three-strikes law

Both he and Peoples could face life sentences under California’s three-strikes law, as they each have two prior violent felony convictions.

Hanzal was a second-striker — someone who has accumulated two “strikes” from serious or violent felonies under California’s three-strikes law, prosecutors said.

The case — along with the 1992 murder of 18-year-old Kimber Reynolds, shot by a parolee trying to steal her purse — gave impetus to California’s enduringly controversial “three-strikes” law.

California’s three-strikes law mandates that individuals convicted of three or more serious or violent felonies receive a mandatory life sentence with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

This led to a dramatic increase in incarceration rates, in part due to the three-strikes law, which affected minority communities and contributed to the state’s overburdened prison system.