How have courts treated the issue of deterrence and cost during the penalty phase of a trial?

Defendant then claims the requested instruction was applicable. He is wrong. The issue of deterrence or cost was not raised at trial, either expressly or by implication. In People v. Ramos, supra, 37 Cal.3d 136, 159, footnote 12, 207 Cal.Rptr. 800, 689 P.2d 430, we effectively held that the issue of commutation must be deemed raised at the penalty phase of all capital cases. Our evident assumption was that there was a significant possibility that some jurors might be aware of the possibility of commutation and proceed to take it into account in determining penalty. By contrast, we do not believe that the issue of deterrence or cost must be deemed raised at the penalty phase of all capital cases. Surely, we have no basis on which to make an assumption similar to that which we made in Ramos. Defendant may be understood to argue that such a basis does in fact exist. For support, however, he relies on little more than speculation and conjecture. ¹³