Opinion ID: 2515839
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Death sentence as disproportionate to individual culpability.

Text: Defendant insists his death sentence is disproportionate to his individual culpability, and thus violates state and federal constitutional provisions against cruel and/or unusual punishment. In assessing such a claim, we must examine the circumstances of the crime, as well as the defendant's personal characteristics. ( Panah, supra, 35 Cal.4th 395, 501, 25 Cal.Rptr.3d 672, 107 P.3d 790.) If, given these factors, the penalty imposed is `grossly disproportionate to the defendant's individual culpability' [citation], so that the punishment ``shocks the conscience and offends fundamental notions of human dignity'' [citation], [we] must invalidate the sentence as unconstitutional. ( People v. Lucero (2000) 23 Cal.4th 692, 739-740, 97 Cal.Rptr.2d 871, 3 P.3d 248.) Defendant, acting alone, robbed and brutally murdered an elderly couple who had shown kindness to him. He was not a youth at the time of these offenses, and he had previously committed at least one other serious felony, an armed robbery. Defendant cites his difficult early childhood, leading to drug addiction, and the possibility he killed in a panic, and in a misguided effort at self-defense, induced by his intoxicated state. However, the jury, on substantial evidence, essentially rejected this version of the homicides, and we may not substitute our judgment for the factfinder's. Moreover, though defendant's earliest years may have been deprived, he was adopted when still a young child by parents who showered him with wholesome love, attention, and support. His personal hardships pale in comparison to the gravity of his crimes. We cannot conclude that the penalty imposed is disproportionate to his culpability. Defendant further urges that we have, and should exercise, authority under sections 1181, subdivision 7, and 1260 to reduce his death sentence to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. But we have concluded we may not, under these statutes, disturb the jury's penalty determination absent prejudicial error or legal insufficiency of evidence. ( Hines, supra, 15 Cal.4th 997, 1080, 64 Cal.Rptr.2d 594, 938 P.2d 388.)