional kid gloves treatment by prosecutors. His
investigation showed comparatively speaking, how these enormously
wealthy crooks made the "Mafia and Crime Syndicates look
like pushcart operations." His book was published in 1968,
and things have only gotten worse since then.
Additionally, George W. Bush Jr.'s America
has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, just ahead
of Russia, and more than five times greater than most industrialized
nations. And incredibly, most of the people in prison today,
like the drug law violators, were convicted of non-violent offenses.
It's clear the "Three-Strikes"
sentencing device will only add to the growing prison population
disgrace. In addition, it discriminates in its application against
poor and working class defendants, while leaving the wealthy
ones, who cleverly hide behind a corporate shield: to steal,
cheat, rob, conspire and to bribe over and over again, with impunity.
Finally, If a fifty years sentence for
stealing video tapes doesn't shock the conscience of the Supreme
Court, nothing will. It should also compel the legislatures,
and the Congress, too, in to repealing the "Three-Strikes"
statutes, as being repugnant to the public policy of a free people.
William Hughes
is the author of "Baltimore Iconoclast" (Writer's Showcase),
which is available online. He can be reached at liamhughes@mindspring.com.
(C) William Hughes 2002
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November 10,
2002
Ali Abunimah
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Zionist Theses and Anti-Theses
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Dave Marsh
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