Preventing Habitual Criminal Behavior

In “Supreme Court to Hear Three-Strikes Challenge” (April 2) USC law professor Erwin Chemerinsky states that “California is the only state where a misdemeanor shoplifting charge can be the basis for a life prison term.” The voting public understood that the third strike--regardless of what it is--is proof of a pattern of life that is a clear and present danger to the public. That is the basis for a life prison term.

Perhaps the good professor can explain the reason that we need to “allow” the criminal to commit another violent act, even putting me and my innocent family at risk of death or permanent injury, before we impose such a sentence.

Sorry, professor, but California is the only state that has finally drawn a reasonable line of intolerance toward repeated and habitual criminal behavior. Read the whole law, sir, not just the parts that upset you or prove you right.

David M. Miranda

Covina