California Supreme Court
Dec. 16, 2025
Two deaths from one act don't equal two strikes, high court rules
The California Supreme Court ruled that a single act of vehicular manslaughter that killed two people cannot be counted as two prior strikes under the Three Strikes law, rejecting a decade-old appellate precedent and ordering resentencing in a DUI case.
The state Supreme Court ruled Monday that killing two people -- a mother and her young child -- should not count as two strikes under the Three Strikes sentencing law, reversing a 3rd District Court of Appeal panel decision and disapproving a 2015 appellate court precedent.
The question in the case is whether a single criminal act - vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated that killed two people in 2002 - should count as two strikes. Justice Leondra R. Kruger, writing for a unani...
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