Opinion ID: 1119446
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: Defendant James M. Thorne challenges the constitutionality of the Persistent Offender Accountability Act, commonly known as the three strikes and you're out law. We find the law to be constitutional. In November 1993, the voters of the state of Washington were asked in Initiative 593 to decide the question: Shall criminals who are convicted of most serious offenses on three occasions be sentenced to life in prison without parole? Seventy-six percent of the voters of this state answered yes to this question. Initiative 593, titled the Persistent Offender Accountability Act, amended sections of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1981(SRA). RCW 9.94A. The new law added the following language to RCW 9.94A.120(4): A persistent offender shall be sentenced to a term of total confinement for life without the possibility of parole or, when authorized by RCW 10.95.030 for the crime of aggravated murder in the first degree, sentenced to death, notwithstanding the maximum sentence under any other law. Initiative 593 defined the terms persistent offender and most serious offense. A persistent offender is an offender who: (a) Has been convicted in this state of any felony considered a most serious offense; and (b) Has, before the commission of the offense under (a) of this subsection, been convicted as an offender on at least two separate occasions, whether in this state or elsewhere, of felonies that under the laws of this state would be considered most serious offenses and would be included in the offender score under RCW 9.94A.360; provided that of the two or more previous convictions, at least one conviction must have occurred before the commission of any of the other most serious offenses for which the offender was previously convicted. RCW 9.94A.030(27). Most serious offense means any of the following felonies or a felony attempt to commit any of the following felonies, as now existing or hereafter amended: (a) Any felony defined under any law as a class A felony or criminal solicitation of or criminal conspiracy to commit a class A felony; (b) Assault in the second degree; (c) Assault of a child in the second degree; (d) Child molestation in the second degree; (e) Controlled substance homicide; (f) Extortion in the first degree; (g) Incest when committed against a child under age fourteen; (h) Indecent liberties; (i) Kidnapping in the second degree; (j) Leading organized crime; (k) Manslaughter in the first degree; (l) Manslaughter in the second degree; (m) Promoting prostitution in the first degree; (n) Rape in the third degree; (o) Robbery in the second degree; (p) Sexual exploitation; (q) Vehicular assault; (r) Vehicular homicide, when proximately caused by the driving of any vehicle by any person while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or any drug as defined by RCW 46.61.502, or by the operation of any vehicle in a reckless manner; (s) Any other class B felony offense with a finding of sexual motivation, as sexual motivation is defined under this section; (t) Any other felony with a deadly weapon verdict under RCW 9.94A.125; (u) Any felony offense in effect at any time prior to December 2, 1993, that is comparable to a most serious offense under this subsection, or any federal or out-of-state conviction for an offense that under the laws of this state would be a felony classified as a most serious offense under this subsection. RCW 9.94A.030(23). The law does not include juvenile offenses in the definition of most serious offense. RCW 9.94A.030(23), (25), (27). The voters pamphlet explained that most serious crimes essentially consist of all class A felonies and all class B felonies involving harm or threats of harm to persons. 1993 Official Voters Pamphlet at 5 (2d ed.). Under the new law, the Governor may pardon or grant clemency to an offender, but the legislature recommends that an offender with a life sentence not be released until the offender has reached the age of 60 years old and is judged no longer a threat to society. The law mandates that the Governor provide twice yearly reports on any offender who has been released through executive action. RCW 9.94A.394. Three strikes and you're out is the popular term used to describe recidivist legislation that calls for the incarceration of a criminal for life upon a third felony conviction. Many other states have enacted three strikes types of legislation. See Robert Heglin, Note, A Flurry of Recidivist Legislation Means: Three Strikes and You're Out, 20 J. of Legis. 213 (1994); Mark W. Owens, California's Three Strikes Law: Desperate Times Require Desperate MeasuresBut Will It Work?, 26 Pac. L.J. 881 (1995); James Austin, Ph.D., Three Strikes and You're Out: The Likely Consequences on the Courts, Prisons, and Crime in California and Washington State, 14 St. Louis U. Pub.L.Rev. 239 (1994). The federal violent crime control and law enforcement act of 1994 also has a three strikes section. 18 U.S.C. § 3559(c) (1994). The reason underlying the enactment of so many recidivist laws appears to be the heightened fear of increased violent crime and the public outrage caused by such crime. See Owens, supra, at 883-84; Peter J. Benekos & Alida V. Merlo, Three Strikes and You're Out: The Political Sentencing Game, 59 Fed. Probation 3 (Mar.1995); Daniel W. Stiller, Note, Initiative 593: Washington's Voters Go Down Swinging, 30 Gonz. L.Rev. 433, 438 (1994-95).