No. 87-5949. Non-Argument Calendar.United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.
August 2, 1988.
Page 1496
R.H. Bo Hitchcock, Hitchcock Cunningham, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for petitioner-appellant.
Joy B. Shearer, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, Fla., for respondent-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Before RONEY, Chief Judge, and TJOFLAT and CLARK, Circuit Judges.
RONEY, Chief Judge:
[1] Petitioner Eugene G. Adams was convicted in a Florida court in December 1977 of second-degree sexual battery, attempted second-degree murder, kidnapping and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in connection with the abduction of a 12-year-old girl. During the incident, he shot in the chest with a .357 magnum a highway patrol trooper who survived only because he was wearing a bullet-proof vest. Adams contends that his sentence to consecutive prison terms totalling 144 years for the four offenses is disproportionate to the crimes for which he was convicted, and, thus, violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The district court denied habeas corpus relief. We affirm.
[2] Adams argues that Solem v. Helm, 463 U.S. 277, 103 S.Ct. 3001, 77 L.Ed.2d 637 (1983), requires the federal court to engage in a proportionality review of his sentence. Adams relies upo Marrero v. Dugger, 823 F.2d 1468 (11th Cir. 1987), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 108 S.Ct. 1235, 1247, 99 L.Ed.2d 434, 445 (1988), which contrasted Solem v. Helm with Rummel v. Estelle, 445 U.S. 263, 100 S.Ct. 1133, 63 L.Ed.2d 382 (1980), and held that, under the facts of that case, the sentence had to be examined under the criteria established by Solem v. Helm.
[3] We have serious doubts that the Eighth Amendment concerns in those cases would have any application at all to the violent crimes of sexual battery, attempted murder, and kidnapping which Adams committed. In Helm, the petitioner was sentenced under a recidivist statute to life in prison with no possibility of parole for the offense of uttering a “no account” check for $100. In Rummel, the Court upheld a life sentence imposed, pursuant to a Texas recidivist statute, for obtaining $120.75 under false pretenses. The non-violent nature of those crimes, and of the prior similar crimes that triggered the life sentences, was undoubtedly at the crux of the concern for the allegations that the sentences contravened the proscription of the Eighth Amendment.
[4] It would appear to be almost frivolous to suggest that Adams’ crimes deserved the same concern. Clearly, attempted murder of a police officer, kidnapping and sexual assault on a young girl are among the most serious and violent crimes prohibited by modern penal codes. In a pre-Solem v. Helm case, in which a life sentence for an armed robbery that netted but $71.00 was attacked as excessive, we said “the violent nature of the offense alone makes such an attack almost frivolous.” Brown v. Wainwright, 576 F.2d 1148, 1149 (5th Cir. 1978).
[5] In any event, assuming his case does deserve consideration under Solem v. Helm, it appears that the Report of the Magistrate, attached hereto as an appendix, which formed the basis for a denial of relief by the district court, after independent
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review, adequately handled the petition.
[6] We simply note a few other cases which put this case in proper context. On similar facts, the Fifth Circuit upheld a 99-year sentence with no possibility of parole for a first-time offender in Passman v. Blackburn, 797 F.2d 1335, 1350-51 (5th Cir. 1986), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 107 S.Ct. 1609, 94 L.Ed.2d 794 (1987). The court noted that the particular circumstances of the armed robbery warranted a severe sentence. The victims were robbed in their home, one of the victims, a 78-year-old man was shot and seriously wounded, and another victim, a 16-year-old girl, testified that Passman sexually abused her. See also United States v. Gourley, 835 F.2d 249, 253 (10th Cir. 1987) (life sentence for possession of a firearm not disproportionate where evidence showed defendant tried to kill arresting officers and had a prior record), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 108 S.Ct. 1741, 100 L.Ed.2d 204 (1988); Stevens v. Armontrout, 787 F.2d 1282
(8th Cir. 1986) (200-year sentence for second-degree murder upheld); United States v. O’Driscoll, 761 F.2d 589 (10th Cir. 1985) (300-year sentence without parole for 99 years upheld for armed robbery and kidnapping where one of the victims was beaten severely and where the defendant had a prior violent record), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1020, 106 S.Ct. 1207, 89 L.Ed.2d 320 (1986); United States v. Darby, 744 F.2d 1508, 1527
(11th Cir. 1984) (upholding 60-year sentences for continuing criminal enterprise convictions, noting that offense is “most serious” of all drug-related offenses under Title 21 and that defendants had used threats of violence to carry out their operation), cert. denied sub nom., Yamanis v. United States, 471 U.S. 1100, 105 S.Ct. 2322, 85 L.Ed.2d 841 (1985).
[7] It should be noted that the state contends without contradiction that Adams is eligible to earn gain time, can be considered for parole, and, in fact, has been assigned a presumptive parole release date of August 4, 1995. Although not dispositive, the eligibility for parole was seen as particularly significant by the Court in Rummel.
[8] AFFIRMED.