Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: How many offenses equals a strike

Thank you for your inquiry. It appears you have serious misconceptions about the three strikes law.

One offense can equal a strike, if it's a serious violent felony, meaning one of the crimes listed and defined in in subdivision (c) of Penal Code Section 1192.7.

A second strike, which can double punishment for sentencing purposes, can be alleged, and if proven, would result in a second strike, and the punishment that fits that crime with the strike enhancement.

A third strike can cause a sentence of from 25 years to live, if proven or pled.

You may want to read the text of the code section itself, PC 667, which you can find online at:

http://www.threestrikes.org/tslaw.html

Best of luck, and I hope this answered your question.

Re: How many offenses equals a strike

Crimes which are not strikes cannot be added up after the fact in order to create a strike. However, some crimes are more serious when charged against a defendant who has a criminal record than against one who does not, and in some instances it is thus the defendant's record rather than his current offense which determined whether he is charged with a strike. This means that in many instances there will be two defendants charged with violating the same law under similar circumstances, where one will be facing a strike and the other will not.

I'm not sure if this answer helped clear things up or not, but the three strikes laws are inherently confusing and there is no easy way to explain them in the limited space available on this web site.