Opinion ID: 2081007
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The prosecutor's discretion to charge (or dismiss) the death penalty count renders the penalty arbitrary and capricious and, therefore, cruel and unusual.

Text: Under our State's system of criminal justice, the prosecutor always has been allowed broad discretion in representing the people of the State in determining what crimes to prosecute and in requesting the imposition of various sentences. We reject the argument that the legislature's continued placement of such discretion on the prosecutor to determine which cases warrant the request for the imposition of the death penalty renders the penalty unconstitutional. Coleman v. State (1990), Ind., 558 N.E.2d 1059, 1065, cert. denied (1991), ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 2912, 115 L.Ed.2d 1075; Games, 535 N.E.2d at 537. There is nothing in this record which leads us to believe that the prosecutor abused his discretion in seeking the death penalty for a triple murder.