Opinion ID: 1640326
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: unconstitutionality of missouri death penalty scheme

Text: Appellant asserts that Missouri's death penalty scheme violates due process and the Eighth Amendment because this Court refuses to engage in meaningful proportionality review and because the imposition of the death penalty on appellant is inappropriate because of his age, mental capacity, and the fact that he had no prior contact with the criminal justice system. This Court has repeatedly considered and rejected appellant's arguments related to meaningful proportionality review. Chambers, 891 S.W.2d at 113; Parker, 886 S.W.2d at 933. Both this Court and the United States Supreme Court have considered and rejected appellant's claim relative to the imposition of the death penalty upon a sixteen-year-old defendant. State v. Wilkins, 736 S.W.2d 409 (Mo. banc 1987), aff'd sub. nom., Stanford v. Kentucky, 492 U.S. 361, 380, 109 S.Ct. 2969, 2980-81, 106 L.Ed.2d 306 (1989); see also § 565.020.2. There is no merit in appellant's contention that his age, when combined with his mental capacity and lack of prior contact with the criminal justice system, renders the imposition of the death penalty unconstitutional. The trial court considered all the mitigating circumstances fairly presented by the evidence and did not find that they outweighed the aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt.