SUPREME COURT TO RULE ON 'THREE-STRIKES' LAWS

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court said Monday it will review whether some
three-strikes-and-out sentencing laws result in unconstitutionally harsh
prison terms, such as up to life behind bars for shoplifting videotapes
from Kmart.

The court agreed to hear appeals involving two California thieves sentenced
to terms ranging from 25 years to life for small-time crimes that might
otherwise have meant just a few months in jail.

The Supreme Court will consider whether long sentences were
unconstitutionally cruel or unusual punishment for a heroin addict who
shoplifted videotapes worth $153 and an AIDS patient who shoved three golf
clubs down his pants leg and tried to walk out of a pro shop.

The court's eventual ruling could be limited to California, or it could
make a more general statement about how far states may go in using similar
laws to win long prison terms for relatively minor crimes.

Twenty-six states and the federal government have some version of a
three-strikes law, which typically allow a life prison term or something
close to it for a criminal convicted of a third felony.

Critics say the laws are too harsh and inflexible in general, and
particularly so in California, which has the nation's strictest
three-strikes law. It requires a sentence of 25 years to life in prison a
third felony conviction.