Opinion ID: 2410262
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Narrowing of categories in capital-murder statute

Text: The final point raised for reversal by Sanders is that the capital-murder statute violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments' prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. He contends that Ark.Code Ann. § 5-10-101(a)(4) (Repl.1993), which defines capital murder, in part, as the killing of a person [w]ith the premeditated and deliberated purpose of causing the death of another person, fails adequately to narrow the death penalty cases from the non-death cases. This issue has been considered and rejected in the past by this court. Cox v. State, 313 Ark. 184, 853 S.W.2d 266 (1993) (class of offenses narrowed by aggravating circumstance); Johnson v. State, 308 Ark. 7, 823 S.W.2d 800, cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 112 S.Ct. 3043, 120 L.Ed.2d 911 (1992) (narrowing primarily occurs at penalty phase).