Strong

I. Introduction

The California Supreme Court has ruled that for a trial court to depart from the sentencing scheme of the “Three Strikes” law, “the defendant [must] be deemed [to be] outside the scheme’s spirit, in whole or in part,” in light of “the particulars of his background, character, and prospects” and the nature and circumstances of his present felonies and strikes. (People v. Williams (1998) 17 CalAth 148, 161 [ 69 Cal.Rptr.2d 917 , 948 P.2d 429 ] (Williams).)

In this case, we are confronted with the question whether a trial court abuses its discretion when it concludes that a career criminal is outside the spirit of the Three Strikes law, and accordingly dismisses that defendant’s sole strike—a prior conviction of assault with a deadly weapon, inflicting great bodily injury. The trial court in this case reasoned that the strike “appealed] to be out of character” with the defendant’s nonviolent criminal record, and that the 41-year-old defendant had “reached an age where statistically he pose[d] a reduced risk to society.”

We shall reverse. The defendant here had a 22-year criminal record, comprised of six felonies within the past eight years and 12…