Does the failure to provide procedural safeguards at the penalty phase offend equal protection principles?

The failure to afford capital defendants at the penalty phase the same procedural safeguards afforded to noncapital defendants does not offend equal protection principles, because the two groups are not similarly situated. (People v. Whalen (2013) 56 Cal.4th 1, 91, 152 Cal.Rptr.3d 673, 294 P.3d 915.)

California does not regularly use the death penalty as a form of punishment, and "its imposition does not violate international norms of decency or the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment." (People v. Clark, supra , 52 Cal.4th at p. 1008, 131 Cal.Rptr.3d 225, 261 P.3d 243.)