Whether sentencing a 19-year-old codefendant to death violates the Eighth Amendment or Equal Protection Clause when his similarly culpable 17-year-old codefendant may serve 15 years

QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. In a case in which the victim died from a single gunshot wound and the factfinder did not find that the death-sentenced codefendant fired the fatal shot, does it violate the Eighth Amendment or the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to sentence the nineteen-year-old codefendant to death when his similarly culpable seventeen-year-old codefendant may serve as little as fifteen years in prison? 2. Does a state appellate court’s death penalty review violate the Eighth Amendment when the appellate court determines that the impact of mitigation evidence—which could be presented at a new trial showing that the death-sentenced codefendant was not the shooter—is inconsequential solely because he was sentenced to death on the basis of two aggravating circumstances that were “independent” of which codefendant shot the victim? i