Three Strikes Law

In the judicial system, a three strike case is when someone is convicted 3 times of a serious criminal offense. On the third time they are convicted of a serious crime, the judge is required to give them a mandatory sentence of an extended period of time being incarcerated. The law requires that the person be convicted of these three offenses on three separate occasions. As a judge, they are not required to hand down an extended sentence if all three are being convicted at once. The judicial officials usually consider the three strike cases to be habitual offenders of the law.

Usually for first time and even second time offenders, there will always be a chance of getting probation. If person has stayed in jail for a certain amount of time, they then attend a hearing to see if they have learned something since they have been incarcerated and are remorseful for their actions. If the board feels that they are truly remorseful then they will let them leave jail which is called granting probation.

For three strike cases, they are never granted probation because they are considered habitual offenders, so the court feels that they didn’t learn their lesson the first or second time they were in jail. The court will sentence the person to a longer sentence than the first two times they were in jail.