California Three Strikes Sentencing

California Three Strikes Sentencing – Author Information

J. Richard Couzens is a retired superior court judge, having served on the Placer County bench for over 30 years. He remains on full-time active assignment in the Assigned Judges Program. Judge Couzens was Editor-in-Chief of the University of California, Davis Law Review, and was a law clerk to California Supreme Court Chief Justices Roger Traynor and Donald Wright. He has served on the California Judicial Council and the California State-Federal Judicial Council. Judge Couzens has been actively involved in many Judicial Council advisory committees, including a post as Chair of the Criminal Law Standing Advisory Committee. He has written and taught on a wide variety juvenile and criminal law topics. He has been a regular member of the faculty of the B.E. Witkin Judicial College since 1995. Judge Couzens was selected as the 2008 Jurist of the Year by the Judicial Council.

Tricia A. Bigelow is an Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division Eight. Before her elevation, she was a trial judge on the Los Angeles Superior Court for 10 years and the Los Angeles Municipal Court for three years. She worked for the California Attorney General’s Office in the Criminal Appeals, Writs and Trials section of the Los Angeles Office before her appointment to the bench. While there, she was a member of the Special Prosecutions Unit, a team of prosecutors who worked collaboratively with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office and the United States Attorney’s Office in the prosecution of white collar criminals. She also supervised deputy attorneys general in their appellate work and oversaw the trials in the office. Justice Bigelow is active in legal education and served as Chair of the New Judge Education Committee, where she acted as Dean of the annual two-week judicial college with the California Center for Judicial Education. She was also Chair of the Criminal Law Education Committee and has written and taught extensively on felony sentencing, sex crimes, criminal jury instructions and judicial ethics.

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