The article “California Protesters: ‘Free Carlos Harris!’” printed in issue no. 5, says Harris’ “14-year sentence was doubled by the judge under the notorious ‘three strikes’ law.” More accurately, the sentence was illegally doubled. The 1994 law provided for doubling a sentence if a defendant had been convicted of a “serious felony” earlier. It was invoked in this case because of a misdemeanor conviction in 1991, three years before that law went into effect.
February 22, 2021