three strikes, you're out

three strikes, you're out

n. recent (beginning 1994) legislation enacted in several states (and proposed in many others, as well as possible Federal law) which makes life-terms (or extremely long terms without parole) mandatory for criminals who have been convicted of a third felony (as in California) or of three felonies involving violence, rape, use of a deadly weapon, or molestation. The impetus for "three strikes, you're out" has come from public outrage over murders, assaults, rapes, and child molestations by released ex-convicts with records of repeated violent crimes. Concern has been expressed about the provisions in some of bills which prohibit "plea bargaining" of any charged felony down to a misdemeanor, which deny any judicial discretion in sentencing, and do not distinguish between violent felonies and cases of non-violent crimes which involve small amounts of money.