Inmate Challenges to 3-Strikes Terms Mount

Linda Teague is looking for a miracle.

She has been a heroin addict for nearly three decades, has two previous felony convictions and recently was convicted of writing bad checks and possessing stolen property.

The conviction was Teague’s third strike under the controversial California law that mandates lengthy terms for repeat offenders. Her sentence: 50 years to life in prison.

“I feel like I’ve been sentenced to die. Come on, I’m 42, what do you think my life expectancy is?” she said in a recent phone interview from Orange County Jail.

Teague is among a wave of defendants who have begun mounting legal challenges to their sentences since the California Supreme Court gave judges the discretion to change sentences in three-strikes cases.

In Orange County, the ruling affects about 68 people who have been sentenced on their third strike under the 2-year-old law.

The ruling also affects an estimated 1,000 cases in which defendants received tougher terms for their second felony convictions, although officials are unsure how many of those defendants will seek reductions.

Superior Court Judge David O. Carter said local prosecutors and public defenders probably will spend about six months reviewing the sentences.

“It’s to the court’s benefit that this gets resolved immediately,” said Carter, who supervises the county’s criminal operations.

In addition to avoiding costly delays and backlogs, speedy reviews will ensure that judges will still remember the cases, and the original prosecutors and defense attorneys will be involved, Carter said.

In a landmark decision in June, the state Supreme Court gave judges the authority to disregard a prior conviction at sentencing “in the furtherance of justice.”

Until the decision, the law, ratified by 72% of California voters, mandated sentences of at least 25 years to life in state prison for any third felony conviction. It also directed double the usual punishment for a felony conviction counted as a second strike.

A third strike can be any felony, such as theft or possession of small amounts of cocaine. Previous convictions must be for “serious” or “violent” felonies such as murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping or burglary to qualify as strikes.

The high court’s ruling touched off a partisan battle among California legislators, who are still debating whether to affirm or restrict the discretionary powers of judges in deciding three-strikes sentences.

Before the ruling, some Orange County judges had said they would have liked more discretion in sentencing three-strikes cases. But officials said that now that they have it, they don’t expect changes in the vast majority of the penalties.

“The people who did get sentenced, for the most part, were people with some pretty serious recidivism problems,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Devallis Rutledge, supervisor of writs and appeals for the district attorney’s office.

Superior Court Judge William W. Bedsworth said he too expects that most judges will follow the law as the legislators and voters intended.

“I don’t predict a lot of judges will exercise this discretion,” said Bedsworth, who on Friday sentenced three men to 25 years to life in prison under the law, the most three-strikes sentences he has handled at one time.

“If I don’t give the 25-to-life sentence, how confident am I there won’t be more people victimized?” he said.

Still, defendants like Teague are holding hope for another chance.

Municipal Judge Richard E. Behn gave Teague her 50-years-to-life sentence in April after she pleaded guilty to multiple counts of forgery and possession of stolen property and failed to follow through on a plea agreement to enter a drug treatment program.

Her previous strikes include a 1988 attempted burglary conviction and a 1992 assault conviction stemming from an incident in which she rammed two police cars after trying to cash a forged check.

“I am an educated lady from an upper middle class family--yet stricken with a terminal disease at the age of 15,” she wrote in a letter talking about the help she needs to fight her drug addiction. “That is why I am torturing myself, killing myself every day--because now in my right mind I can see my mistakes and I didn’t stop them. I had a chance people would die for--now I am sentenced under a law people will die for.”

Her lawyer said he thinks Teague is just the kind of defendant that Supreme Court justices had in mind when they issued their ruling.

“No one is talking about just putting her out on the street,” said Deputy Alternate Defender Frank Ospino, who has represented Teague since her sentence. “It’s just a question of fairness. Fifty years is a long time for her behavior in this case, and for her background.”

The county’s first resentencing last month before Superior Court Judge Kazuharu Makino resulted in a lesser sentence for Donald Walter Post, who saw his 25-years-to-life sentence reduced to eight years in prison for possessing a small amount of methamphetamine. The defendant had previously been convicted of a burglary in 1984 and a robbery in 1990 in which he used a note to hold up a sandwich shop.

“Eight years versus 25 is like night and day,” said Deputy Public Defender Doug Lobato, who represented Post.

“The judge showed a lot of integrity. He basically said this is not the type of case [in which] a judge should be hand-tied.”

Lobato and others in the public defender’s office have been spending time this month writing to their clients in two- and three-strike cases to see if they want to challenge their sentences.

Under the ruling, certain convicts will not be entitled to reconsideration. The high court said any request for rehearing should be denied if judges made it plain at the time of sentencing that they would not move to lighten the sentence even if they had the discretion to do so.

The court also said that sentences may not be brought back if an appeal of the conviction is pending, which will delay review of an unknown number of Orange County cases.

Deputy Public Defender Thomas Havlena, who supervises Superior Court operations for his office, said defense attorneys expect to start filing rehearing requests this month for eligible clients. Also, the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana has ordered new sentencing hearings in recent weeks for several Orange County felons who picked up tougher terms for second-strike convictions.