Three Strikes is Bad Idea

By removing sentencing discretion the law can result in high penalties for relatively minor crimes. The NY Times article describes a case where a man received 50 years for stealing videotapes. Nonsensical penalties decrease the respect people have for the law - never a good thing.

The worst part of the three strikes law is how it poorly it incentivizes criminals. If there is no difference in penalty between a rape, and a rape and a murder then someone facing a third strike will have incentive to get rid of the witnesses. If this actually occurs the newspapers will surely call it an, "unintended consequence" when the incentive was obvious from the beginning.

The NY Times take on Three Strike style laws is here:

These laws are not only overly harsh. They are enormously expensive, because of all of the prison cells that are needed to warehouse minor criminals who pose little threat to society, many of whom are elderly by the end of their sentence.