TALLAHASSEE - Some repeat felons who were given longer sentences under the state's "three strikes" law before it was found unconstitutional last year should have their prison terms thrown out, their attorneys argued Friday before the state Supreme Court.
The Legislature overstepped its bounds when it passed new laws that restored the sentencing provisions and applied the punishments retroactively, argued Matthew Conigliaro, a lawyer for one of the defendants, Cedric Green.
The original law violated the state Constitution because it dealt with too many subjects, so the Legislature split the measure up into five bills. The restored guidelines said tougher sentences should apply retroactively to anyone convicted of repeat or particularly violent crimes since the original law was enacted in 1999.
It's not clear how many criminals were convicted and sentenced under the law in that time, before the new laws were passed.
Green and another man, Corey Franklin, who were sentenced for separate crimes in that period, are challenging their sentences.
Normally, lawmakers can't apply laws to people's actions before they were passed, because those people wouldn't have known their behavior would be illegal.
But in this case, attorneys for the state argued, repeat felons did have an understanding that the state intended to put them away for a long time. Lawmakers had already passed the three strikes law, and their plan to rectify the technical flaw and restore its provisions got a lot of media attention.
Green "was on fair warning," argued Senior Assistant Attorney General Katherine Blanco.
The five separate laws require minimum prison terms for violent and repeat criminals, stiffening sentences for habitual criminals who commit their third violent crime. Also coming in for harsher sentences are marijuana traffickers, sex offenders and those who assault the elderly and police.
