The American Spectator

Reader Mail

p> THREEPEATS br> Re: Francis X. Rocca's California Justice Strikes Out : /p> p>Interesting article by Francis Rocca on California's three-strikes law. One point that he doesn't mention, however, is that for a person with two strikes on him already, the penalty for shoplifting and the penalty for murder are the same: life in prison. (The only exception are crimes that draw the death penalty, and most states inflict capital punishment so infrequently as to make it pointless as a deterrent.) A person faced with the prospect of life in the slammer might as well pull a gun and kill the person who's attempting to apprehend him: that is the rational choice. Why not? He literally has nothing to lose. br> -- Fred Butzen /p>

Unlike your contributor Mr. Francis X. Rocca, I shed no tears for Leandro Andrade, the repeat criminal convicted of stealing videotapes and sentenced under the "three strikes" law.

As Mr. Rocca admits, Andrade was convicted of three prior residential burglaries. There is no way of knowing how many residential burglaries he committed without a criminal conviction resulting. I can assure you, however, that if I caught Andrade breaking into my residence, I would have no qualms about shooting him dead.

We need "three strikes" laws precisely because someone like Andrade can commit three residential burglaries and soon be out on the street again and able to steal the videotapes that (by charitable mathematics) resulted in his third "strike."

p>I do agree with Mr. Rocca on one point. There is no magic in the number three. Perhaps, given Mr. Rocca's European residence, he would be more comfortable with the "Soccer Rule": Yellow card on the first felony, red card and permanent removal from the game on the second. br> --

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