Lower Court Holding
Decision of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that there "shall not be … cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." At issue here is whether this amendment proscribes a sentence of 50 years to life for two shoplifting offenses involving nine videotapes worth a total of $153.54 by a defendant with several previous convictions for nonviolent offenses. A California court of appeal, in its 1997 decision affirming Leandro Andrade’s conviction, concluded that it did not. Review of Supreme Court Case Law In Rummel v. Estelle (1980), the Supreme Court upheld a sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole for…
