Opinion ID: 2637824
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Constitutionality of the Special Circumstances As Applied to This Case

Text: Defendant claims that, as applied in the present case, the robbery and rape special circumstance allegations violated the Eighth Amendment to the federal Constitution because they allowed the jury to impose death for an accidental or unforeseeable killing. Defendant further claims that his 911 call is evidence that Sophia's death was negligent, accidental, or wholly unforeseeable. (21) As defendant acknowledges, however, since 1987 we have repeatedly rejected the claim that an intent to kill or any other similar mental state is required under the Eighth Amendment in order to establish death eligibility for the actual killer in a felony murder, and we have also rejected the related claim that the imposition of the death penalty under these circumstances fails to adequately narrow the class of death-eligible offenders. ( People v. Anderson (1987) 43 Cal.3d 1104 [240 Cal.Rptr. 585, 742 P.2d 1306]; People v. Earp (1999) 20 Cal.4th 826, 905 [85 Cal.Rptr.2d 857, 978 P.2d 15]; People v. Stanley (2006) 39 Cal.4th 913, 958, 968 [47 Cal.Rptr.3d 420, 140 P.3d 736].) Therefore, even if the jury could have found that defendant's 911 call negated evidence of an intent to kill, defendant's claim lacks merit.