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Thomas v. Maryland12/6/1993
inds frequent mention in our Eighth Amendment jurisprudence. By contrast, our decisions recognize that we lack clear objective standards to distinguish between sentences for different terms of years. 'It is clear that a 25-year sentence generally is more severe than a 15-year sentence, but in most cases it would be difficult to decide that the former violates the Eighth Amendment while the latter does not[.]' Although 'no penalty is per se constitutional,' the relative lack of objective standards concerning terms of imprisonment has meant that '" utside the context of capital punishment, successful challenges to the proportionality of particular sentences exceedingly rare."'" (Emphasis in original) (citations omitted).
Harmelin, 501 U.S. at , 111 S.Ct. at 2705, 115 L.Ed.2d at 868-69 (quoting Solem v. Helm, 463 U.S. 277, 289-90, 294, 103 S.Ct. 3001, 3009-10, 3012, 77 L.Ed.2d 637, 649, 652 (1983) (footnote omitted), in turn quoting Rummel v. Estelle, 445 U.S. 263, 272, 100 S.Ct. 1133, 1138, 63 L.Ed.2d 382, 390 (1980)). Longer sentences than those imposed in the instant
case have been upheld for conduct which some may consider less reprehensible than Mr. Thomas's violent attacks on his spouse. See Hutto v. Davis, 454 U.S. 370, 102 S.Ct. 703, 70 L.Ed.2d 556 (1982) (holding a sentence of twenty years for possession with intent to distribute nine ounces of marijuana was not cruel and unusual punishment and that an extensive proportionality review was unnecessary); Rummel, 445 U.S. at 285, 100 S.Ct. at 1145, 63 L.Ed.2d at 397-98 (holding mandatory life sentence pursuant to Texas recidivist statute for obtaining $120.75 by false pretenses did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment where defendant was previously convicted of two other nonviolent crimes -- fraudulent use of a credit card for $80.00 worth of goods and passing a forged check in the amount of $28.36). It is noteworthy that the majority does not analogize to, rely on, or even cite any case from any jurisdiction which reverses any sentence as being cruel and unusual punishment.
There is no question that the twenty-year sentence in the instant case was harsh. But even if the sentence was harsh and even if the three-judge panel that reviewed the sentence should have reduced it, that does not make the sentence cruel and unusual punishment. No prior twenty-year sentence for the crime of assault and battery has ever been held to be cruel and unusual punishment, and there are at least six reported appellate decisions sustaining twenty-year sentences for assault and battery against such constitutional attacks. When
we consider the totality of circumstances including that the assault and battery was committed by a man with two prior convictions for the same crime, who continued with escalating ferocity to assault his wife and who we may assume, if released, would carry out his threats to kill his wife, this sentence does not warrant being the first sentence ever reversed by this Court as cruel and unusual punishment.
I respectfully dissent from Part II, III, A and B of the Court's opinion.
Judge RODOWSKY has authorized me to state that he joins in the views expressed in Part II in this dissenting opinion.
ROBERT M. BELL, Judge, concurring and dissenting.
I am in complete agreement with the analysis employed, and the decision reached, by the majority with respect to the April 2nd battery. I, therefore, join the majority opinion in that regard. Although I agree with much of the analysis, I am unable to agree with the result reached by the majority with respect to the April 8th battery. As to that, then, I dissent.
The petitioner received a thi
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