Opinion ID: 2640351
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Miscellaneous Constitutional Challenges to California's Death Penalty Statute

Text: Defendant contends California's death penalty law is unconstitutional on several grounds. We have previously rejected these arguments, and defendant fails to persuade us to reconsider our prior decisions. California's death penalty scheme adequately narrows the class of deatheligible offenders. ( People v. San Nicolas, supra, 34 Cal.4th at p. 676.) California's use of capital punishment as an assertedly `regular form of punishment' for substantial numbers of crimes, rather than as an extraordinary punishment for extraordinary crimes, does not offend the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments by violating international norms of human decency. ( People v. Leonard (2007) 40 Cal.4th 1370, 1430 [58 Cal.Rptr.3d 368, 157 P.3d 973].) Neither the federal nor state Constitution requires intercase proportionality review for death penalty cases. ( People v. Williams (2006) 40 Cal.4th 287, 338 [52 Cal.Rptr.3d 268, 148 P.3d 47]; see Pulley v. Harris (1984) 465 U.S. 37, 50-51 [79 L.Ed.2d 29, 104 S.Ct. 871].)