Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

If you have one or more prior felonies that count as strikes under the three-strikes law, your sentence on the new conviction would ordinarily be increased as a result. The trial court is allowed to disregard some of those priors and sentence you as if they were not on your record. That is called striking the strike.

Despite the name, striking a strike does note remove it from your record. All it means is that the strike won't count against you on this particular occasion. It will still show up in background checks, etc. And if you're later convicted of another felony, the judge who sentences you on that crime will not have to disregard the prior just because the previous judge did.

I agree with Mr. Hoffman.