Justice Powell delivered the opinion of the Court. The issue presented is whether the Eighth Amendment proscribes a life sentence without possibility of parole for a seventh nonviolent felony. I By 1975 the State of South Dakota had convicted respondent Jerry Helm of six nonviolent felonies. In 1964,1966, and 1969 Helm was convicted of third-degree burglary.<footnotemark…
Read the full opinion (source) ↗
Lexace provides legal information, not legal advice, and no attorney–client relationship is created. Citation figures are counts of later citing opinions in our corpus and may be incomplete; always read and Shepardize the full opinion before relying on it.