Opinion ID: 355911
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Other Crimes in This Jurisdiction

Text: 62 The second step in the proportionality test is to compare the challenged punishment to punishments for more serious crimes in the same jurisdiction. The New York drug laws fare very badly in this respect. As Judge Motley pointed out below, appellees received the same maximum sentence as New York felons convicted of first degree murder, 27 first degree arson, 28 and kidnapping in the first degree. 29 They are punished more severely than New York felons convicted of second degree arson, 30 first degree rape, 31 first degree manslaughter, 32 first degree burglary 33 and second degree kidnapping, 34 all of which carry a discretionary maximum term of twenty-five years' imprisonment. See 436 F.Supp. at 1166. It is difficult to believe that the possession of an ounce of cocaine or a $20 street sale is a more dangerous or serious offense than the rape of a ten-year-old, the burning down of a building occupied by people, or the killing of another human being while intending to cause him serious injury. Yet these crimes are punished less severely by the sovereign State of New York than the drug offenses in these cases. 63 The majority finds the crimes involved here more serious than they first appear on the basis that drug use and trafficking foster other crimes. Drug involvement may well engender the collateral crimes of robbery, burglary and prostitution; so do other evil habits, social or economic inequality or just plain greed. However, the maximum prison term in New York for first degree robbery 35 and first degree burglary 36 is twenty-five years; and prostitution carries a maximum prison sentence of three months. 37 Surely it makes little sense to argue, as the majority seems to do, that a more severe punishment may be imposed for an act because it may lead to the commission of other crimes than may be imposed for those crimes themselves. One would not rationally penalize the horse player who bets illegally with a bookmaker more than the bank embezzler even though (a) bookmakers need illegal horse bettors to operate and (b) horseplayers who work in banks and lose too much money gambling sometimes embezzle.3. This Crime in Other Jurisdictions 64 The final element in the proportionality equation is a comparison of the punishment in question to punishments for the same crime in other jurisdictions. Again, the New York punishments appear excessive. Both the majority and the New York Court of Appeals in Broadie concede that drug offenses are punished more severely in New York than in other jurisdictions, but seek to meliorate the harshness by emphasizing that the drug traffic is more serious in New York than elsewhere. Even so, no other jurisdiction in the United States prescribes a mandatory life sentence for sale of one ounce or less of cocaine. Indeed, only six states have statutes permitting a court to consider imposition of a life sentence on a first felony offender. 38 The most common maximum permitted is between ten and twenty years and not one of the thirty-four states in this range requires imposition of the maximum term. 39 Neither Fowler nor Carmona would have faced a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment under the law of any other state. As for Carmona, in thirty-one states the maximum penalty provided by law is less than the minimum sentence which she is serving. 40 Under the federal drug laws life sentence is authorized only where a defendant is convicted of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, 21 U.S.C. § 848, which requires, inter alia, that he act as an organizer, supervisor or manager in concert with five or more other persons. 65 Certainly, as Judge Motley painstakingly demonstrated below, the New York laws are not in proportion with the laws in the rest of the country. Because of New York's size, location, social and economic structure, and varied demographic factors, I suppose that it is entirely possible that New York also has more serious traffic in stolen securities and counterfeit money and more income tax, nursing home and welfare fraud than other states, but if these facts were true they would not justify disproportionately higher sentences for those crimes.