Opinion ID: 1201769
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Right to a reliable verdict

Text: Also without merit is defendant's challenge under the federal Constitution's Eighth Amendment, which forbids infliction of cruel and unusual punishments. Although the Eighth Amendment imposes heightened reliability standards for both guilt and penalty determinations in capital cases (see Beck v. Alabama (1980) 447 U.S. 625, 638 [65 L.Ed.2d 392, 403, 100 S.Ct. 2382]), defendant gives us no reason to conclude that those standards were not met here. As this court remarked in rejecting essentially the same contention, defendant was given an opportunity to be heard and to cross-examine in a judicial forum. ( People v. Mincey, supra, 2 Cal.4th 408, 445.)