A US appeals court has thrown out a shoplifter's 50-year sentence under California's "three strikes and you're out" law as overly harsh.
In a 2-1 ruling, a federal court panel said Leonardo Andrade's sentence violated the US Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
It was the first federal court ruling declaring that California's sentencing law - America’s toughest - could produce unconstitutionally harsh sentences.
Andrade got 50 years in prison for stealing nine videotapes, valued at $153. The court noted that kidnappers and murderers could receive less time than Andrade, who had a record of several nonviolent, petty crimes.
"The harshness of the sentence appears grossly disproportionate to the gravity of the offence and the culpability of the offender," Circuit Judge Richard A Paez wrote.
Had Andrade's prior convictions not made him subject to the three strikes law, he would have faced six months at most.
The three strikes law mandates a minimum 25-years-to-life term for defendants convicted of any felony if they have already been found guilty of two serious or violent felonies. A serious felony includes such offences as burglary of an unoccupied house.
California voters and lawmakers approved the three strikes law in 1994 amid public furore over the kidnapping and murder of a 12-year-old girl by a repeat offender who was on parole at the time of the kidnapping.
AP
