In Dobbert v. Florida (1977) 432 U.S. 282, the defendant was convicted of capital murder under an amendment to the state death penalty statute that had been enacted after a former version of the law was declared unconstitutional. The state supreme court had commuted to life imprisonment the sentences of those sentenced to death under the former version of the law. The defendant in Dobbert complained that by virtue of his death sentence, he was being punished more harshly than persons who had committed a murder on the same date as he did, but had been prosecuted under the former, unconstitutional version of the death penalty law. The high court rejected his equal protection argument: "Petitioner is simply not similarly situated to those whose sentences were commuted. He was neither tried nor sentenced prior to the decision declaring the former law unconstitutional, as were they. . . ." (Dobbert v. Florida, supra, 432 U.S. at p. 301.)