Guidelines Issued on Three-Strikes Appeals

Responding to the state Supreme Court’s recent decision to give many inmates convicted under the three-strikes law a chance at a lighter sentence, the Los Angeles County public defender’s office has issued guidelines saying it is up to the convicts to initiate the appeals process.

Most of the 8,000 inmates whose cases were handled by the public defender’s office and were convicted under the 2-year-old law will soon get a letter asking if they are interested in resentencing.

It is up to each convict to say yes or no, according to the guidelines, which were distributed to staff members Wednesday night. The order in which the return mail then gets filed in court as a resentencing request will be up to each of the 560 deputy public defenders.

The law mandates a sentence of 25 years to life in prison for a third felony conviction. It also doubles the usual sentence for a second offense. The court’s June 20 ruling, however, gave judges leeway in sentencing under the law and said that those inmates already in prison could ask for resentencing--with the exception of those sentenced by a judge who declared for the record that leniency would not be appropriate.

The guidelines--included in a seven-page memorandum issued by Public Defender Michael P. Judge--say it “most likely” will take 12 to 18 months to handle the requests “because of limitations of the criminal justice system resources.”