Opinion ID: 776953
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Gross Disproportionality

Text: 38 The State argues that Bray's and Brown's sentences are only half as long as Andrade's, so that Andrade 's gross disproportionality analysis has no application here. Andrade, however, was sentenced to 50 years to life for two petty theft convictions; his sentence was nothing more than a 25-year-to-life sentence for a petty theft conviction followed by a consecutive, identical sentence for a second petty theft conviction, imposed for a distinct, albeit similar, offense that occurred at a different time and place. Although Andrade was tried and sentenced at one time for his two offenses, the joint conviction was fortuitous; there could as easily have been separately imposed consecutive sentences. Moreover, Bray's and Brown's sentences are not half as long as Andrade's. Although their minimum term is half as long as Andrade's minimum term, Bray and Brown were sentenced to indeterminate life sentences and could serve as long for their single petty theft convictions as Andrade will for two. 39 It bears noting, in this connection, that the standard we are applying is one of proportionality — the relationship of the conviction to the crime. If Andrade's 50-year-to-life sentence for two petty theft convictions was grossly disproportionate, it follows that a 25-year-to-life sentence is grossly disproportionate to one petty theft conviction. A combined sentence for two entirely separate offenses cannot be grossly disproportionate if each individual sentence is not grossly disproportionate. 8 40 Andrade was sentenced to life imprisonment, with no possibility of parole for 50 years, at which time he would be 87 years old. Bray and Brown will both be eligible for parole in 25 years, when they will be about 59 and 67 years old, respectively. As to these possible differences in age on release, that factor cannot be determinative. An Eighth Amendment analysis necessarily considers the punishment for the offense, Solem, 463 U.S. at 292, 103 S.Ct. 3001, taking into account only those personal circumstances that may mitigate one's culpability in committing the crime. See, e.g., Penry v. Lynaugh, 492 U.S. 302, 340, 109 S.Ct. 2934, 106 L.Ed.2d 256 (1989). So, while Andrade mentioned the petitioner's age at possible release, the court could not have meant that the same sentence would have been acceptable for a 19-year old, or that a person with a limited life expectancy is constitutionally entitled to a short sentence for the same crime as a co-defendant not so impaired. Rather, the fact that Andrade could well die before serving out his sentence simply underscored the length of the mandatory sentence. Here, Bray and Brown entered prison as relatively young men and will emerge, if at all, as senior citizens (Brown) or close thereto (Bray), again demonstrating the length of their punishment. See Sistrunk v. Armenakis, 271 F.3d 1174, 1183 (9th Cir.2001) (Kozinski, J., dissenting) (stating that the defendant's life was at stake, because to an adult man, a thirty-year sentence pretty much is life).