After serving thirteen years behind bars after attempting to break into a church kitchen in order to get something to eat a convicted burglar who had been sentenced under Californian law has now been released.
A Los Angeles based superior court judge decided to reduce the sentence to just eight years, which the convicted burglar had already served. The original jail term handed down in 1997 was for twenty five years. Those watching the case have reported that when the decision was read out the convicted man began to cry with relief.
Law student Reiko Rogozen who has been following the case as part of a ‘three strikes’ project described the feeling of the court room just after the decision. ‘I thought I was going to cry, too.’ The decision regarding Taylor’s case came as quite a shock as it had been widely believed that the conviction and sentence would be upheld.
When the announcement was made Taylor is said to have thanked the court for allowing him another chance.
Taylor had been arrested in 1997 after attempting to enter a kitchen in St Joseph’s Church in Los Angeles. The only defence he is said to have given is that he was hungry.
He was then convicted of so called ‘three strike,’ burglary due to his two previous convictions for street robberies he committed in the eighties. Both of the street robberies he was involved in involved no weapons and nobody was hurt.
An appeal on Taylor’s behalf suggested that he was a modern day version of Jean Valjean the character in the Victor Hugo novel Les Miserables. The comparisons were drawn due to both men being imprisoned for relatively minor offences where violence was never an issue.
The three strike rule is normal practice in Californian state law and therefore lots of people have found the result of this recent case fairly shocking. It is thought that it will now cause a surge of similar non- violent cases to be revaluated.
For legal advice contactcriminal defence lawyer. For a fraud solicitor contact Burton Copeland.
September 1, 2010 by Clare Westwood