68
Opinion of the Court
fenses to misdemeanors, both before the jury verdict and again in state habeas proceedings.
A jury found Andrade guilty of two counts of petty theft with a prior conviction. According to California law, a jury must also find that a defendant has been convicted of at least two serious or violent felonies that serve as qualifying offenses under the three strikes regime. In this case, the jury made a special finding that Andrade was convicted of three counts of first-degree residential burglary. A conviction for first-degree residential burglary qualifies as a serious or violent felony for the purposes of the three strikes law. Cal. Penal Code Ann. §§ 667.5, 1192.7 (West 1999); see also Ewing v. California, ante, at 19. As a consequence, each of Andrade's convictions for theft under Cal. Penal Code Ann. § 666 (West Supp. 2002) triggered a separate application of the three strikes law. Pursuant to California law, the judge sentenced Andrade to two consecutive terms of 25 years to life in prison. See §§ 667(c)(6), 667(e)(2)(B). The State stated at oral argument that under the decision announced by the Supreme Court of California in People v. Garcia, 20 Cal. 4th 490, 976 P. 2d 831 (1999)—a decision that postdates his conviction and sentence—it remains "available" for Andrade to "file another State habeas corpus petition" arguing that he should serve only one term of 25 years to life in prison because "sentencing courts have a right to dismiss strikes on a count-by-count basis." Tr. of Oral Arg. 24.
B
On direct appeal in 1997, the California Court of Appeal affirmed Andrade's sentence of two consecutive terms of 25 years to life in prison. It rejected Andrade's claim that his sentence violates the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The court stated that "the proportionality analysis" of Solem v. Helm, 463 U. S. 277 (1983), "is questionable in light of" Harmelin v. Michigan, 501 U. S. 957 (1991). App. to Pet. for Cert. 76. The court then ap-
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