Hallinan Joins Battle Over 'Three Strikes' Ballot Proposal

SAN FRANCISCO -- Former San Francisco District Attorney Terrance Hallinan has joined the ballot campaign to amend the state's Three-Strikes law, according to the campaign's organizers.

The "Yes on 66" campaign seeks to change the law so that it would apply to only violent felonies.

The law was passed by both the state legislature and voters in 1994, and is the strictest of its kind in the nation. It requires a sentence of 25 years to life for anyone who was previously convicted of two serious or violent felonies and then is convicted of a third felony of any kind.

Hallinan, who is now the campaign's co-chair, argued that the three-strikes law has filled state jails with nonviolent offenders. San Francisco County, which he said has used the law less than any other county in the state, has had the second-biggest decrease in crime statewide.

"This is absolute proof that the three-strikes law is not a deterrent to crime," Hallinan said in a statement.

Hallinan served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1988 and 1992 and was elected district attorney in 1995 and 1999.