Gregg v. Georgia and Ewing v. California Supreme Court Cases Essay Example

Such provisions satisfied the court that a decision to impose death sentence in one case and not the other was not entirely arbitrary.

Ewing v. California

Issue

Gary Ewing was arrested in 2000 for stealing from a golf pro shop three golf clubs. At the time of arrest, Ewing was on probation due to two earlier robbery convictions. Ewing was charged and sentenced for 25 years imprisonment under the California state’s three strike law. Ewing appealed the sentence all the way to the Supreme Court arguing that the three strike law violated the Eighth Amendment of the U.S constitution. The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishments.

Rule

The supreme held that the California’s three strike law didn’t constitute a cruel and unusual punishment in that case, under the Eighth Amendment of the U.S constitution.

Application

To reach the conclusion, the Supreme Court on another earlier case which had held that the Eighth Amendment had a principle referred to as the ‘narrow proportionality principle’. This principle states that the harshness or degree of the punishment should be compared to the seriousness of the committed crime. The Supreme Court then determined that the Eighth Amendment did not mandate that the sentence given must be proportional to the crime committed; rather the punishment given must not be grossly disproportionate to the committed crime.

Conclusion

The Supreme Court held that Ewing’s sentence was justified by the California’s public-safety interest given that Ewing had a long history of serious crimes. Ewing was convicted of numerous crimes and even served nine sentences. Most of his crimes were even committed while on probation. The Supreme Court therefore, concluded that the sentence given to Ewing was not grossly disproportionate to the

crime he had committed and therefore, did not violate the Eighth Amendment.