Do Juvenile Offenses Count as Strikes?
Juvenile offenses may be counted as a strike provided the juvenile was at least 16 when the crime was committed and the crime was one of the crimes listed below.
- Murder.
- Arson of an inhabited building.
- Robbery while armed with a dangerous or deadly weapon.
- Rape with force or violence or threat of great bodily harm.
- Sodomy by force, violence or threat of great bodily harm.
- Lewd or lascivious act as provided in subdivision (b) of Section 288 of the Penal Code.
- Oral copulation by force, violence, duress, menace, or threat of great bodily harm.
- Any offense specified in Section 289 of the Penal Code.
- Kidnapping for ransom.
- Kidnapping for purpose of robbery.
- Kidnapping with bodily harm.
- Assault with intent to murder or attempted murder.
- Assault with a firearm or destructive device.
- Assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury.
- Discharge of a firearm into an inhabited or occupied building.
- Any offense described in Section 1203.9 of the Penal Code.
- Any offense described in Section 12022.5 of the Penal Code.
- Any felony offense in which the minor personally used a weapon listed in subdivision (a) of Section 12020 of the Penal Code.
- Any felony offense described in Section 136.1 or 137 of the Penal Code.
- Manufacturing, compounding, or selling one-half ounce or more of any salt or solution of a controlled substance specified in subdivision (e) of Section 11055 of the Health and Safety Code.
- Any violent felony, as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 667.5 of the Penal Code, which would also constitute a felony violation of subdivision(b) of Section 186.22 of the Penal Code.
- Escape, by the use of force or violence, from any county juvenile hall, home, ranch, camp, or forestry camp in violation of subdivision (b) of Section 871 where great bodily injury is intentionally inflicted upon an employee of the juvenile facility during the commission of the escape.
- Torture as described in Sections 206 and 206.1 of the Penal Code.
- Aggravated mayhem as described in Section 205 of the Penal Code.
- Carjacking, as described in Section 215 of the Penal Code, while armed with a dangerous or deadly weapon.
A common misconcepiton of the Three Strikes Law is that to be sentenced to life in prison you must be convicted of three strike offenses. This is not the law. If a person has two prior strike convicitons and is subsequently convicted of any felony, the potential sentence is 25 years to life. Two prior strike convictions plus any felony conviction subjects a person to a potential life sentence.