United States v. Said
Defendants, Somali pirates, were convicted of multiple offenses, including piracy as proscribed by 18 U.S.C. 1651. The district court declined to impose statutorily mandated life sentences on defendants, reasoning that such sentences would contravene the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The government appealed the district court's decision not to impose life sentences and defendants cross-appealed, challenging the district court's failure to dismiss the section 1651 charge, the jury instructions with respect to the piracy offense, and the sufficiency of the evidence supporting certain
of their convictions. The court concluded that it was satisfied that “the relationship between the gravity of [the defendants’] offenses and the severity of [their proposed] punishment fails to create the threshold inference of gross disproportionality that is required” to satisfy prong one
of the Eighth Amendment analysis. Therefore, without analyzing prong two, the court concluded that the district court erred in invalidating section 1651's mandatory life sentence to defendants. The court rejected all of defendants' claims. Accordingly, the court affirmed the convictions and reversed the sentences, remanding for resentencing. View "United States v. Said" on Justia Law
