What is the effect of habitual criminal law on a defendant's criminal record?

The reason is obvious: "We see no reason why a first conviction under the habitual criminal law which increases the penalty for the felony conviction with which it is associated should be treated as wiping the slate clean and permitting the defendant to start over again as though he had never been [13 Cal.App.4th 1364] convicted of any felony. Where the very purpose of the habitual criminal act is to penalize the repetition of criminal conduct, we find nothing unfair, much less unconstitutional, in using the same criminal conviction as the basis for the increased punishment for a subsequent felony conviction." (State v. Losieau (1967) 182 Neb. 367, 154 N.W.2d 762, 763-764.) ¹⁴