## Facts

- Erlich Anthony Coker, serving sentences for violent felonies, escaped from a Georgia state prison.
- During his escape, Coker entered a married couple’s home, tied up the husband, took money and car keys, and raped the wife.
- Coker abducted the wife in the family car and later released her; she suffered no additional physical injury beyond the rape and kidnapping.
- Coker was convicted of escape, armed robbery, motor vehicle theft, kidnapping, and rape.
- Under Georgia’s capital statute, the jury imposed a death sentence for the rape based on two statutory aggravators: prior capital felony convictions and commission of rape during armed robbery.

## Issues

1. Whether imposing the death penalty for the rape of an adult woman, where the victim is not killed, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment (as applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment).

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed the death sentence in a 7–2 decision and remanded.
- A plurality concluded the death penalty for rape of an adult woman is grossly disproportionate and excessive under the Eighth Amendment.
- Justices Brennan and Marshall concurred in the judgment on the ground that the death penalty is unconstitutional in all circumstances.
- Justice Powell concurred in reversing Coker’s sentence but rejected a categorical rule barring death for all adult-rape cases.
- The dissent would have upheld Georgia’s authority to authorize capital punishment for rape in especially aggravated cases.

## Legal Principles

- The Eighth Amendment prohibits punishments that are “barbaric” or “excessive” relative to the crime.
- A punishment is unconstitutional as “excessive” if it (1) makes no measurable contribution to acceptable penal goals or (2) is grossly disproportionate to the crime’s severity.
- In assessing contemporary standards for Eighth Amendment purposes, the Court considers objective indicia such as state legislation and jury sentencing patterns.
- Because rape, as distinguished from homicide, does not involve the taking of life, the death penalty is an excessive punishment for rape of an adult woman when the victim is not killed.
- Statutory aggravating circumstances (including prior capital convictions or contemporaneous felonies) do not cure the disproportionality where the underlying offense is non-homicide rape and the victim survives.

## Conclusion

The Court held that the Eighth Amendment forbids imposing the death penalty for the rape of an adult woman when the victim is not killed, relying on proportionality analysis informed by objective evidence of contemporary sentencing norms and the distinct finality of capital punishment.


Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584 (1977)