State High Court Upholds 'Three Strikes' Law for Those First Convicted as Young Adults

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OLYMPIA — The Washington state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the state's "three strikes, you're out" law as constitutional even if a defendant's prior strike was committed as a young adult.

The law requires that a person convicted of a third "most serious offense" be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Young adult is not defined in the Supreme Court's decision or the petition for review.

In hearing the matter, the high court consolidated three cases in which the people were convicted of their first strike at age 19 or 20 -- and their third strikes in their 30s or 40s.



"The petitioners have not shown a national consensus against this sentencing practice, and our own independent judgment confirms that there is nothing to suggest that these petitioners are less culpable than other POAA offenders," the court wrote in its unanimous decision, referring to the formal name of the law, the Persistent Offender Accountability Act.

Attorneys representing people convicted under the "three strikes" law argued that sentencing adult offenders to mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole when one of their prior strike offenses was committed as a young adult violated the state Constitution as "cruel" or was barred under the U.S. Constitution as "cruel and unusual."

The high court disagreed, adding: "We also hold that the sentences in these cases are not grossly disproportionate to the crimes."

A juvenile is defined as a person under the age of 18, and juvenile adjudications are not counted under the three strikes law.