Summary
Lecturer and Director of the Three Strikes Project Michael Romano comments on the small amount of inmates who have yet to file for resentencing for The Daily Journal.
Only about a dozen inmates who are eligible for resentencing under Proposition 36, the 2012 ballot initiative that diluted the state's three strikes law, have yet to file petitions for a hearing in advance of the Nov. 6 deadline, according to a recent audit by Stanford Law School's Three Strikes Project.
Those who are left appear to be primarily mentally ill and developmentally disabled, and therefore they haven't been able to respond to letters sent from public defenders about their eligibility, said Michael Romano, the project's director and co-founder. Most of the roughly 3,000 inmates eligible for a resentencing hearing have a petition on file, with about 800 cases still pending in the state.
“It's maybe no surprise that the people who are falling through the cracks are the most vulnerable,” Romano said.
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Public defenders successfully found and represented most eligible inmates, Romano said, but it's now largely about finding mentally ill inmates who may have been missed. The project, which is representing the dozen or so remaining inmates, is searching for possible petitioners by comparing a state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation database with case information from public defender offices.
Even if some of these cases aren't found until past the November cutoff, Romano said he's sure their petitions would still be granted because of the extenuating circumstances.
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For example, an appeals court recently ruled that having a firearm nearby while committing a third strike nonviolent, nonserious felony, even if the firearm was not on the offender's body, disqualifies offenders from resentencing under Proposition 36. If these cases go up to the state Supreme Court, Romano said, it could affect hundreds of inmates.