What if I suddenly have strikes on my record despite not really having any? 5 Answers as of February 09, 2012

Assault by means to produce great bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, and battery with serious bodily injury have been strike charges from the time the three strike law became affective. It is possible that you did not have strikes before you were convicted of the above charges, however, each one of the convictions above is a strike. You having strikes or not only becomes an issue if you are arrested for a misdemeanor or a felony in the future. If that happens then you need a good attorney to try to get the strikes struck.

Why not ask the Parole Board what evidence they have of any strikes? Prepare a professional-looking letter, with all citations identifying your case. State what information you have about your conviction, judgment and sentence. Send it to the Parole Board's legal counsel, certified mail. And a copy to the head of the Parole Board, also certified mail. If you are not satisfied you will have to assemble ALL the documents. Write in again to find out how to do that.

You are the same guy to whom I just responded in the previous question. Now, you have added a few more facts. Parole is a whole different matter that the court system. Doubtless, they are computing your time credits and release date, and they are extending it because they think you were sent there with a violent felony (strike). I still say you are going to have to get an attorney to review this. You appear to have one and possibly 2 "non-strikes" (245 "by means", and 243(d)), but the other 245 may be a strike. Still, without a GBI allegation to the 245 it would only be a "serious" felony and not a "violent" felony strike. The difference is that in the first instance, as a "serious" felony, you are otherwise entitled to "half-time," whereas "violent felonies" are 85%. This applies to the entire sentence even if the other counts to which you were sentenced were not strikes. The other issue parole is looking at is your "status" as a parolee and whether or not you qualify for "non-revocable" status. So you can see that this is very complicated and really needs an attorney to review it in depth.

California Penal Code section 245 covers the charges of Assault By Means Likely to Produce Great Bodily Injury ("GBI") AND Assault With a Deadly Weapon ("ADW"). The Assault crime where GBI was actually inflicted on a victim is a strike and always has been. Assault simply by "MEANS Likely to Produce" GBI, but where GBI was not actually inflicted, was not (and still is not) a strike. However, ADW, where the defendant PERSONALLY possessed the deadly weapon (not an accomplice) was added as a strike after the law went into effect. Many times, though, authorities (DA, CDC, etc.) will simply go back and claim a P.C. 245 conviction is a strike, without actually confirming whether the facts (and what was actually pled to) satisfies the requirements to be a strike. You can challenge this distinction, depending on whether it is a CDC designation, or a DA alleges it as a strike.

The legislators have changed the law. There are some crimes which when committed were not strikes but, due to that change, are strikes now.