Court Opinion

ID: 9477735
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:29:58.662635+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:01.207217
License: Public Domain

*508KING, Circuit Judge, specially
concurring:
I concur in the judgment and in the basic rationale for that judgment set forth in Judge Gee’s opinion. I read Solem as holding that the culpability of the defendant is one factor that must be considered in the eighth amendment analysis and that a major factor to be considered in determining culpability is the nature of the crime committed by the defendant. I do not read Solem as saying that the personal circumstances of the defendant can, for every crime, outweigh the seriousness of that crime. I think that the State of Louisiana could constitutionally have concluded that the distribution of heroin is so serious a crime as to override any and all individual circumstances which would lessen the defendant’s culpability. That same consideration leads me to conclude that the sentence imposed on Terrebonne is not significantly disproportionate to his crime.