Shawn Gementera pilfered letters from several mailboxes along San Francisco’s Fulton Street on May 21, 2001. A police officer who observed the episode immediately detained Gementera and his partner in crime, Andrew Choi, who had been stuffing the stolen letters into his jacket as Gementera anxiously kept watch. After indictment, Gementera entered a plea agreement pursuant to which he pled guilty to mail theft, and the government dismissed a second count of receiving a stolen U.S. Treasury check.....

1. Do shaming punishments violate the Eighth Amendment ban on “cruel and unusual punishments”?

2. Assuming they don’t, are they wise public policy? According to the dissent in U.S. v. Gementera (2004), “A fair measure of a civilized society is how its institutions behave in the space between what it may have the power to do and what it should do.”

3. Recommend what, if any, legislation the committee should enact.

4. To prepare the memorandum, read the following:

• U.S. v. Gementera (2004) 

• “Shame on You: Enough with Humiliating Punishments”

by Jonathan Turley 

• “Can Shaming Punishments Educate?” by Stephen Garvey