Robber's 3rd strike puts him away for life

A convicted bank robber was sentenced to life in prison Wednesdayby a judge who invoked the federal "three strikes and you're out" lawfor the first time in the Northern District of Illinois.

U.S. District Judge Charles P. Kocoras said he had no choice butto hand down the life sentence, but he also said he had no qualms.

"There is no question in my mind you have forfeited andsacrificed your right to live among men," Kocoras told James E.Washington.

"That is cold and brutal you would say that," repliedWashington, 53, of Chicago, who had two previous convictions, formurder and attempted murder.

Washington cried out and clutched his head as Kocoras imposedthe life sentence.

The "three strikes" provision was passed by Congress in August,1994. It mandates life in prison for a third violent felony.

Washington was convicted in April of robbing three Chicago banksin March and April, 1995. Without the repeat-offenders law, thatconviction might have earned him a 60-year sentence, said AssistantU.S. Attorney Mark Filip, who prosecuted the case with colleagueSheila Finnegan.

Washington's attorney, Mark Lipuma, argued that the sentencinglaw is unconstitutional because a life term for bank robbery is"cruel and unusual" and because it punishes someone twice for thesame crime. He also argued that the repeat-offenders law does notapply because the bank robberies were not violent felonies.

Washington told the judge, "I paid my debt to society in boththose cases," referring to the murder and attempted murderconvictions.

Kocoras brushed those arguments aside. "I don't mean to be cold,but the man you put in the ground is still in the ground," Kocorassaid.

Washington served 10 years for the 1973 shotgun murder of GlenWilliams of Chicago and was released in 1983. Shortly after hisrelease, he was convicted of two felony thefts and spent another 31/2 years in prison.

Soon after being released the second time, he was charged withand convicted of attempted murder for stabbing his father.Washington said he was trying to commit a mercy killing, but herobbed his father of a large sum of money and his father testifiedagainst him at the trial.

He served eight years and was released last year. That was whenhe robbed the banks.

"I haven't been an angel, nor have I been a devil," Washingtonsaid.

Kocoras said that in 15 years on the bench he has never found aperson to be all good or all bad. However, he told Washington, "Youcome as close as anyone I've ever had before me" to being all bad.

President Clinton proposed the "three strikes" provision inhis State of the Union address in January, 1994, and it was part ofthe anti-crime bill passed by Congress the next August.

About two dozen people nationwide have been sentenced to lifeunder the law since it was enacted, Filip said. More have beensentenced under similar state laws.

A law on the Illinois books since 1983 requires life sentencesfor anyone convicted three times of "Class X" crimes, such as armedrobbery or attempted murder.

California passed its "three-strikes" law in March, 1994, inresponse to the abduction and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas by arepeat offender. The following January, a career criminal faced a25-year-to-life sentence under the law for stealing a slice of pizzafrom a group of children in Torrance, Calif.