United States v. Jonathan Rafael Wilson

Wilson appeals his conviction of robbing a mailman with a dangerous weapon in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2114 , pursuant to which he received a twenty-five-year sentence. He does not appeal his conviction of aiding and abetting a person in possession of stolen mail ( 18 U.S.C. § 1708 ), for which he received a five-year concurrent sentence. His frontal attack is upon the statutory twenty-five-year sentence as provided for in section 2114. We affirm.

Wilson first challenges the twenty-five-year sentence as cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. We rejected this contention in United States v. Beverley, 416 F.2d 263, 265 (9th Cir. 1969). Accord, Sansone v. Zerbst, 73 F.2d 670, 672 (10th Cir. 1934); United States v. Andrews, 170 F.Supp. 380, 381-382 (S.D.N.Y.1958), aff’d, 263 F.2d 608 (2d Cir. 1960), cert. denied, 363 U.S. 854 , 80 S.Ct. 1636 , 4 L.Ed.2d 1736 (1960). We cannot do otherwise here.

In Beverley we also rejected the argument that this statutorily specified sentence violates equal protection because other crimes of equal seriousness do not carry such extreme penalties. 416 F.2d at 265 . It is the responsibility of Congress, not the…