State v. Proctor - Kansas Judicial Branch

Amendment rests on "the relationship between the nature and number of offenses and the
severity of the punishment inflicted upon the offender. 445 U.S. at 288. In turn, judicial
review necessarily takes account of a collective "sense of justice" that asks whether the
convict "deserves such punishment" and not simply whether it serves "a utilitarian goal."
445 U.S. at 288.
Justice Powell identified three factors to be considered: (1) the nature of the
offense, including circumstances specific to the offender and his or her criminal history,
445 U.S. at 295; (2) comparable sentencing schemes in other states, 445 U.S. at 296-99;
and (3) punishments the same state metes out for other offenses, 445 U.S. at 300-01.
Justice Powell viewed those factors and the standard of "gross disproportionality" as
sufficient safeguards against excessive intrusion into a state's legislative autonomy. 445
U.S. at 306. He submitted the courts could not shirk enforcement of the Eighth
Amendment in the name of deference. 445 U.S. at 303-04. After applying those
standards, Justice Powell concluded Rummel's sentence rose to the level of cruel and
unusual punishment. 445 U.S. at 307.
Before moving on, we pause for a historical digression to Weems v. United States,
217 U.S. 349, 30 S. Ct. 544, 54 L. Ed. 793 (1910), something of an odd case cited in both
the majority and dissenting opinions in Rummel and, in passing, in the developing law of
proportionality of noncapital sentences under the Eighth Amendment. Weems was a
government clerk in the Philippines sentenced under its laws for falsifying an official
record to show payments to workers at two lighthouses. As the majority in Weems
characterized the offense, it required only the making of a false entry in a government
record without regard to any financial gain or loss. The clerk received a sentence known
as cadena temporal requiring that he be imprisoned for 15 years, shackled continuously
at both the hands and feet, and made to perform "hard and painful labor." Upon release,
he was subject to an array of civil disabilities.
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