Because he had been convicted of several burglaries over the previous decades, when Ochoa was caught making fraudulent applications for food stamps and emergency housing vouchers in Los Angeles, he was tried under the Three Strikes law and given sentences on thirteen separate counts to be served in one of the toughest, most secure prisons in America. Ochoa's sentence, apart from its extravagant cruelty, may ultimately cost taxpayers as much as a million dollars.
A finales del año pasado había cerca de 7,000 personas cumpliendo sentencias de por vida en California por la aplicación de esa ley.