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vision for imprisonment in the Philippine Code is separable from the accessory punishment, and that the latter may be declared illegal, leaving the former to have application." According to the Court, "[t]he Philippine Code unites the penalties of cadena temporal, principal and accessory, and it is not in our power to separate them...." Id., at 382. Thus, we do not believe that Weems can be applied without regard to its peculiar facts: the triviality of the charged offense, the impressive length of the minimum term of imprisonment, and the extraordinary nature of the "accessories" included within the punishment of cadena temporal.

Given the unique nature of the punishments considered in Weems and in the death penalty cases, one could argue without fear of contradiction by any decision of this Court that for crimes concededly classified and classifiable as felonies, that is, as punishable by significant terms of imprisonment in a state penitentiary, the length of the sentence actually imposed is purely a matter of legislative prerogative." Only six years after Weems, for example, Mr. Justice Holmes wrote for a unanimous Court in brushing aside a proportionality challenge to concurrent sentences of five years' imprisonment and cumulative fines of $1,000 on each of seven counts of mail fraud. See Badders v. United States, 240 U. S. 391 (1916). According to the Court, there was simply "no ground for declaring the punishment unconstitutional." Id., at 394.

Such reluctance to review legislatively mandated terms of imprisonment is implicit in our more recent decisions as well. As was noted by MR. JUSTICE WHITE, Writing for the plurality in Coker v. Georgia, supra, at 592, our Court's "Eighth Amendment judgments should not be, or appear to be, merely the subjective views of individual Justices; judgment should be informed by objective factors to the maximum possible ex

11 This is not to say that a proportionality principle would not come into play in the extreme example mentioned by the dissent, post, at 288, if a legislature made overtime parking a felony punishable by life imprisonment.

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tent." Since Coker involved the imposition of capital punishment for the rape of an adult female, this Court could draw a "bright line" between the punishment of death and the various other permutations and commutations of punishments short of that ultimate sanction. For the reasons stated by MR. JUSTICE STEWART in Furman, see supra, at 272, this line was considerably clearer than would be any constitutional distinction between one term of years and a shorter or longer term of years.

Similarly, in Weems the Court could differentiate in an objective fashion between the highly unusual cadena temporal and more traditional forms of imprisonment imposed under the Anglo-Saxon system. But a more extensive intrusion into the basic line-drawing process that is pre-eminently the province of the legislature when it makes an act criminal would be difficult to square with the view expressed in Coker that the Court's Eighth Amendment judgments should neither be nor appear to be merely the subjective views of individual Justices.

In an attempt to provide us with objective criteria against which we might measure the proportionality of his life sentence, Rummel points to certain characteristics of his offenses that allegedly render them "petty." He cites, for example, the absence of violence in his crimes. But the presence or absence of violence does not always affect the strength of society's interest in deterring a particular crime or in punishing a particular criminal. A high official in a large corporation can commit undeniably serious crimes in the area of antitrust, bribery, or clean air or water standards without coming close to engaging in any "violent" or short-term "lifethreatening" behavior. Additionally, Rummel cites the "small" amount of money taken in each of his crimes. But to recognize that the State of Texas could have imprisoned Rummel for life if he had stolen $5,000, $50,000, or $500,000, rather than the $120.75 that a jury convicted him of stealing, is virtually to concede that the lines to be drawn are indeed "subjective," and therefore properly within the province of

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legislatures, not courts. Moreover, if Rummel had attempted to defraud his victim of $50,000, but had failed, no money whatsoever would have changed hands; yet Rummel would be no less blameworthy, only less skillful, than if he had succeeded.

In this case, however, we need not decide whether Texas could impose a life sentence upon Rummel merely for obtaining $120.75 by false pretenses. Had Rummel only committed that crime, under the law enacted by the Texas Legislature he could have been imprisoned for no more than 10 years. In fact, at the time that he obtained the $120.75 by false pretenses, he already had committed and had been imprisoned for two other felonies, crimes that Texas and other States felt were serious enough to warrant significant terms of imprisonment even in the absence of prior offenses. Thus the interest of the State of Texas here is not simply that of making criminal the unlawful acquisition of another person's property; it is in addition the interest, expressed in all recidivist statutes, in dealing in a harsher manner with those who by repeated criminal acts have shown that they are simply incapable of conforming to the norms of society as established by its criminal law. By conceding the validity of recidivist statutes generally, Rummel himself concedes that the State of Texas, or any other State, has a valid interest in so dealing with that class of persons.

Nearly 70 years ago, and only 2 years after Weems, this Court rejected an Eighth Amendment claim that seems factually indistinguishable from that advanced by Rummel in the present case. In Graham v. West Virginia, 224 U. S. 616 (1912), this Court considered the case of an apparently incorrigible horsethief who was sentenced to life imprisonment under West Virginia's recidivist statute. In 1898 Graham had been convicted of stealing "one bay mare" valued at $50; in 1901 he had been convicted of "feloniously and burglariously" entering a stable in order to steal "one brown horse, named Harry, of the value of $100"; finally, in 1907 he was convicted of stealing "one red roan horse" valued at $75 and

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various tack and accessories valued at $85.12 Upon conviction of this last crime, Graham received the life sentence mandated by West Virginia's recidivist statute. This Court did not tarry long on Graham's Eighth Amendment claim,' noting only that it could not be maintained "that cruel and unusual punishment [had] been inflicted." Id., at 631.14

13

Undaunted by earlier cases like Graham and Badders, Rummel attempts to ground his proportionality attack on an alleged "nationwide" trend away from mandatory life sentences and toward "lighter, discretionary sentences." Brief for Petitioner 43-44. According to Rummel, "[n]o jurisdiction in the United States or the Free World punishes habitual offenders as harshly as Texas." Id., at 39. In support of this proposition, Rummel offers detailed charts and tables documenting the history of recidivist statutes in the United States since 1776.

12 See Transcript of Record in Graham v. West Virginia, O. T. 1911, No. 721, pp. 4, 5, 9.

13 While at the time this Court decided Graham the Eighth Amendment's proscription against cruel and unusual punishments had not been held applicable to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment, see, e. g., Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber, 329 U. S. 459, 462 (1947) (plurality opinion), earlier cases had assumed, without deciding, that the States could not inflict cruel and unusual punishments. See, e. g., Howard v. Fleming, 191 U. S. 126, 135-136 (1903); McDonald v. Massachusetts, 180 U. S. 311, 313 (1901). Graham's reference to Howard, McDonald, and other cases indicates that it followed a similar course. See 224 U. S., at 631.

14 Rummel characterizes Graham as a case where petitioner argued only that imposition of a life sentence under West Virginia's recidivist statute was, per se, a violation of the Eighth Amendment. See Brief for Petitioner 18-19, n. 6. We do not share that reading. The brief submitted on Graham's behalf clearly attacked the alleged disproportionality of his sentence. See Brief for Plaintiff in Error in Graham v. West Virginia, O. T. 1911, No. 721, pp. 37-38. The brief on behalf of the State of West Virginia, moreover, expressly assumed that Graham was arguing that "the sentence in this case is so disproportionate to the offense as to be cruel and unusual." Brief for Defendant in Error in Graham v. West Virginia, supra, at 19.

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16

Before evaluating this evidence, we believe it important to examine the exact operation of Art. 63 as interpreted by the Texas courts. In order to qualify for a mandatory life sentence under that statute, Rummel had to satisfy a number of requirements. First, he had to be convicted of a felony and actually sentenced to prison.15 Second, at some time subsequent to his first conviction, Rummel had to be convicted of another felony and again sentenced to imprisonment." Finally, after having been sent to prison a second time, Rummel had to be convicted of a third felony. Thus, under Art. 63, a three-time felon receives a mandatory life sentence, with possibility of parole, only if commission and conviction of each succeeding felony followed conviction for the preceding one, and only if each prior conviction was followed by actual imprisonment. Given this necessary sequence, a recidivist must twice demonstrate that conviction and actual imprisonment do not deter him from returning to crime once he is released. One in Rummel's position has been both graphically informed of the consequences of lawlessness and given an opportunity to reform, all to no avail. Article 63 thus is nothing more than a societal decision that when such a person commits yet another felony, he should be subjected to the admittedly serious penalty of incarceration for life, subject only to the State's judgment as to whether to grant him parole."

15 Texas courts have interpreted the recidivist statute as requiring not merely that the defendant be convicted of two prior felonies, but also that he actually serve time in prison for each of those offenses. See Cromeans v. State, 160 Tex. Crim. 135, 138, 268 S. W. 2d 133, 135 (1954).

16 As the statute has been interpreted, the State must prove that each succeeding conviction was subsequent to both the commission of and the conviction for the prior offense. See Tyra v. State, 534 S. W. 2d 695, 697-698 (Tex. Crim. App. 1976); Rogers v. State, 168 Tex. Crim. 306, 308, 325 S. W. 2d 697, 698 (1959).

17 Thus, it is not true that, as the dissent claims, the Texas scheme subjects a person to life imprisonment "merely because he is a three-time felon." Post, at 299, n. 18. On the contrary, Art. 63 mandates such a

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