The Three Strikes law has saved lives, prevented violent crimes such as rape, homicide and battery. Criminals who would have continued to victimize law abiding citizens can't do so from jail. And stories like this one have decreased by thousands:

In April of 1974, a 16 year old young woman went to the home of a neighbor. The neighbor's brother was visiting from Wisconsin. Michael Jarding, the 29 year old brother of the young woman's neighbor, flirted with the 16 year old. Behind his sister's back, he made plans to meet the 16 year old later that afternoon. When the young woman showed up at the appointed time and place, Mr. Jarding welcomed the naive girl with a bottle of cheap wine. Within an hour and a half, the young woman found herself lying in the back seat of Mr. Jarding's car, attempting to fight off his advances. Too drunk to fight off the grown man, the 16 year old found herself being raped. Decades later, she still remembers exactly what she remembered later that evening in the hospital when the police questioned her; quitely crying, "No!" over and over again as her virginity was stolen.

The world being what it was in 1974, Mr. Jarding was never prosecuted for rape. Rather, the man was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The young woman's parents did not want her subjected to the cross examination that she would most assuredly have been subjected to on the witness stand.

Two years later, Mr. Jarding married a young mother of two teenaged girls. Within 6 months of the wedding, Mr. Jarding raped both of his wife's daughters. Humiliated and ashamed, the mother left town with her daughters. She never prosecuted Mr. Jarding. The world hadn't changed much in the years since the previous rape. Young women were still victimized when they took the witness stand after being sexually assaulted.

Fast forward to 1998. Fifty three year old Michael Jarding rapes a young woman in San Diego California. Because of the Three Strike Law and two previous convictions for sexual battery, Mr. Jarding finally faces justice. He is currently serving a life sentence for a crime that rarely carries more than two years imprisonment, statutory rape.

California is the second state in the nation to adopt the Three Strike Law, Washington state being the first. Today, "Twenty-six states and the federal government have some version of a three-strikes law, which typically allow a life prison term or something close to it for a person convicted of a third felony." (1) Proponents of the law say that it is necessary in order to maintain public safetly. Opponents say that the law violates the 8th ammendment to the United States Constitution:

"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted." (2)

But on Wednesday, November 22, 2006, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld California's law, "the high court's reasoning will likely shield other three-strikes laws from similar constitutional challenges. The court noted the popularity of such laws and the public fears behind them. State legislatures should have leeway to keep career criminals away from the public, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrotefor the majority. 'When the California legislature enacted the three-strikes law, it made a judgment that protecting the public safety requires incapacitating criminals who have already been convicted of at least one serious or violent crime,' O'Connor wrote. The Constitution's Eighth Amendment guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment does not prohibit California from making that choice, she wrote. Complaints about the law should be directed at legislators, she added. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Anthony Kennedy fully agreed with O'Connor's reasoning. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas agreed with the outcome." (3)

"California's law was adopted by referendum in 1994, largely in response to the murder of schoolgirl Polly Klass by a repeat criminal who was out on parole." (4) Opponents of the law site cases where a repeat offender is convicted of a relatively minor offense and sentenced to decades or life in prison. The most oft sited case is that of Gary Ewing, "who stole three golf clubs from a Los Angeles suburb pro shop and was sentenced to 25 years to life." (5)

Although at first glance, Mr. Ewing's sentence may, indeed, seem rather excessive, "as required by the Three Strike Law, the prosecution formally alledged, and the trail court found, that Ewing had been convicted of four serious or violent felonies." (6) In addition, "Ewing's sentence is justified by the State's public-safety interest in incapactitating and deterring recidivist felon's, and amply supported by his own long, serious criminal record. He has been convicted of numerous offenses, served nine separate prison terms, committed most of his crimes while he was on probation or parole. His prioor strikes were serious felonies including robbery and residential burglary." (7)

The people of California, the people who are actually affected by crime, passed the Three Strikes Initiative by 640,903 votes. (8) As a result, California has seen a drop in violent crimes such as homicide and rape. The mubers prove it. The Three Strikes Law has saved 6, 738 lives by preventing homicides. 18, 571 women were not raped as a result of the law. (9) These statistics are more than numbers, they are the lives saved, the women who weren't raped...how can anyone argue that the law is anything but amazingly positive when presented with numbers like that?

Perhaps some minor crimes are punished rather harshly but more importantly, lives have been saved. It's quite easy to avoid being arrested and sent to prison for 25 to life...simply DO NOT COMMIT A CRIME!

In America, we live in a Democracy. People have the right to decide how they want their states to be run. If criminals have a problem with that, they have the right to leave California. With the Federal following suit with Three Strike Laws of it's own, more and more lives will be saved and fewer and fewer crimes will be commited. That's a fact. We will never know who has been saved from violence as a result of the law. It could be you, me...or someone that you or I care deeply about. We'll never know how many lives would have been saved had the law been in effect when a man named Charles "took his son, David, to a motel in the Southern California suburb of Buena Park and gave him a sleeping pill. He then doused the boy with kerosene, set him afire and left the room." (10)

Rapists like Michael Jarding are now safely tucked away in prison where they can no longer victimize women and children. If the law saved one innocent life, that would make it worthwhile...but the law has...and shall continue to...save many, many more people from the likes of Mr. Jarding.