California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Gayther, 110 Cal.App.3d 79, 167 Cal.Rptr. 700 (Cal. App. 1980):
Regarding the nature of the offender, we recognize that the trial court found mitigating factors personal to defendant. Defendant's argument, that the statute constitutes cruel and unusual punishment because it prohibits probation without regard to mitigating factors before denying probation, has been previously rejected in People v. Solorzano (1978) 84 Cal.App.3d 413, 415-416, 148 Cal.Rptr. 696. There the court, in upholding section 1203.07 which precludes probation for any person convicted of possession for sale or sale of one-half ounce or more of a substance containing heroin, observed that mitigating factors play a very important part in setting the actual punishment imposed. In this [110 Cal.App.3d 89] instance mitigating factors were considered at the time of imposing the sentence of the lower prison term of three years.
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