By Kim Murphy
Orlando Sentinel
SEATTLE — Stevan Dozier was 25 when he punched a woman in the face to snatch her purse, another episode in the cash-for-crack crime wave that plagued America’s big cities during the 1980s.
Over the next eight years, he would be arrested three more times for the same thing. But just before his last conviction, Washington in 1993 became the first state to pass a law requiring criminals with three serious felony convictions to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Dozier, who never caused a serious injury or used a weapon, disappeared behind bars without the possibility of parole.
“I went through a period of depression going into Walla Walla State Penitentiary,” said Dozier, 47. “I had been to jail before, but I always went in with release dates. Your vision is, ‘I just gotta make it to this date.’ But then, there was no date.”
In May, Gov. Chris Gregoire signed Dozier’s appeal for clemency, making him the first three-strikes lifer in the nation to be pardoned.
Fifteen years after voters and legislatures across the country began embracing the three-strikes concept, many states apply those laws more sparingly. Prosecutors and judges often use their discretion to avoid charging a defendant whose past consists of minor robberies or assault convictions with a third-strike offense.
“We have exercised more discretion as we’ve had more experience with the law,” said Daniel Satterberg, King County’s prosecuting attorney, who said he plans to bring clemency petitions to the governor.
“These were not sophisticated, highly planned robberies, nor did they cause extraordinary harm to anybody. They were street robberies and, 15 years later, I think it is appropriate to review whether their continued detention is warranted.”
Dozier said finding himself in state prison with no prospect of leaving marked the beginning of his next life.
“Pain will make a strong man grow. Loss will make you reflect,” he said last month, taking a break from his Seattle job of helping at-risk youths.
“I picked myself off the ground and I started looking at myself. What had led me down this road? Drugs were a big contributing factor. Drugs and laziness. So I said, ‘I’m not going to do drugs no more,’ ” he said.
Copyright 2009 Sentinel Communications Co.