Rummel v. Estelle

Petitioner William James Rummel is presently serving a life sentence imposed by the State of Texas in 1973 under its “recidivist statute,” formerly Art. 63 of its Penal Code, which provided that “[wjhoever shall have been three times convicted of a felony less than capital shall on such third conviction be imprisoned for life in the penitentiary.”1 On January *26519, 1976, Rummel sought a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, arguing that life imprisonment was “grossly disproportionate” to the three felonies that formed the predicate for his…