Juvenile Convictions Under California Three Strikes Law

For purposes of California’s three strikes law, juvenile adjudications are listed in California Welfare and Institutions Code Section 707(b). According to case law, a juvenile adjudication for a W&I 707 offense must constitute a violent felony or a serious felony in order to count as a strike. Here is a list of W&I 707 offenses:

• Murder.



• Arson, as provided in subdivision (a) or (b) of Section 451 of the Penal Code.



• Robbery.



• Rape with force, violence, or threat of great bodily harm.



• Sodomy by force, violence, duress, menace, or threat of great bodily harm.



• A 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.



• An offense specified in subdivision (a) of Section 289 of the Penal Code.



• Kidnapping for ransom.



• Kidnapping for purposes of robbery.



• Kidnapping with bodily harm.



• Attempted murder.



• Assault with a firearm or destructive device.



• Assault by any means of force likely to produce great bodily injury.



• Discharge of a firearm into an inhabited or occupied building.



• An offense described in Section 1203.09 of the Penal Code.



• An offense described in Section 12022.5 or 12022.53 of the Penal Code.



• A felony offense in which the minor personally used a weapon listed in subdivision (a) of Section 12020 of the Penal Code.



• A felony offense described in Section 136.1 or 137 of the Penal Code.



• Manufacturing, compounding, or selling one-half ounce or more of a salt or solution of a controlled substance specified in subdivision (e) of Section 11055 of the Health and Safety Code.



• A violent felony, as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 667.5 of the Penal Code, which also would constitute a felony violation of subdivision (b) of Section 186.22 of the Penal Code (relating to criminal street gang sentencing enhancements).



• Escape, by the use of force or violence, from a county juvenile hall, home, ranch, camp, or forestry camp in violation of subdivision (b) of Section 871 if 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.



• Kidnapping for purposes of sexual assault, as punishable in subdivision (b) of Section 209 of the Penal Code.



• Kidnapping as punishable in Section 209.5 of the Penal Code.



• The offense described in subdivision (c) of Section 12034 of the Penal Code (relating to "drive-by" shootings).



• The offense described in Section 12308 of the Penal Code.



• Voluntary manslaughter, as described in subdivision (a) of Section 192 of the Penal Code.

References:

¹People v. Leng, 71 Cal.App.4th 1, 8 (1999) [defendant’s prior juvenile adjudication for PC 245(a)(1) assault was not a strike where prosecutor failed to establish it was a violent or serious felony] ("Appellant received a second strike sentence based on the trial court's finding that his prior juvenile adjudication for assault was within Welfare and Institutions Code section 707, subdivision (b), and thus constituted a strike pursuant to section 667, subdivision (d)(3). However, the prosecution failed to introduce any evidence to establish the serious or violent nature of the underlying adjudication. Under the same set of circumstances, the court would not have been able to impose the same second strike sentence on an individual who had suffered a prior conviction for assault as an adult, unless the prosecution had proved the serious or violent nature of the prior offense. Thus, section 667, subdivision (d)(3) treats the personal liberty of similarly situated parties in a disparate manner.")

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