Does the death penalty violate the state constitutional prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment?

7 We held in 1972 that the death penalty violated the state constitutional prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment. (People v. Anderson (1972) 6 Cal.3d 628, 651, 100 Cal.Rptr. 152, 493 P.2d 880.) Shortly thereafter, however, the Constitution was amended, replacing our reading of the prohibition with a fixed interpretation of cruel or unusual punishment authorizing the death penalty by the power of the then-current public will. (Cal.Const., Art. I, 27.)