  We study the Newton stratification on SL_3(F), where F is a Laurent power
series field. We provide a formula for the codimensions of the Newton strata
inside each component of the affine Bruhat decomposition on SL_3(F). These
calculations are related to the study of certain affine Deligne-Lusztig
varieties. In particular, we describe a method for determining which of these
varieties is non-empty in the case of SL_3(F).
