3-Strikes : Possible elimination of a strike. Fees: $10,000

California’s 3-Strikes went into effect on March 7, 1994. Its purpose is to increase punishment for persons convicted of a felony who have previously been convicted of one or more "serious" or "violent" felonies. A "serious" or "violent" felony prior is commonly knows as a "strike" prior.

A defendant with two or more "strike" priors (a third striker) faces a minimum of 25-years-to-life in prison.  After serving the 25-years on a 25-to-life sentence, he is then eligible for, but not guaranteed, parole. Whether and when an eligible life prisoner is paroled is up to the Board of Parole Hearings (BPH). The BPH is made up of members (mostly x-law enforcemenr staff) appointed by the Governor and they tend to be very conservative about paroling eligible life inmates. Since no 3-Strike life inamtes has become eligible for parole and none will until 2019, no one knows how the BPH will deal with 3-Strike inmates.

In the mean time, it is possible to eliminate a previous “Strikes,” and possibly get a sentence reduced. 

There are a few ways to potentially eliminate previous “Strikes” which have been utilized by the sentencing court.  Among those which have been successful are:  ineffective assistance of trial counsel (IAC) , inadequate proof of priors, a trial judge determining facts of the prior offense, when those facts must be determined by a jury, breach of a previous plea bargain, assigning multiple “Strikes” for an offense which involved a single course of action, a conviction from a different jurisdiction which does not qualify under California law as a “Strike.”  Each case must be individually evaluated, based on its own unique facts.  If you have been sentenced illegally, a court always maintains jurisdiction to correct that illegal sentence.

Commitment offenses Case Analysis, after trial. Fees: $5,000

Our office realizes that financial resources for inmates and their family/friends may be limited.  But, on the other hand, we cannot do all our work on a pro bono basis, or we could not survive as a firm.  As an alternative plan, our office is willing to perform an analysis of the issues in your case for a fee of $5,000.00.  This includes a review of all pertinent documents (transcripts, legal pleadings to date, etc.), followed by a thorough, exhaustive written analysis of the potential of success on appeal (usually via a habeas corpus petition).  This fee does not include preparation of your appellate pleadings, but will give you information from which you can make a decision whether to invest further financial resources to pursue your claim(s) in the appropriate court(s).  There would be additional fees to prepare and litigate the pleadings.  If the client decides to proceed with the case, the amount charged for the evaluation is applied to that retainer.  The fee for an evaluation is $5,000.  There is another fee of approximately $6,000.00, to prepare and litigate the pleadings through all levels (Superior, Appellate and Supreme) of the California State courts.