Opinion ID: 712211
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Nebraska's Death Penalty Scheme is Facially Arbitrary and Arbitrary as Applied.

Text: 49 This claim amounts to an attack on the prosecutorial and sentencing discretion inherent in our system of law, in that actors are permitted to show mercy. Mercy may arise from a favorable plea bargain, from the failure to pursue a death sentence, or from the sentencer's refusal to impose the death sentence even when it would be permissible to do so. However, the Supreme Court has already explicitly rejected the argument that the possibility of prosecutors or sentencers showing mercy renders a death penalty scheme arbitrary. Proffitt v. Florida, 428 U.S. 242, 254, 96 S.Ct. 2960, 2967, 49 L.Ed.2d 913 (1976); Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 199-204, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 2937-39, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976). The Court explained that nothing in the Constitution forbids a decision to grant individual defendants mercy, rather the inquiry into arbitrariness focuses on the system leading to an ultimate denial of mercy. Gregg, 428 U.S. at 199, 96 S.Ct. at 2937. In fact, the Court intimated that a regime with no room for mercy would be alien to our system of law and unconstitutional in itself. Id. at 199-200 n. 50, 96 S.Ct. at 2937-38 n. 50. Therefore, this claim too is without merit.