Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Three Strikes Law

Cannot be certian without full knowledge of the elements of the Utah offense, but, yes, It is possible that the Utah offenses are "strikes" for Claifornia law, and if they are??? and if a new felony is committed in California, the out of State priors could be alleged as strikes, or as priors for other enhancements that may apply. Also, civil rights restrictions ( guns, voting, registration, etc...apply under California, Federal, and for that matter, most all other States.

Re: Three Strikes Law

Technically, the Utah offenses would not be "transferred to California". They would, however, be considered by a California court at the time of sentencing. Were this not how the Three Strikes law works, career criminals could evade it by simply moving from one state to another after each conviction.

California's definition of a strike includes violations of specific California statutes. No other California crimes qualify, but equivalent crimes from other jurisdictions do.

Convictions in federal courts and/or in the courts of other states and even other countries will qualify if they are for crimes equivalent to those listed in the three strikes law. A murder conviction, for example, is a strike regardless of where it happened.

Deciding whether a particular out-of-state conviction qualifies as a strike is not always easy, since the definitions of each crime and of the various degrees thereof can vary quite a bit from one state to another. Further, even in California not all felonies qualify as strikes.

The fact that your son was convicted of a felony in another state thus does not necessarily mean that his convictions will qualify as strikes in California. At the same time, that fact does not mean that they won't qualify.

Re: Three Strikes Law

Yes.