Opinion
No. 69657
10-19-2016
RICHARD MAGDAYO DAHAN, Appellant, v. THE STATE OF NEVADA, Respondent.
ORDER OF AFFIRMANCE
This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction entered pursuant to a guilty plea of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon. Eighth Judicial District Court, Clark County; Kathleen E. Delaney, Judge.
Appellant Richard Dahan's sole claim on appeal is that his sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years and consecutive sentence of 8 to 20 years for the use of a deadly weapon constitute cruel and unusual punishment because he took responsibility for his crime and pleaded guilty.
Regardless of its severity, a sentence that is within the statutory limits is not "'cruel and unusual punishment unless the statute fixing punishment is unconstitutional or the sentence is so unreasonably disproportionate to the offense as to shock the conscience.'" Blume v. State, 112 Nev. 472, 475, 915 P.2d 282, 284 (1996) (quoting Culverson v. State, 95 Nev. 433, 435, 596 P.2d 220, 221-22 (1979)); see also Harmelin v. Michigan, 501 U.S. 957, 1000-01 (1991) (plurality opinion) (explaining the Eighth Amendment does not require strict proportionality between crime and sentence; it forbids only an extreme sentence that is grossly disproportionate to the crime).
Here, the sentence imposed is within the parameters provided by the relevant statutes, see NRS 193.165(1); NRS 200.030(4)(b)(2), and Dahan does not allege that those statutes are unconstitutional. We note that Dahan received the sentence that he stipulated to as part of the negotiated plea agreement. We conclude the sentence imposed is not so grossly disproportionate to the crime as to constitute cruel and unusual punishment, and we
ORDER the judgment of conviction AFFIRMED.
/s/_________, C.J.
Gibbons
/s/_________, J.
Tao
/s/_________, J.
Silver cc: Hon. Kathleen E. Delaney, District Judge
Clark County Public Defender
Attorney General/Carson City
Clark County District Attorney
Eighth District Court Clerk