37-year-old American male is 77 years. National Center for Health Statistics, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Vital Statics Reports at Table 2, Vol. 47, No. 28 (Dec. 13, 1999). It is thus more likely than not that Andrade will spend the remainder of his life in prison without ever becoming eligible for parole.

b. Gravity of the Offense

As Harmelin makes clear, simply because a sentence is harsh does not mean that it is disproportionate to the crime. We examine the punishment in light of the gravity of the offense. We also recognize that a "State is justified in punishing a recidivist more severely than it punishes a first offender." Solem, 463 U.S. at 296. But "the enhanced punishment imposed for the [present] offense `is not to be viewed as . . . [an] additional penalty for the earlier crimes,' but instead as `a stiffened penalty for the latest crime, which is considered to be an aggravated offense because a repetitive one.' " Witte v. United States, 515 U.S. 389, 400 (1995) (quoting Gryger v. Burke, 334 U.S. 728, 732 (1948)); see also Solem, 463 U.S. at 297 n.21 ("We must focus on the principal felony -- the felony that triggers the life sentence -- since[the defendant] already has paid the penalty for each of his prior offenses. But we recognize, of course, that [the defendant]'s prior convictions are relevant to the sentencing decision.").

Andrade's present convictions are for two counts of petty theft with a prior for shoplifting videotapes on two different occasions with a total value of $153.54. Petty theft is similar in many respects to the defendant's crime of "uttering a no account check" in Solem. Both "involve[ ] neither violence nor [the] threat of violence to any person " and a relatively small amount of money. Id. at 296. Additionally, both are easily distinguished from the defendant's crime in Harmelin, where Justice Kennedy emphasized the serious and often violent consequences of drug use and distribution and noted that Harmelin possessed enough cocaine for between 32,500 and

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