California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Ashmus, 2 Cal.Rptr.2d 112, 54 Cal.3d 932, 820 P.2d 214 (Cal. 1991):
Defendant then broadly claims in effect that the misconduct he discerns "arbitrar[ily] depriv[ed]" him of a "substantial and legitimate expectation" arising from section 190.3 that he would be "deprived of his [life or] liberty only to the extent determined by the jury in the exercise of its statutory discretion" (Hicks v. Oklahoma (1980) 447 U.S. 343, 346, 100 S.Ct. 2227, 2229, 65 L.Ed.2d 175), and hence violated his right to due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment. There was simply no such deprivation, arbitrary or otherwise.
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