The State - News from Jan. 9, 1985

A state law requiring five-year sentence increases in cases where there are prior convictions of “serious” felonies does not cover assault with a deadly weapon, a state appeals court ruled. The ruling by the 1st District Court of Appeal in a Lake County case could limit some of the major sentence increases imposed under a crime initiative approved by state voters in 1982. The state attorney general’s office plans to appeal to the state Supreme Court, Deputy Atty. Gen. Morris Lenk said. The high court has not yet ruled on the sentencing provision and most other major features of the Proposition 8 crime initiative.