‘Pillowcase Rapist’ Christopher Hubbart Released to Home East of Palmdale

[Xithras]

9. He committed them before sentencing guidelines were stiffened.

He committed his last rape in 1990. Three strikes and other legal changes that made rape a crime eligible for a life sentence weren't passed until 1994 and later. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) you can't go back and resentence someone after the fact.

By the way, this article (and many others) contain an error. He wasn't locked up in 1996 because he raped again. He was locked up in 1996 because he told his parole officer that he felt like raping again, and his parole officer utilized a California law to forcibly detain him in a mental hospital, where he has been ever since. Unfortunately, under that law, the only thing he has to do to be set free is to convince a judge that his mental instability has passed. Because he wasn't actually in prison for a crime, the law didn't allow him to be detained if the state couldn't demonstrate that he was an "imminent danger".

In all probability, the guy will rape again. And under the new guidelines, he'll spend the rest of his life in prison afterward.