Does the Fourteenth Amendment prohibit the states from attaching the term "aggravating" to factors that are constitutionally impermissible or totally irrelevant to the sentencing process?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Benson, 276 Cal.Rptr. 827, 52 Cal.3d 754, 802 P.2d 330 (Cal. 1990):

Similarly, it is settled that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the states from "attach[ing] the 'aggravating' label to factors that are constitutionally impermissible or totally irrelevant to the sentencing process, ... or to conduct that actually should militate in favor of a lesser penalty...." (Zant v. Stephens (1983) 462 U.S. 862, 885, 103 S.Ct. 2733, 2747, 77 L.Ed.2d 235.) Evidently, it also bars use of decisionmaking processes that may be understood to incorporate such "mislabeling" and thereby threaten arbitrary and capricious results.

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