SENTENCING DECISIONS INVOLVE JUDGMENT CALLS

Which convicts deserve the maximum 25-years-to-life sentence under the
"three strikes, you're out" law and which should get less?

Santa Clara County began grappling with that question from the time it
sentenced its first such defendant, Jed Harlan Miller, in 1995.

Miller, then 37, got the maximum for stealing two bicycles and a truck. His
previous crimes were residential burglaries, auto thefts and assault with a
deadly weapon that left his victim partially paralyzed.

A tide of criticism ensued. Miller's father, stunned at his son's
25-years-to-life sentence, asked, "Why? He's not a murderer, rapist or
child molester, just a small-time thief."

Santa Clara County District Attorney George Kennedy said Miller was a
chronic offender who needed to be removed from society. Miller had been out
of prison eight days when he stole the bikes and truck.

But what convinced Kennedy, he said, was evidence investigators found while
searching Miller's house. Miller had written letters that spoke of a plot
to kill a woman and cut off her hand so he could use it to leave
fingerprints when committing future burglaries.

Had Miller been charged before the three-strikes law, he would have gotten
a maximum of six years in prison.

Another case prosecutors tout involved Louis Clifford Marshall, who got 25
years to life for shoplifting two bottles of cognac from a Safeway store in
1995. But his criminal history showed a penchant for hanging out at bus
stops and abducting and sexually assaulting teenage girls. He spent a
decade in prison, and committed the shoplifting just months after he got out.

Often, however, Santa Clara County prosecutors make the opposite judgment:
that even though a three-strikes conviction is possible, it is unwarranted.
To make that decision, prosecutors review past criminal behavior and the
details of the current crime, as well as whether the individual has a job
and a stable life.

Anthony Castro of San Jose could have drawn a 25-years-to-life sentence
five years ago at 36 when he was charged with possession of methamphetamine
- -- a felony -- but authorities reduced the charges. Prosecutors noted that
his prior "strikes" -- for robbery in 1980 when he was 20 and a residential
burglary five years later -- were more than 16 years old. They determined
he was no longer a threat to society.

Authorities also recommended a reduced sentence for Louis Carrasco, 37,
after he was found in possession of drugs last year. Carrasco's rap sheet
showed two convictions for drug possession and two for residential burglary
- -- which are "strike" offenses -- in the early 1980s. He served six years
in prison.

A decade later, police found him ranting in the middle of the street while
under the influence of PCP and discovered two PCP joints and cocaine in his
car.

"There was no violence in any of these situations. We don't need to have
the taxpayers foot the bill for this guy for the next 25 years," said
Deputy District Attorney Dave Tomkins. "We used the flexibility we have. He
got 32 months instead of life."