YORK, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for possessing cocaine with intent to distribute, his third felony drug conviction.

The Rock Hill Herald reports 41-year-old Ricky Dean Tate was sentenced Thursday. Tate said he could’ve gotten only eight years in prison if he accepted a plea deal, but he instead went to trial.

One of Tate’s defense attorneys, Jim Morton, says there’s something tragically wrong with Tate’s sentence over $150 worth of cocaine. State law allows such punishments for certain third-strike drug offenses with defendants who have previous convictions, like Tate, who already served 18 years for drug offenses.

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Tate told the court he’d been in and out of prison his whole life, with convictions starting when he was a child in 1991.

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Information from: The Herald, http://www.heraldonline.com