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Thomas v. Maryland12/6/1993
State, 82 Md. 527, 533-34, 34 A. 246 (1896).
In comparing the punishment to the offense, a court must consider the specific facts of the case, not only as to the crime but also as to the criminal .
As to excessiveness (proportionality), that can never be litigated in the abstract but must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. That an extremely lengthy prison sentence might be disproportionately excessive for most common law assault convictions does not establish, as a bright-line formula, that it would be disproportionately excessive for all common law assault convictions. We measure proportionality not by comparing the sentence with the label of the crime (that the sentence be within legal limits is a legal problem, not a constitutional problem) but by comparing the sentence with the behavior of the criminal and the consequences of his act. As an abstract proposition, no term of years for common law assault is per se and universally unconstitutional.
Walker v. State, 53 Md. App. 171, 193, 452 A.2d 1234 (1982). See also State v. Bartlett, 171 Ariz. 302, 307 n. 6, 830 P.2d 823, 828 n. 6, cert. denied, U.S. , 113 S.Ct. 511, 121 L.Ed.2d 445 (1992) (it is the circumstances of the crime and the criminal that must be considered in determining gross disproportion).
A criminal sentencing decision is never one easily made, and involves a plethora of considerations, both obvious and subtle. Thus, it would be illogical to conduct any review of a sentence using stringent and rigid standards. Only rarely should a reviewing court interfere in the sentencing decision at all, especially because the sentencing court is virtually always better informed of the particular circumstances. Thus, we emphasize that challenges based on proportionality will be seriously entertained only where the punishment is truly egregious. We recognize, however, that occasionally a sentence violates even that difficult standard, and the federal and state constitutions provide protection against such a punishment.
B.
Applying these principles to the case before us, we first consider the challenge to the 20-year sentence imposed
for the battery of April 2. The sentence of 20 years for a battery that was literally no more than a slap appears, on threshold inquiry of the relevant circumstances, to be an impermissibly disproportionate punishment. Although marital abuse is not to be taken lightly in any form, the battery in this case did not result in any lasting physical injury, and cannot be considered legally "serious." The sentence is not the result of a recidivist history. The sentence was not based on any legislative or judicial decision to impose severe penalties to deter domestic violence because of its societal impact. In fact, the record indicates that the sentence was based on speculation by the trial judge concerning the life span of the victim. None of those considerations lend any legitimacy to a sentence that seems to be grossly disproportionate.
That conclusion is buttressed by consideration of other aggravating and mitigating factors and the inter- and intra-jurisdictional analysis. Although this Court and the Court of Special Appeals have sustained 20-year sentences for common law assault against both constitutional and legal attacks, Walker, supra, 53 Md. App. at 195, 199, 452 A.2d 1234, each of those cases involved assaults that were far more violent and aggravated than those presented in this case. In other cases,
sentences of less than 20 years for assault were upheld, while the facts were far more aggravated than the domestic viole
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