Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
During the week of 4/27/98, the United States Supreme Court will hear
oral arguments in case summarized below.
Monge v. California
No. 97-6146
Court below: Supreme Court of California
At issue in this constitutional law case is whether the double jeopardy
clause of the Fifth Amendment applies to noncapital sentencing hearings
at
which the trial court must find that the defendant has a prior
conviction
for a second-strike offense.
Monge was convicted in 1995 of a drug-related felony. Under
California's
three-strikes law, after a conviction for a serious felony, a second
felony conviction sentence may be doubled under the second-strike
enhancement provision. Monge was also convicted of assault in 1992, but
assault is not considered a felony that would trigger the three-strikes
rule unless it was committed with a deadly weapon or serious bodily
injury
had been inflicted. At the sentencing hearing, the state failed to
introduce any evidence to support either element for a prior serious
felony. The court below remanded for rehearing and held that the double
jeopardy clause was inapplicable in such sentencing proceedings.
--
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