April 10th, 1996. Geraldo Rivera’s namesake talk show brings us a spirited debate on California’s new law that puts you away for life after the third crime.
“To answer your question, that is not the guy that we want to go to jail for the rest of his life. That’s the kind of guy we want to help to rehabilitate himself….”
The diverse panel hears from Lloyd, who has his third strike as using a phony credit card. According to Danny Blakewell of the Brotherhood Crusade, 75% of the victims of this law are African-American men. Mike Reynolds, creator of the law talks about why the cases shown are exactly appropriate for the law as California Secretary of State Bill Jones talks about why the law he wrote was conceived in the first place.
We also here from Vinny Schiraldi of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, as well as various guests who have family falling prey to the law. Reverend Jesse Jackson of The Rainbow Coalition joins by satellite speaks about how the law shifts the power away from judges, to the legislature.
California’s “Three Strikes” law has changed considerably since 1996 and in 2012 life sentences for non-serious, non-violent third strikes were eliminated.
This day, Geraldo’s television history.