>>"... A person who is convicted of 5 misdemeanors (and I would be amenable to certain misdemeanors) should have their charge elevated to a felony status...."
>>
>>Very dangerous line of thinking. For example, there is a guy in california who got busted for stealing a snickers candybar from a gas station (shoplifting - he was hungry). Well that was his 3rd misdemanor, so they upped it to a felony - which made it his 3rd felony (3rd felony in a LOT of years) - which means the 3 strikes rule applys - so the guy got a life sentence - for stealing a freakn candybar! And you know what? That guys is going to be there until someone changes the law. This is just one example that's become more popular than some of the others - but there are 1000's of guys in the USA that have been totaly screwed because of thinking like this.
>
>If this is like other cases in the United States, if the law changes it will only effect those who have been arrested after the law goes into effect and not those already in jail.

That depends on how the law is written - if its 'retroactive'. For example, the 17 year old teenager that had consitual sex with a 15 year old girl and got 10 years for it. Everyone realized how wrong this was, so congress made a law so he could get out. Sure enough - the lawmakers screwed up and didn't make it retro so the kid is still stuck in prision. Well yesterday they actually fixed that problem so the kid could get out - and sure enough now there is some procesutor who's filed an appeal so the kid is STILL stuck in there. Here's some info on that mess:
http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/632/06-11-2007/544b0005d0cc39f4.html


>I remember my mom told me about a case during the depression. In Oakland, California, a man was hungry and stole a loaf of bread. The bread was 3 loaves for five cents. A policeman was near by and heard someone yell, “Stop thief”. The policeman shot and killed the thief. Some people will agree that any thief should be shot. Others will not.