A Washington Supreme Court’s 6-3 majority opinion last week clarified the ”three strikes” law, saying that counting a “strike” for an adult conviction for a crime committed as a juvenile is not cruel or unusual punishment when sentencing for a mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Under the state’s Persistent Offenders Accountability Act, referred to as the “three strikes” law, offenders who commit three “most serious ‘offense[s]‘” must be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The law, Revised Code of Washington 9.94 A.030(37), .570, requires courts to count all prior adult convictions as a “strike,” but bars juvenile adjudications from being considered as a “strike.”
