Hydroculture, Inc. v. Coopers

How later courts describe this case

• Defendant claimed that death penalty visited upon poor persons and male persons in disproportionate numbers
• defendant is entitled to impartial judge but not one totally ignorant of previous proceedings
• where victim “died almost instantly from a single gunshot wound [to the chest],” state failed to prove aggravating circumstance of “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel manner”
• state must prove aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt
• wherein accomplices had not even been prosecuted for the offense
• burden on defendant to show mitigating circumstances
• two accomplices to murder never charged