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Criminal Law Keyed to Gershowitz
Rummel v. Estelle, Corrections Director
Citation:
445 U.S. 263, 100 S.Ct. 1133, 63 L.Ed.2d 382.Facts
The petitioner was convicted of three felonies on separate occasions. The first involved fraudulent use of a credit card to obtain $80 worth of goods or services. The second involved a forged check in the amount of $28.36. The third involved obtaining $120.75 by false pretenses. At the time, Texas had a “recidivist statute,” which provided that that “[whoever] shall have been three times convicted of a felony less than capital shall on such third conviction be imprisoned for life in the penitentiary.” As a result, the trial court imposed a life sentence.
He appealed. The Texas appellate courts rejected his appeal. The petitioner then filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, arguing that his life sentence was so disproportionate to the crimes he had committed as to constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The District Court rejected the petition, and the Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court’s denial. He is now in the Supreme Court of the United States.
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