Edom and the three strike law
In 1992 Douglas Walker, who had been in prison twice before he turned 30, snatched the handbag of 18-year-old Kimber Reynolds, when she resisted, he shot her. Mike Reynolds, Kimber’s dad, held her hand as she died and he made a promise to ensure that no one else would fall victim to people like Walker. What followed was a campaign to initiate a law that would ensure that people who had committed three crimes would be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. The repeat offender policy became known as the three-strikes law. Mr. Reynolds campaigned to get the law passed. The way it works in many states is that if an offender’s first two convictions are for violent or serious crimes including murder, rape, or armed robbery, then the third crime, no matter what it is, counts as the third strike. The idea is that if a person commits two serious crimes and then still isn’t a law-abiding citizen, they need to be in jail forever. In most cases, the judge has no discretion in the matte