Opinion ID: 1311325
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Proportionality Review and Victim Impact Testimony

Text: McGehee's next two claims, that his sentence was disproportionate to that of his co-defendants and that the state relied on unconstitutional victim impact testimony, are foreclosed by our precedent and the AEDPA. McGehee argues that his death sentence violated the Eighth Amendment because two of his co-defendants, who he contends were equally culpable, received life sentences. As McGehee concedes, however, in Pulley v. Harris, the Supreme Court held that the Constitution does not require courts to consider whether a punishment is disproportionate to the punishment imposed on others convicted of the same crime. 465 U.S. 37, 43, 104 S.Ct. 871, 79 L.Ed.2d 29 (1984); see also Kane v. Garcia Espitia, 546 U.S. 9, 10-11, 126 S.Ct. 407, 163 L.Ed.2d 10 (2005) (per curiam) (instructing that a right cannot be clearly established for purposes of the AEDPA when the right at issue has not been articulated by the Supreme Court); Middleton v. Roper, 498 F.3d 812, 821 (8th Cir.2007). McGehee also contends that the victim impact testimony at his sentencing violated the constitutional prohibition on arbitrariness in death penalty proceedings because the jury was not provided a framework for evaluating the evidence in its sentencing decision. We rejected an identical challenge to the Arkansas capital sentencing scheme in Johnson v. Norris, 537 F.3d 840, 850-52 (8th Cir.2008), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 1334, 173 L.Ed.2d 605 (2009), and absent en banc review, we are not at liberty to revisit that decision.