Willie Lee Richmond v. Samuel A. Lewis, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections and Roger Crist, Superintendent of the Arizona State Prison

Willie Lee Richmond, who was sentenced to death upon conviction of first-degree murder in Arizona state court, appeals from the district court’s denial of his petition for habeas corpus. He contends that imposition of capital punishment will violate his rights under the sixth, eighth, and fourteenth amendments. We now affirm.

I

A

This case arises from Richmond’s conviction in 1974 for first-degree murder in the death of Bernard Crummett. On an August evening seventeen years ago, the victim met Rebecca Corella, a nude dancer, at the Bird Cage Bar in Tucson, Arizona. After leaving the bar, the pair met Richmond in the bar’s parking lot where Corella attempted to persuade Richmond to allow his fifteen-year-old girlfriend, Faith Erwin, to prostitute herself with Crummett. Richmond and Erwin refused, and after a brief conversation, Corella agreed to have sex with Crummett herself. Crummett thereupon produced a twenty-dollar bill, which Corella handed to Richmond and which Richmond palmed and surreptitiously exchanged for a ten. A brief argument ensued as Richmond and Corella insisted that Crummett had only given them ten dollars.

Crummett eventually yielded and agreed to pay more.…