Resentencing Continues Under Law Correcting Harsh 'Three-Strikes' Convictions

by Paul Kiefer

(This article was previously published at PubliCola and has been reprinted with permission.)

On the afternoon of Friday, June 18, 63-year-old Raymond Ben became the fifth person from King County to be resentenced under a new state law intended to correct decades of harsh mandatory sentences by retroactively removing second-degree robbery from the list of offenses targeted by the state's "three-strikes" statute, which imposes a life sentence without parole for so-called "persistent offenders."

The law requires prosecutors to request resentencing hearings by July 25 for anyone currently serving a life sentence for a "three-strikes" case involving a second-degree robbery — which, unlike other three-strikes offenses like rape and manslaughter, typically doesn't involve a weapon or injury to another person. The law made at least 114 people across Washington eligible for resentencing, including 29 people from King County — many of whom, like Ben, have spent a decade or more in prison.

In 2001, a King County judge sentenced Ben to life in prison after he stole a computer from a secure building at the University of Washington and punched three bystanders who tried to stop him; because of previous convictions for burglary and second-degree robbery, Ben fell into Washington's "persistent offender" category.

Ben is one of a dozen inmates for whom the unit requested resentencing hearings before the July deadline. Two of those hearings — for 50-year-old Michael Peters and 59-year-old Rene Haydel — also took place on Friday.

Of the dozen inmates scheduled for resentencing before July 25, three — including Ben, who has cancer — received priority because of health concerns. Rickey Mahaney, the first person resentenced in King County under the new law, left the Coyote Ridge Correctional Facility in Franklin County on June 1 to move to hospice care.

Once the Washington Department of Corrections approves Ben's reentry plan, he has arranged to join his sister's family after his release. But not everyone resentenced under the new law can turn to family members for support, which has forced the prosecutor's office to rely on nonprofit organizations — the Seattle Clemency Project, among others — to organize housing, employment, and other elements of reentry plans for several inmates who would otherwise have no support system after their release.

Carla Lee, who leads the sentence review unit within the King County Prosecutor's Office, told PubliCola that many other prosecutors' offices in Washington won't be able to provide backup options to those they resentence. "If someone in another county doesn't have family to help them get back on their feet after their release," she said, "there's no guarantee that they'll have another option."

Erica C. Barnett is a feminist, an urbanist, and an obsessive observer of politics, transportation, and the quotidian inner workings of City Hall.

Paul Faruq Kiefer is a journalist, historian, and born-and-bred Seattleite. He has published work withKUOW,North Carolina Public Radio, andThe Progressivemagazine, and he is currently working on a podcast forKUAFin Fayetteville, Arkansas. Paul reports on police accountability for PubliCola.

Featured Image: King County Courthouse by Joe Mabel via Wikimedia Commons (under a Creative Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 license).