Opinion ID: 1281505
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 22

Heading: Imposition of Death Penalty as Cruel or Unusual Punishment or Violation of Due Process

Text: Defendant's contention that imposition of the death penalty in his case is cruel or unusual punishment or a violation of due process appears to be more a summary of other issues than a discrete issue in its own right. He complains, for example, that it is improper to impose the death penalty when it is not clear the jury concluded he had an intent to kill at the time of these offenses. He complains that the sentencing discretion of the jury was not properly channeled and guided as the jury was precluded from considering nonstatutory mitigating factors, instructed under the pre- Easley mandatory sentencing formula, and permitted to treat youth as an aggravating factor. These issues have been dealt with above. (41) The only reasonably new issue is whether imposition of the death penalty was cruel or unusual as applied in this case. (See People v. Dillon (1983) 34 Cal.3d 441 [194 Cal. Rptr. 390, 668 P.2d 697].) He offers no persuasive analysis of the facts to support this claim, and our reading of the record refutes it.