The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the defendant’s two-year mandatory-minimum sentence imposed for delivery of contraband to a convict in a prison and possession of a controlled substance. The defendant alleged that the punishment was cruel, in contravention of Article 1, Section 13 of the Pennsylvania Constitution and the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The defendant tried to analogize his sentence to the one struck down in Solem v. Helm. But the Superior Court distinguished Solem, noting that, there, the United States Supreme Court struck down a sentence as grossly disproportionate because it was equivalent to life without the possibility of parole for a recidivist defendant who passed a $100 bad check. Here, the sentence was not so disproportionate to the crime.
