One or Two Strikes? Appeals Court Says Two For Attacks Thirty Minutes Apart.
There are few laws in California that have generated as much criticism and debate as California’s “Three Strikes Law.” Indeed, in late 2012, voters approved Prop 36 to soften the criteria for saddling a defendant with a third strike and even allowing those with such a third strike to appeal their sentence based on a third strike.
When one victim is violently attacked by a defendant sufficient to merit a “strike,” but there is a break in the attack, the issue becomes whether there is really two attacks and thus two strikes, or just one attack and one strike.
On the evening of July 20, 2010, Harley Paul Finney stabbed Chad Robinson more than ten times. Robinson almost died. During Finney’s trial in San Luis Obispo Superior Court, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on the attempted murder charge, but did return a guilty verdict for assault with a deadly weapon (Penal Code
