Virginia has one of the nation's most punitive felony disenfranchisement laws.

The three-strikes law on which the study focused was California's, the most punitive in the nation.

While the law allows some leeway, it is widely seen as the most punitive step yet taken by the United States against Iran.

The program is the first and most punitive of welfare changes that link benefits to school attendance.

In recent months, even some of the most punitive states have turned away from imprisoning all drug offenders.

The Governor created some of the nation's most punitive drug laws, which locked people up for 15 years for possessing certain drugs.

The most punitive state is California, which has about 120,000 parolees and locks up around 70,000 of them each year for technical violations.

The most punitive measure was to ban all former airline executives from further contracts.

But California's law is considered by lawyers to be the most punitive of any recent three-strikes statute enacted.

The trust acquired the majority of its country houses in the mid 20th century, when death duties were at their most punitive.