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08/18/2004:

"Buried alive under California's law of 'three strikes and you're out'"

Guardian UK
Brian A Smith didn't know the two women who were shoplifting. They were caught on security cameras stealing sheets at the Los Cerritos mall in Los Angeles and received a two-year sentence.

But Smith was seen standing near the shoplifters as they committed their crime. Despite having no stolen goods, he was convicted of aiding and abetting them.

Under California's three strikes law, which marked its 10th anniversary on Sunday, the 30 year old received a 25-year-to-life sentence.

Smith's crime was to have two previous convictions, one 11 years earlier and the second six years before the shoplifting incident. Those convictions, for purse snatching in 1983 and burglary in 1988, earned him the dubious honour of being one of the first criminals to be sentenced under the California law.

By September last year, California, the US state with the highest prison population, had 7,234 prisoners held under the three strikes rule.

Sitting in her Los Angeles home, Smith's aunt, Dorothy Erskine, a retired schoolteacher, recalls the family's reaction to his sentence. "We were, like, is this really happening? I'm sure he was in shock when he was sentenced and thought he could get it reduced on appeal.

"But he was advised not to appeal. And we were told that unless you have about $20,000 (£10,800) or $30,000 to pay for the right type of a lawyer, your chances are very, very slim. I did not have $30,000." full article