The three strikes your out law is the subject of some debate in this country. Sometimes you see headlines that someone got Life for some drug offense and there is outrage.
Now what is going on here is a tad complex in many cases. Often the offender has a lot of offenses on this rap sheet that had to be plead down to lower offenses for various reasons. Much of the time what is going on is the police and the DAs involved know person x is responsible for a ton of violent crime but they can't quite get the case together. This is because heck no one is talking for obvious reasons. So boom the " 3 strikes and you are out" is used often on drug offenses or other non violent felonies if it can be had.
It is is forgotten but the use of this by DA's in this way is what played some role in winning back the streets from the gangs that basically controlled. It was a vital element of that war.
That being said for this to be" just" much depends on wise discretion of the District Attorney. It appears from at least the facts this columnist have give this discretion was very much absent in St Tammany Parish. See Tammany DA is high on punishment: James Gill.
If these facts are correct this screams for a future Governor to commute the sentence at the right time.
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