Opinion ID: 1359265
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Challenges to the Constitutionality of the Death Penalty

Text: Defendants briefly contend that California's capital scheme violates the federal Constitution because (a) the statutory factors in aggravation are unconstitutionally vague; (b) the jury at the penalty phase of a capital case is not required to make written findings on the factors in aggravation; (c) the jury at the penalty phase of a capital trial is not instructed that it may consider only those aggravating factors found to be true beyond a reasonable doubt, and that it should impose the death sentence only if it determines beyond a reasonable doubt that death is the appropriate penalty; (d) this court does not conduct intercase proportionality review of a death sentence; [35] (e) the jury at the penalty phase of a capital case is permitted to consider unadjudicated criminal activity by the defendant in making its penalty determination; (f) the inclusion of adjectives such as extreme and substantial in section 190.3's list of potentially mitigating factors acts as a barrier to the consideration of mitigating evidence; (g) the California statutory scheme contains so many special circumstances that it fails to perform a narrowing function; (h) the prosecutor has unbridled discretion in determining whether to seek the death penalty in a capital case. We have rejected each of these contentions in the past (see, e.g., People v. Bacigalupo (1993) 6 Cal.4th 457 [24 Cal. Rptr.2d 808, 862 P.2d 808] [issue (a)]; People v. Andrews, supra, 49 Cal.3d at p. 233 [issues (b), (d)]; People v. Livaditis (1992) 2 Cal.4th 759, 786 [9 Cal. Rptr.2d 72, 831 P.2d 297] [issue (c)]; People v. Pride (1992) 3 Cal.4th 195, 268 [10 Cal. Rptr.2d 636, 833 P.2d 643] [issue (e)]; People v. Turner (1994) 8 Cal.4th 137, 208-209 [32 Cal. Rptr.2d 762, 878 P.2d 521] [issue (f)]; People v. Crittenden, supra, 9 Cal.4th 83, 154-155 [issue (g)]); People v. Kirkpatrick, supra, 7 Cal.4th 988, 1024 [issue (h)]), and we decline to reconsider these holdings.