Opinion ID: 2611426
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Excessiveness of death sentence

Text: NRS 177.055(2)(d) requires this court to review [w]hether the sentence of death is excessive, considering both the crime and the defendant. We conclude that the imposition of the death penalty was not excessive. Smith was brutally struck in the head three times with such force that each blow fractured his skull. Dr. Sohn testified that when Smith was shot in the head, he was probably lying on his back and that the gunshot wound was the cause of death because each of the blunt trauma wounds was not independently fatal. The way that the murder appears to have occurredthree blows to the head and then the gun placed directly on Smith's forehead and fired as he lay on the groundwas of such a heinous and gruesome nature that the imposition of the death penalty was not excessive. See Doleman v. State, 107 Nev. 409, 418, 812 P.2d 1287, 1293 (1991).