The End Of The Eighth Amendment?
May, 1982
With the righteousness of an Iranian tribunal, the U. S. Supreme Court has upheld a 40-year prison sentence in a case involving nine ounces of marijuana, declaring that the penalty for felony crimes is "purely a matter of legislative prerogative."The Court rejected, without briefs or arguments, an idea central to the American justice system: that punishment should in some way fit the crime.It reversed and even reprimanded a Federal appeals court that had found that such a sentence viol...
