Opinion ID: 2441011
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Unconstitutionality of Missouri's Proportionality Review

Text: Skillicorn claims his rights to due process and to effective assistance of counsel are violated by Missouri's proportionality review scheme. Essentially, he argues that the review scheme is arbitrary and that such arbitrariness both violates the Due Process Clause and forecloses effective assistance of counsel. These claims were not preserved in his motion for new trial and are reviewed for plain error, only. Rule 30.20. The right to effective assistance of counsel refers to the defendant's right to an attorney whose skill, care, and diligence comports with that of a reasonably competent attorney. State v. Parker, 886 S.W.2d 908, 929 (Mo. banc 1994). To gain relief on an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, a defendant must show his counsel failed to meet this standard and that he was prejudiced thereby; i.e., there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. State v. Shurn, supra at 468. Skillicorn appears to claim that the purported arbitrariness of Missouri's proportionality scheme precluded his counsel from effectively representing him. Because the right to effective assistance of counsel is objectively determined by the counsel's performance under the law as it exists, his counsel cannot have been ineffective merely because the law on a particular issue is ambiguous, complicated, or even arbitrary. Moreover, this Court has repeatedly rejected Skillicorn's due process argument, State v. Weaver, 912 S.W.2d 499, 522 (Mo. banc 1995), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 117 S.Ct. 153, 136 L.Ed.2d 98 (1996); State v. Shurn, 866 S.W.2d 447, 468 (Mo. banc 1993), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 837, 115 S.Ct. 118, 130 L.Ed.2d 64 (1994); State v. Ramsey, 864 S.W.2d 320, 328 (Mo. banc 1993), cert. denied, 511 U.S. 1078, 114 S.Ct. 1664, 128 L.Ed.2d 380 (1994), as have the federal courts. Byrd v. Delo, 942 F.2d 1226 (8th Cir.1991). Point Twenty One is denied.