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Ninth Circuit rejects Eighth Amendment challenge to LWOP for second offense of child molestation

By Douglas A. Berman

The Ninth Circuit has an interesting habeas sentencing opinion today in Norris v. Morgan, No. 08-35645 (9th Cir. Sept. 23, 2010) (available here).  Here is how it gets started: Brach E. Norris was convicted by a jury of child molestation in the first-degree. Norris had also had been convicted of child molestation ten years earlier. The State of Washington?s ?two strikes? law for repeat sex offenders provides for a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, and Norris was so sentenced.  Invoking the Eighth Amendment?s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, Norris challenges his sentence as grossly disproportionate to his offense. The Washington Court of Appeals denied Norris?s claim, holding his life-without-parole sentence not grossly disproportionate to his crime...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 23, 2010 (boomark / email).