Justice Is No Game: A Briefing on Washington’s 3-Strikes Law from FIX 3 STRIKES on Vimeo.
Since the early 1990s, Paul Rivers, Stonney Rivers, and David Conyers have been serving sentences of 777 years, 77 months, and 77 days With No Possibility of Release for crimes classified in the lowest quarter of criminal seriousness under Washington law.
All are members of the same family. David was sentenced at 21.
Not one of these men has any conviction for a crime classified under state law as a Serious Violent Offense. In fact, the state’s Sentencing Guidelines Commission recommended that the legislature remove Robbery 2 – and consider removing Assault 2 — from the list of 3-Strikes crimes in 2001. These are the crimes these men’s 3-Strikes sentences rest on. King County Prosecutors no longer ask for the 3-Strikes sentence in cases like these.
In this film, these three men and several other current and former 3-Strikers and their family members speak on what led them to where they are today and about the law and its impact on them. King County Councilmember Larry Gossett, King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, and Senator Adam Kline also speak. As does Carolyn Walden, a resident of the Central Area who was a victim of a strike crime and voted for the law – and does not believe in life imprisonment for these crimes.
There has been legislation to reform this law for over a decade. Legislators who support this reform have said it will happen only with a public outcry.
- Join the Rapid Response: Join over 1,500 people statewide and nearly 200 locally in the Rapid Response to urge legislators to fix this law.
- Come to the 3-Strikes Reform Benefit: 3-Strikes Benefit: $6 April 14: Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness keynotes.
- Organizations supporting reform: 30 Organizations supporting 3-Strikes reform or repeal
Well that’s interesting. My personal approach to avoiding 3 strikes is to refrain from committing crimes such as robbery and assault like these three model citizens perpetrated.
Guess that’s just me. I’m a rogue maverick like that. Funny how I’m not sitting in jail though.
Thanks for airing this. This was a flawed law from the get-to, heavily endorsed by conservative columnist and radio personality John Carlson who also opposed the upgrade of Ballard High for earthquake retrofit (it didn’t fall down when he was going there) and wiring for computers (I guess they didnt’ have those when he was in school). It shows the importance of carefully considering ramifications before one votes and not just voting out of emotion. While there are many of us who are not in jail because we did choose different paths, it does seem to be a travesty of justice for less violent crimes to receive harsher punishment than violent crimes. Let’s hope we can someday get back to rehabilitation instead of punishment; there are plenty of studies which indicate that juvenile brain development is far more delayed than we thought….esp. in the area of consequences.
These are my family members. Paul Rivers is my uncle. Stonney Rivers is my cousin. David Conyers is my Cousin. And newly convicted under the 3 strikes law is Larry Rivers..my older brother. This law needs to be changed immediately. The crimes committed and convicted for are not worth someones whole life. Our family has been working at this for 15+ years now. We WILL see the day when our family memebers are back with us. Believe that.