The Supreme Court has rendered the Eighth Amendment a dead letter with respect to non-capital, non-juvenile life-without-parole sentences. Its cases have erected a gross disproportionality standard that seems insurmountable in most cases, even for draconian and excessive sentences. State courts have adopted a similar approach in interpreting state constitutional Eighth Amendment analogues, often finding that they are no broader than the Supreme Court’s narrow interpretation of the Eighth Amendment, despite linguistic variations in many cases.

中文翻译：

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残酷和不寻常的非死刑处罚

最高法院已将第八修正案关于非死刑、非青少年终身不得假释的判决变成一纸空文。它的案件建立了一个严重的不成比例标准，在大多数情况下似乎无法克服，即使是严厉和过度的判决也是如此。州法院在解释州宪法第八修正案的类似条款时也采用了类似的方法，通常发现它们并不比最高法院对第八修正案的狭义解释更广泛，尽管在许多案件中存在语言差异。