California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Cabrera, A144206 (Cal. App. 2019):
The trial court sentenced defendant to an aggregate term of 75 years. The trial court sentenced defendant to consecutive terms in accordance with the statutory mandates for convictions under section 288, subdivision (b)(1). (See 667.61, subd. (i).) Defendant contends his sentencein his case, a de facto sentence of life without the possibility of parole given his age of 53 at the time of sentencingconstitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. More specifically, he contends this sentence is unconstitutional under Coker v. Georgia (1977) 433 U.S. 584, 592 (Coker), which held that "a punishment is 'excessive' and unconstitutional if it . . . makes no measurable contribution to acceptable goals of punishment and hence is nothing more than the purposeless and needless imposition of pain and suffering." Defendant argues his sentence falls under this definition because it "serves no legitimate penal purpose." We are not persuaded.
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