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Though this law has been on the books in California since 1872 , its existence took on new importance after the state's voters approved a Three Strikes Law in a 1994 Referendum , when it appeared on the ballot as Proposition 184. In certain cases, a person with two prior felony convictions has been charged with a third felony for committing a minor Shoplifting crime. If one of the two previous felony charges had involved stealing in any manner then the shoplifting conviction, thus upgraded to a felony, would result in a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life in prison under the three-strikes law.

This scenario has aroused harsh criticism, not only throughout the United States , but also globally; several court challenges to its inclusion in the three-strikes law were pending as of 2004 , but a ballot measure that would have eliminated it, known as Proposition 66, was rejected by California voters on November 2 , 2004 ; the measure was opposed by most law-enforcement entities in the state, and also by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger .