Opinion ID: 1450597
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Constitutionality of Ohio's Death Penalty Scheme

Text: Beuke next challenges the constitutionality of Ohio's death penalty scheme. His arguments are entirely meritless and have been rejected by this court on numerous occasions. We therefore will afford them minimal attention. Beuke first contends that Ohio's death penalty scheme violates the Supreme Court's decision in Lowenfield v. Phelps, 484 U.S. 231, 108 S.Ct. 546, 98 L.Ed.2d 568 (1988), because it does not sufficiently narrow the class of murderers eligible for the death penalty. Beuke's argument lacks merit in light of our many cases holding that the Ohio death penalty scheme is consistent with Lowenfield. See, e.g., Coleman v. Mitchell, 268 F.3d 417, 443 (6th Cir.2001); Buell v. Mitchell, 274 F.3d 337, 369-70 (6th Cir.2001); Smith v. Mitchell, 348 F.3d 177, 214 (6th Cir.2003). Beuke next asserts that the Ohio appellate courts failed to determine whether his sentence was proportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases or, put differently, that the Ohio courts failed to review his sentence for comparative proportionality. Beuke specifically contends that his death sentence was disproportionate to the sentences imposed against ten other defendants who were convicted of aggravated murder in the same Ohio county but who did not receive the death penalty. This claim is meritless. This circuit has consistently interpreted the Supreme Court precedents to hold that comparative proportionality review is not required by the Constitution. Most recently, in our en banc opinion in Getsy v. Mitchell, 495 F.3d 295 (6th Cir.2007), we explained the distinction between the proportionality required by the Eighth Amendment and the comparative proportionality that the petitioner in Getsy  like Beuke in the case before us here  sought. Eighth Amendment proportionality, as defined by the Supreme Court, refers to an abstract evaluation of the appropriateness of a sentence for a particular crime. Proportionality as defined by the Supreme Court evaluates a particular defendant's culpability for his crime in relation to the punishment that he has received. Getsy, 495 F.3d at 305 (internal citations omitted). In those cases in which the Supreme Court has struck down a death sentence on proportionality grounds, we went on to say, the disproportionality was not in relation to sentences received by other similarly situated defendants; the disproportionality of the sentence was in relation to the particular crime that the particular defendant had committed. Id. Citing Pulley v. Harris, 465 U.S. 37, 104 S.Ct. 871, 79 L.Ed.2d 29 (1984), and McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279, 107 S.Ct. 1756, 95 L.Ed.2d 262 (1987), we pointed out that the Supreme Court has expressly held that a defendant could not prove a constitutional violation by demonstrating that other defendants who may be similarly situated did not receive the death penalty. Getsy, 495 F.3d at 305 (internal quotation marks omitted). Because Beuke bases his comparative proportionality argument on other defendants who did not receive the death penalty, his argument is directly foreclosed by our decision in Getsy. Moreover, we have upheld the proportionality review of Ohio's death penalty scheme against various innovative constitutional challenges, see Getsy, 495 F.3d at 306; Byrd, 209 F.3d at 539; Buell, 274 F.3d at 368-69; Cooey, 289 F.3d at 928; Smith, 348 F.3d at 214; Wickline v. Mitchell, 319 F.3d 813, 824-25 (6th Cir. 2003); Williams v. Bagley, 380 F.3d 932, 962-63 (6th Cir.2004), and Beuke has failed to distinguish or otherwise undermine this wealth of legal authority.