''Solem v. Helm'', 463 U.S. 277 (1983), was a United States Supreme Court case concerned with the scope of the Eighth Amendment protection from cruel and unusual punishment. Mr. Helm, who had written a check from a fictitious account and had reached his seventh nonviolent

felony A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...

conviction since 1964, received a mandatory sentence, under

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

law at that time, to life in prison with no

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

. Petitioner Mr. Solem was the warden of the South Dakota State Penitentiary at the time. The Court overturned the sentence on the grounds that it was "cruel and unusual".

Justice Powell Lewis Franklin Powell Jr. (September 19, 1907 – August 25, 1998) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1972 to 1987. Born in Suffolk, Virginia, he gradua ...

wrote for the five-member majority, while

Chief Justice Burger Warren Earl Burger (September 17, 1907 – June 25, 1995) was an American attorney and jurist who served as the 15th chief justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Burger graduated from the St. Paul Colleg ...

wrote for the four-member dissent. Justice Powell reasoned that Helm had "received the penultimate sentence for relatively minor criminal conduct." Chief Justice Burger's concerns reflected his

strict constructionist In the United States, strict constructionism is a particular legal philosophy of judicial interpretation that limits or restricts such interpretation only to the exact wording of the law (namely the Constitution). Strict sense of the term ...

attitude: "Suppose several states punish severely a crime that the Court views as trivial or petty? I can see no limiting principle in the Court's holding." The language of the opinion, however, refrained from striking down state statutes setting minimum sentencing guidelines for

recidivism Recidivism (; from ''recidive'' and ''ism'', from Latin ''recidīvus'' "recurring", from ''re-'' "back" and ''cadō'' "I fall") is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have experienced negative consequences of th ...

. The majority opinion only called for exceptions to the statutes protecting the constitutional freedom from cruel and unusual punishment. In addition, the Court sought to use this particular case to clarify the Proportionality Doctrine previously proposed in ''

Enmund v. Florida ''Enmund v. Florida'', 458 U.S. 782 (1982), is a United States Supreme Court case. It was a 5–4 decision in which the United States Supreme Court applied its capital proportionality principle, to set aside the death penalty for the driver of a ...

'' (1982) by setting precise guidelines for deciding whether a punishment is proportional to the specific crime committed. The Court ruled that all courts must do three things to decide whether a sentence is proportional to a specific crime: # Compare the nature and gravity of the offense and the harshness of the penalty, # Compare the sentences imposed on other criminals in the same

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. Jur ...

; i.e., whether more serious crimes are subject to the same penalty or to less serious penalties, and # Compare the sentences imposed for commission of the same crime in other jurisdictions.

References

External links

* United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Burger Court Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause case law 1983 in United States case law {{SCOTUS-case-stub

See also

References

External links