3 Strikes and You're Out is Not Immutable

In Apple Valley, Minnesota, second graders at bat in their youth baseball league get five strikes, not three.

Even in baseball, the rule of “three strikes and you’re out” is not immutable.

This point needs to be considered when evaluating California’s notorious “three strikes” law that sends those convicted of a third felony to prison for a sentence of from 25 years to life. Even if the third offense was shoplifting.

A Stanford law professor, Michael Romano, calls it “the worst criminal law in the country.” I think he’s right.