NPR’s Day to Day and Three Strikes: NPR’s Day to Day had a segment on California’s Three Strikes law this morning. Among other things, the segment spent some time on one major criticism of the law: that it allows a very long prison term (25 years to life) when the third strke is a relatively minor felony (the first two have to be serious or violent felonies). Thus, for instance (the segment said), Leandro Andrade was sentenced under Three Strikes for stealing some videotapes.

     Quite a reasonable criticism — but might it have been more fair to also mention Andrade’s earlier criminal history, which is what turned a relatively minor theft into a Third Strike? I realize that some people think that sentences should focus mostly on the crime of conviction, and not on past crimes; but the premise of Three Strikes (a premise adopted in some measure by many jurisdictions’ sentencing schemes) is the opposite, and obviously lots of people agree with that premise. An objective presentation, it seems to me, should provide the factual underpinnings for both sides’ arguments, rather than just focusing on the third strike.

     So since Day to Day wouldn’t give you Andrade’s criminal history, I will, quoting the Supreme Court (citations omitted):

Andrade has been in and out of state and federal prison since 1982. In January 1982, he was convicted of a misdemeanor theft offense and was sentenced to 6 days in jail with 12 months’ probation. Andrade was arrested again in November 1982 for multiple counts of first-degree residential burglary. He pleaded guilty to at least three of those counts, and in April of the following year he was sentenced to 120 months in prison. In 1988, Andrade was convicted in federal court of “[t]ransportation of [m]arijuana,” and was sentenced to eight years in federal prison. In 1990, he was convicted in state court for a misdemeanor petty theft offense and was ordered to serve 180 days in jail. In September 1990, Andrade was convicted again in federal court for the same felony of “[t]ransportation of [m]arijuana,” and was sentenced to 2,191 days in federal prison. And in 1991, Andrade was arrested for a state parole violation — escape from federal prison. He was paroled from the state penitentiary system in 1993.

(1993 was two years before he was arrested for his third strike.) Naturally, the radio show didn’t have the time to give all the details; but surely it could have quickly summarized Andrade’s criminal history — perhaps with a phrase like “convicted, over a span of 13 years, of three felony residential burglaries, felony marijuana transportation, misdemeanor theft, and escape from federal prison.”

     Might this information change some listeners’ perception of the fairness of sentencing Andrade to 25 years to life? Others, of course, might well think that Andrade’s sentence is still unfair — for instance, Andrade’s past crimes didn’t seem to be violent (the burglaries were serious felonies, but apparently not violent ones, though of course many residential burglaries have the potential to turn violent if the home turns out to be occupied). But at least listeners would have been able to make their own decision, based on a balanced portrayal of the facts.