Opinion ID: 1454621
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 28

Heading: Alleged Arbitrariness, Discrimination, and Disproportionality in Defendant's Death Sentence

Text: Finally, defendant maintains that his sentence is disproportionate to the penalties imposed on the other principals in this case, disproportionate to the circumstances of the crime in light of defendant's character and background, and unconstitutional because of the infrequency of the penalty in single-victim robbery-murder cases. Defendant maintains that comparative sentence review is necessary to determine the proportionality of defendant's sentence. (63) Initially, defendant is not entitled to comparative intercase review of his sentence, whether based on statistics or on an examination of those cases in which arguably more serious murders received lesser sentences. ( McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) 481 U.S. 279 [95 L.Ed.2d 262, 107 S.Ct. 1756]; Pulley v. Harris (1984) 465 U.S. 37, 42-43 & fn. 5 [79 L.Ed.2d 29, 35, 104 S.Ct. 871].) (64) We have, however, examined the individual circumstances of the offense and the offender in reviewing capital sentences. ( In re Lynch (1972) 8 Cal.3d 410, 424-429 [105 Cal. Rptr. 217, 503 P.2d 921]; People v. Dillon (1983) 34 Cal.3d 441, 477-489 [194 Cal. Rptr. 390, 668 P.2d 697]; see also People v. Babbitt (1988) 45 Cal.3d 660, 726 [248 Cal. Rptr. 69, 755 P.2d 253].) Such an examination affords defendant no relief. His crime was a heinous and brutal one. After the victim had gone out of his way to help defendant and his companions, defendant viciously attacked and killed him in order to steal his van. He repeatedly struck a defenseless victim over the head with a rock; rolled him down an embankment; and then hit him again with a stick when he tried to get up. There was no conceivable provocation for the offense. Defendant boasted about his crime to at least three people and said he would do it again. He has a prior record of kidnapping and attempted rape. (65) (See fn. 25.) Under all of the circumstances, there is nothing arbitrary or unfair about the imposition of the death penalty. [25]