A federal appeals court says California´s tough on crime three strikes law can produce unlawfully cruel and unusual sentences.
The ruling could lead to hundreds of legal challenges by defendants sentenced to near-life terms for petty crimes.
A panel of the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals says Leonardo Andrade´s prison term was grossly disproportionate and violates the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Andrade got a 50 year sentence for stealing nine videotapes from a K-Mart in San Bernardino County.
This post was last modified on 01/31/2009 5:56 pm