This statute, the harshest of California's many recidivist provisions, enhances by five years the sentence of an offender convicted of a "serious felony" for each prior conviction of such a felony. It does not grant the sentencing judge the discretion to disregard a prior serious felony conviction for enhancement purposes, and covers offenses ranging from burglary to first degree murder. One of the statute's gravest defects is its failure to limit penalty enhancements to those offenders who have proven exceptionally likely to commit further crimes. Instead, it imposes penalty enhancements on all recidivists who commit enhanceable offenses. A more enlightened statute would have a two-tiered approach that considers both the nature of the crimes committed by an offender; and the likelihood that the particular offender will commit certain further crimes. The list of offenses should be determined on the basis of two factors: the seriousness of prior and principal crimes and the likelihood of recidivism associated with each crime. 304 footnotes