THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 11, 1996 TAG: 9609110485
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 58 lines
Tough ``three-strikes-and-you're-out'' laws are rarely used by the federal government and most of the 22 states that have enacted them, a national survey shows.
Such laws vary from state to state and allow or require life imprisonment or long sentences for three-time violent felons. The federal ``three-strikes'' law calls for a mandatory life sentence.
In Virginia, about 400 convicted felons are serving time under a ``three-time loser'' statute enacted in the early 1980s. That law, which eliminated parole for anyone convicted of three separate violent offenses, was rendered moot when the state abolished parole altogether for anyone convicted of a crime committed after Jan. 1, 1995.
A tougher ``three-strikes'' law, which took effect in July of 1994, allows Virginia prosecutors to procure life sentences for those convicted of a violent crime after having served time for two prior such crimes.
The Department of Corrections has no statistics on the number of inmates serving time under the ``three-strikes'' law. The survey says it has been applied rarely.
In one instance last month, Chesapeake Commonwealth's Attorney David Williams used Virginia's ``three-strikes'' statute to procure a life sentence for William L. Griffin Jr., who was serving time on robbery and firearms charges when he stabbed a sheriff's deputy in the neck. Without the statute, said Williams, Griffin's maximum sentence would have been 20 years.
The federal ``three-strikes'' law was aggressively promoted during debate over the anti-crime bill in 1994. However, the law has resulted in only nine convictions, with another 24 cases pending, says the survey by the Campaign for an Effective Crime Policy, a coalition of criminal justice officials who want more emphasis on prevention.
Six of the 22 states that have passed ``three-strikes'' laws since 1993 - Colorado, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Tennessee - have had no convictions, the survey said.
But in California the law has led to imprisonment of more than 15,000 offenders that will require $4.5 billion in prison construction over five years, the study found.
California's law considers any of the state's 500 felonies - violent and nonviolent - as a third strike and has second-strike provisions for some crimes. The survey found that 85 percent of the second- and third-strike convictions were for nonviolent offenses.
Justice Department spokesman Bert Brandenburg contended the federal law is good crime control, saying President Clinton ``fought very hard to make `three-strikes-and-you're-out' the law of the land in order to put the most vicious criminals behind bars to stay.''
Brandenburg also disputed the survey's findings. As of July 31, he said, the federal law had brought 19 convictions and two plea agreements, with another 13 cases pending.
Gil Kline, a spokesman for the group that conducted the survey, said that even if those numbers were correct, they still would be an ``infinitesimal'' portion of all violent crimes.
KEYWORDS: THREE STRIKES LAW SURVEY THREE TIME LOSER by CNB