Opinion ID: 1280343
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Arizona Proportionality Requirements

Text: Arizona, like Florida ( Proffitt, ) adopted comparative proportionality review strictly by judicial decree. In a line of post- Furman cases beginning with State v. Richmond, this court stated that it could not conduct a meaningful appellate review of each death sentence without determining whether the sentence of death is disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases. 114 Ariz. 186, 196, 560 P.2d 41, 51 (1976), cert. denied, 433 U.S. 915, 97 S.Ct. 2988, 53 L.Ed.2d 1101 (1977); State v. McCall, 160 Ariz. 119, 131, 770 P.2d 1165, 1177 (1989), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 110 S.Ct. 3289, 111 L.Ed.2d 798 (1990); State v. Beaty, 158 Ariz. 232, 247-48, 762 P.2d 519, 534-35 (1988), cert. denied, 491 U.S. 910, 109 S.Ct. 3200, 105 L.Ed.2d 708 (1989); State v. Gretzler, 135 Ariz. 42, 58, 659 P.2d 1, 17, cert. denied, 461 U.S. 971, 103 S.Ct. 2444, 77 L.Ed.2d 1327 (1983). The only authority cited by the Richmond court in support of this rule was the United States Supreme Court's decision in Gregg, which upheld a statutory capital sentencing scheme providing for proportionality. 428 U.S. at 198, 96 S.Ct. at 2937. The Supreme Court in Gregg, however, did not hold that comparative proportionality was required under federal law, but only by Georgia's death penalty statutes. Id.; see also Pulley, 465 U.S. at 46, 104 S.Ct. at 877 (Court of Appeals erred in concluding that Gregg required proportionality review.). In Arizona, neither our statutes nor official court rules require or empower this court to conduct an inter-case proportionality review. A.R.S. ง 13-4031 and rule 31.2(b), Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure, provide for an automatic appeal to this court when a defendant is sentenced to death, but they do not specify what form our appellate review should take. Similarly, the Arizona Constitution does not provide any alternative basis for comparative proportionality review. As this court recently noted in State v. Bartlett , Article 2, ง 15 of the Arizona Constitution is identically worded to its federal counterpart prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment. The framers of the Arizona Constitution, in a rare case of using the federal Constitution as a model, adopted the federal wording cruel and unusual punishment over the committee's proposed wording that neither cruel nor unusual punishment should be permitted. This deliberate adoption of the federal wording expressed the framers' intent to give legislators wide discretion in imposing methods of capital punishment. 164 Ariz. 229, 240-41, 792 P.2d 692, 703-04 (1990) (emphasis in original), judgment vacated on other grounds, ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 2880, 115 L.Ed.2d 1046 (1991). Bartlett suggests that the Arizona and federal constitutions provide coterminous protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Absent a ruling by this court interpreting article 2, ง 15 of the Arizona Constitution more broadly than its federal counterpart, I do not believe a defendant may assert, and this court cannot conclude that a defendant has, a separate right to comparative proportionality review on state constitutional grounds.