3 Strikes Law Essay

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Pages: 3

Three Strikes Law
Historians believe that as far back as 300 BC, Ancient Egyptians created a code of laws. In 1754 BC, King Hammurabi of Babylon created the Code of Hammurabi. Around 508 BC, Ancient Greece implements an early system of democracy. All these societies and other societies have influenced one another and have also influenced the current democratic law system in the United States. Currently, the United States legal system has many laws one of them being the Three Strikes Law. Three Strikes Law is a new enactment for habitual offenders.
Three Strikes Law Definition
In order to understand the Three Strikes Law, one needs to know what the Habitual Offenders Statute is. According to the book Corrections in the 21st Century, a Habitual Offender Statute is “a law that (1) allows a person’s criminal history to be considered at sentencing or (2) makes it possible for a person convicted of a given
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A good example of this is the state of South Dakota. South Dakota has had legislation with a Three Strike system since 1877. During the last decade of the 20th century, there was a boom in the states that had a Three Strikes Law system. This boom came after a research project in 1991 by the Washington Institute for Policy Studies “found the need for a new policy that was clear and understandable: Anyone convicted of a third serious felony shall be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. No furloughs, parole or time off for good behavior. No more excuses. The only way out of prison alive is if the offender can convince the Governor to grant a pardon or clemency. The proposal recommended that this not occur until the offender is both over 60-years-old and deemed no longer a threat to society” (R. David Larcourse, 1997). As a result of this study, in 1993, Washington State became the first states to incorporate the Three Strikes, You’re Out Law into their legal system during the 20th