Criminal
Mar. 22, 2003
Cruel Punishment
Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - For a century, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that grossly disproportionate sentences are cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. See, for example, Weems v. United States , 217 U.S. 349 (1910). If any sentence is grossly disproportionate, surely it is life imprisonment for shoplifting.
Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law
UC Berkeley School of Law
Erwin's most recent book is "Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism." He is also the author of "Closing the Courthouse," (Yale University Press 2017).
By Erwin Chemerinsky
For a century, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that grossly disproportionate sentences are cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. See, fo...
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