Opinion ID: 1310581
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Do the Defendant's Consecutive Sentences Constitute Cruel and Unusual Punishment Under the Eighth Amendment?

Text: The defendant claims that the court's decision to make his sentences run consecutively violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. See U.S. Const. amend. VIII. He points out that he will have to serve forty-two and one-half years before he can be released. See Iowa Code §§ 902.12, 903A.2 (1997). Because he will be eighty years old by then, he characterizes his punishment as a lifetime sentence. Laffey also argues that his punishment is significantly more severe than that imposed for other, more grievous, crimes of sexual abuse. We review this constitutional claim de novo. See State v. Hunter, 550 N.W.2d 460, 462 (Iowa 1996). We recently considered a similar claim in State v. August, 589 N.W.2d 740 (Iowa 1999). In that case, the defendant was also sentenced to two consecutive, twenty-five year terms of incarceration. August, 589 N.W.2d at 741. In deciding whether these sentences violated the Eighth Amendment, we compared the sentences with the gravity of the defendant's crimes, viewed objectively. Id. at 743. We held that only if such an examination allows an inference of gross disproportionality, would the court engage in a detailed consideration of the proportionality of the offense to the sentence, including a comparison of the punishment for this crime with the sentences imposed on other criminals. Id. at 742-43 (referring to three-factor test set out in Solem v. Helm, 463 U.S. 277, 292, 103 S.Ct. 3001, 3011, 77 L.Ed.2d 637, 650 (1983)). In August, we held that a twenty-five-year term of imprisonment for second-degree kidnapping, to be served consecutively to a twenty-five-year term for first-degree robbery, did not violate the Eighth Amendment. Id. at 744. We stated that [t]here is nothing cruel and unusual about punishing a person committing two crimes more severely than a person committing only one crime, which is the effect of consecutive sentencing. Id. The same result is mandated here. Laffey committed two serious crimes-the sexual abuse of two young children. That severe and lasting emotional harm can result to these helpless victims makes the crime especially egregious and deserving of a severe punishment. Therefore, we conclude Laffey's consecutive sentences do not give rise to an inference of gross disproportionality. The fact that these sentences may mean that Laffey serves the remainder of his life in prison is not a factor in our analysis. See id. at 743-44 (rejecting the defendant's request that an individualized assessment of the severity of the punishment be made). In addition, this conclusion makes it unnecessary to evaluate the severity of Laffey's sentence as compared to the sentences imposed on other criminals in this state. See id. at 742 (holding that Solem factors are considered only when the initial examination of the crime and punishment gives rise to an inference of gross disproportionality).