Tooby's California Post-Conviction Relief for Immigrants

(A)

Cruel or Unusual Punishment.  The cruel and unusual clause of the Eighth Amendment forbids penalties that are unusually severe, excessive, or disproportionate in reference to the offense and the culpability of the offender.[162]  However, “[o]utside the context of capital punishment, successful challenges to the proportionality of particular sentences have been exceedingly rare.”[163]

[162] Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584 (1977); Weems v. United States, 217 U.S. 349 (1910); see also In re Rodriguez (1975) 14 Cal.3d 639, 122 Cal.Rptr. 552; In re Lynch (1972) 8 Cal.3d 410, 105 Cal.Rptr. 217.

[163] Rummel v. Estelle, 445 U.S. 263, 272 (1980).