Opinion ID: 776953
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Brown v. Mayle

Text: 15 On August 7, 1995, Brown attempted to shoplift a steering wheel alarm worth $25 from a Walgreens store. He picked up a few items in the store and left them on the counter, telling the clerk that he needed to go get his checkbook. He returned several hours later and brought a few more items to the counter. When the clerk asked if he had found his checkbook, he replied that he had. After questioning why the clerk kept watching him, he put the items down and stated that he did not want to buy anything from the store. When Brown tried to leave again, he set off the store's alarm system. The clerk detained Brown and asked him to return what he had taken. He evidently refused. When security guards arrived, they found on Brown the steering wheel alarm with a security tag. 3
16 Although Brown's criminal history is somewhat longer than Bray's and includes numerous convictions for misdemeanor offenses, Brown has a total of five serious or violent prior felony convictions: 4 A 1971 conviction for two counts of second degree burglary, § 459; a 1976 conviction for two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, § 245; and a 1984 robbery conviction, 5 § 211. The record does not reveal the underlying facts of these offenses.
17 The jury found Brown guilty of petty theft with a prior, § 666. Brown had waived the right to have a jury determine whether his prior convictions were true, and the court found that he had been convicted of two prior strikes-the 1976 assault and the 1984 robbery. At sentencing, Brown moved to have the court strike the prior convictions on the grounds that a 25-year-to-life sentence would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The court rejected the motion and sentenced Brown under Three Strikes to 25 years to life. 18 Brown appealed his sentence, arguing that the term imposed was disproportionate to his offense and therefore in violation of the federal and state constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. The California Court of Appeal issued an unpublished opinion affirming Brown's sentence, and the California Supreme Court denied his petition for review without opinion. Brown filed a habeas petition in the California Court of Appeal and later in the California Supreme Court, but both courts issued bare denials of the petitions. 19 Brown then petitioned for habeas relief in the federal district court, raising four claims: (1) the Three Strikes law is unevenly applied; (2) he should be resentenced pursuant to the California Supreme Court decision of People v. Superior Court (Romero), 13 Cal.4th 497, 53 Cal.Rptr.2d 789, 917 P.2d 628 (1996) (allowing judges to strike a defendant's prior strikes for purposes of applying Three Strikes, if it would be in furtherance of justice), decided after he was sentenced; (3) 25 years to life for petty theft constitutes cruel and unusual punishment; and (4) his prior convictions should be stricken because they occurred before Three Strikes was enacted. 20 The magistrate judge's report construed the uneven application argument as an equal protection claim and the request to strike the prior convictions because of their timing as an ex post facto claim, and recommended rejecting both contentions on the merits. The report also recommended that the Eighth Amendment claim be rejected on the merits and that the request to be resentenced be denied, because such relief must be pursued in state court. The district court adopted these recommendations in full and denied the habeas petition. After obtaining a COA for all four issues from the district court, Brown raised each of them in his original pro se habeas petition to this court.