The Vermont Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a Burlington man who was the first person in state history to be sentenced to life in prison without parole for a crime other than murder.
In a 5-0 decision, justices unanimously upheld the sentence of Norman Stevens, 70, who in 1999 attacked his ex-girlfriend with a hammer and planned to lock her in a van he intended to set ablaze. Stevens, convicted of attempted murder, argued that his sentence — the toughest possible penalty under state law — was disproportionate to his crime, in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
Chittenden Superior Court Judge Michael Kupersmith said during a 2001 sentencing hearing that Stevens was “in many ways worse” than the 9/11 terrorists. And in Stevens’ appeal, described in a Seven Days story in November, his lawyers noted at least a dozen Vermonters who had been convicted of murder but received lesser sentences.
In a six-page opinion, the high court said that the “heinous” nature of Stevens’ actions — he was kept from tying his victim inside the van only by the intercession of neighbors and he had previously fired a firearm in the direction of his children — meant that Kupersmith’s sentence met the legal standard of “just proportion.”
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