Should any of the charges be sustained, the committee will need to impose an appropriately stern penalty, stripping Mr. Packwood of his seniority or expelling him from the Senate.

Rather than accept Vincent's terms, Steinbrenner baffled many by instead negotiating a much sterner penalty that permanently kept him away from effective operation of the club.

China is applying stern criminal penalties for smugglers ranging from 12 years in prison to life.

While I was there, coincidentally I hope, the N.C.A.A. trumped Wisconsin's self-inflicted wrist slaps with sterner, yet still not particularly harsh, penalties.

The peasant spoke in puzzlement: "Why should they bring so stern a penalty?"

But the bill's sponsors tried to ease those concerns by specifically outlawing cloning and establishing stern penalties for anyone convicted of using cells to create a human clone.

Germany, determined to preserve the stability of its beloved mark, demanded stern and virtually automatic penalties for governments that get too lax.

Now you must pay a stern penalty: a gold crown, at the very least!

"My father has drilled honesty into me from Day 1," the son said today, adding that childhood infractions were met with stern penalties that have never been forgotten.

Someone at Samuel French, the company in charge of licensing the scripts, learned of the performance and quickly faxed a letter to the school warning of stern penalties if it went ahead with the scheduled performance.