Safe Havens

Any other significant sentence elements must also be listed, such as any sentence enhancements, probation restrictions, registration requirements, and the effect of the conviction as a prior conviction in any future prosecution.  These factors may well play an important part in plea bargaining, since they affect the length of imprisonment that the client will in fact serve in custody (even if technically they are not counted as part of the sentence imposed for immigration purposes), and the prosecution and defendant will therefore care a great deal about the length of the punishment.  For example, a favorite safe haven in California for domestic violence and some sex offenses is the offense of witness dissuasion, which does not trigger any ground of deportation.  The offense, however, constitutes a “strike” under California Three Strikes law, which has the effect of doubling any future prison sentence, and carrying the defendant half-way to a Three Strikes sentence of 25 years to life for the third felony conviction after two previous “strikes.”  This is something the prosecution typically cares a great deal about, and makes this immigration-harmless disposition attractive to the prosecution.  See § 9.14, infra.