Carmony, a registered sex offender since being convicted of assaulting his then-girlfriend's 9-year-old daughter in 1983, was arrested in 1999 for not registering with authorities, as required by law, within five days of his Oct. 22 birthday. However, he had registered 29 days earlier when he moved with his wife to a new residence.

A trial court judge in Shasta County, Calif., sentenced Carmony to the life term, after taking into account that he had not registered in 1990 and 1997, the latter landing him in state prison for 32 months.

In his opinion, Blease called this a "rare case" in which the harshness of the penalty is "grossly disproportionate" to the offense, which he said was "an entirely passive, harmless and technical violation of the registration law."

"The stated purpose of the birthday registration requirement was (and still is) to 'update' the existing registration information," he wrote. "Here, there was no new information to update, and the state was aware of that fact."

Blease also pointed out that the penalty imposed on Carmony was "substantially greater" than sentences for second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, mayhem, kidnapping, first-degree robbery, rape, oral copulation with a person under 14 and lewd acts on a child under 14. He also noted that Carmony had committed only one sex crime in his life, had recently married, maintained a residence, participated in Alcoholics Anonymous and worked as a forklift operator in Redding, Calif.

"It is a rare case that violates the prohibition against cruel and/or unusual punishment," Blease conceded. "However, there must be a bottom to that well."

• He's registering for what indeed may be a serious child molesting offense, but from 22 years ago

• His only convictions since then are for failure to register

• He had registered within 30 days of the date on which he was supposed to register again, and had not moved. Law enforcement had all of his correct contact information.

• A registration offense is not a strike in California (AFAIK), so he had to have committed another strikable felony somewhere for this to count as a third strike.

• The 3rd District already tried to overturn this guy's sentence once before:

  In July, the state Supreme Court reversed the 3rd District for ruling that Carmony's trial judge had abused his discretion in refusing to strike two prior convictions. The court also sent the case back and ordered the 3rd District to render a ruling on the constitutional issue.

  In doing so, state Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno, joined by Justice Ming Chin, reluctantly concurred with the majority, "subject to the caveat that the sentence may yet be overturned on constitutional grounds."

Carmony got 25 to life for the strike and 1 year for he failure to register.

Considereing that non-violent two strikers (burglary) have been struck out for shoplifting, I don't know of any decision that has ruled this unconstitutional.  Carmonies prior crimes appear to have been violent or at least one of them a sexual assault on a 9 year old girl.

If he had commited a shoplifting I wonder if they would have come to the same decision.

They indicate that his crime was passive and technical and less serious than "uttering a no account check"

"While a violation of section 290 is classified as a felony, the instant offense was a passive, nonviolent, regulatory offense that posed no direct or immediate danger to society. Defendant committed this offense by violating the annual registration requirement (former § 290, subd. (a)(1)(C)), having correctly registered the proper information the month before. Obviously, no change had occurred in the intervening period and defendant's parole agent was aware of this fact. Thus, because defendant did not evade or intend to evade law enforcement officers, his offense was the most technical and harmless violation of the registration law we have seen. "

What is telling in this case is the trial courts willingness to impose such a sentance. I am sure they do it alot for third strikes that are misdemeanors and they probably did not think twice about this one. That is how cold blooded our legal system is today.  Carmony is not likely to be high on anyones list of friends because of his assault on a little girl but he was relatively young when he did that and apparently it ruined his life already.