The introduction to the article “Shifting sentences” in the Nov. 27 issue of the Sun had a couple of issues and should have read like this:
- A man walks into a 7- Eleven store with the intent to steal and walks out with a loaf of bread, a bottle of wine, and a bar of soap that he didn’t pay for. He gets arrested and charged with second-degree burglary.
- It was what’s known as a “wobbler” crime; it could be a felony or a misdemeanor, depending on the perpetrator’s criminal record. Committing the crime on the heels of two serious/violent felonies would have landed him in prison for life under California’s three-strike rule, implemented in 1994.
Also in the article: “Gun thefts” refers to theft of a handgun, not armed robbery. Possessing a stolen, concealed handgun would have been a felony under the old law but is now considered two misdemeanors. Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown and retired Superior Court Judge George Eskin agree that the $250 million coming from Proposition 47 would not have been enough to impact treatment efforts for repeat drug offenders. And the county would get $1.3 million at the most for drug treatment efforts.
This article appears in Dec 4-11, 2014.
