THE LEGACY: MURDER & MEDIA, POLITICS & PRISONS

When 12-year-old Polly Klaas was abducted from her suburban California home in 1993, concerned neighbours launched one of the largests manhunts in history. Two months later, paroled felon Richard Allen Davis was arrested for her murder. Mike Reynolds, whose 17-year-old daughter had also been murdered by a paroled felon, transformed his own loss into a crusade for justice as the citizen proponent of the "Three Strikes Law", by which in the event of a third offence, a long jail sentence inevitably followed, irrespective of the nature of the crimes. The results were frustrating, until Polly Klaas's father agreed to speak out in support of "Three Strikes". Fueled by radio talk show hosts, Reynold's initiative became the single most talked-about issue on the state's agenda. But Klaas soon discovered that, among other flaws, this law impacted primarily on nonviolent offenders, and two months later he became the law's most ardent opponent. "Three Strikes" won and, by June 1998, one in five California inmates were sentenced under this law. Ninety percent of those sentenced had only one prior "strike" and were sentenced for nonviolent crimes in eighty percent of the cases. The Legacy iluminates both sides of this heated issue, and reveals how criminal justice policy is promoted in today's media-saturated political climate.