State v. Atwood

FELDMAN, Chief Justice, specially concurring:

In cases imposing the death penalty, we conduct a proportionality review to determine whether the death sentence is “excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases, considering both the crime and the defendant.” State v. Richmond, 114 Ariz. 186, 196, 560 P.2d 41, 51 (1976), cert. denied, 433 U.S. 915, 97 S.Ct. 2988, 53 L.Ed.2d 1101 (1977).

We have reviewed cases involving comparable crimes, and conclude that Defendant’s sentence is not disproportiopate to the sentences imposed in those cases. See, e.g., State v. Beaty, 158 Ariz. 232, 762 P.2d 519 (1988), cert. denied, 491 U.S. 910, 109 S.Ct. 3200, 105 L.Ed.2d 708 (1989); State v. Castaneda, 150 Ariz. 382, 724 P.2d 1 (1986); State v. Roscoe, 145 Ariz. 212, 700 P.2d 1312 (1984), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1094, 105 S.Ct. 2169, 85 L.Ed.2d 525 (1985).

JAMES DUKE CAMERON and FRANK X. GORDON, JJ., concur.