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Timestamp: 2018-01-23 08:04:12
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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 13', '§ 13', '§ 13', '§ 13', '§ 13', '§ 13703', '§ 13']

RICHMOND v. LEWIS, DIRECTOR, ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, ET AL. 506 U.S. 40 - US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
US Supreme Court Decisions - On-Line> Volume 506 > RICHMOND v. LEWIS, DIRECTOR, ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, ET AL. 506 U.S. 40
RICHMOND v. LEWIS, DIRECTOR, ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, ET AL. 506 U.S. 40
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Held: Richmond's death sentence violates the Eighth Amendment. The (F)(6) factor was unconstitutionally vague at the time the sentencing judge gave it weight. Walton v. Arizona, 497 U. S. 639, 654. The State Supreme Court did not cure this error, because the two specially concurring justices did not actually reweigh the aggravating and mitigating circumstances in affirming the sentence. See, e. g., Clemons v. Mississippi, 494 U. S. 738. Those justices did not purport to perform a new sentencing calculus, or even mention the evidence in mitigation. Nor can such a reweighing be presumed, since language in the concurrence plainly indicates that Richmond's aggravated criminal background provided a conclusive justification for the death penalty, thereby evincing the sort of automatic affirmance rule proscribed in a "weighing" State such as Arizona. Id., at 751. Because a majority of the State Supreme Court did not perform a curative reweighing in voting to af-cralaw
O'CONNOR, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which REHNQUIST, C.J., and WHITE, BLACKMUN, STEVENS, KENNEDY, SOUTER, and THOMAS, JJ., joined. THOMAS, J., filed a concurring opinion, post, p. 52. SCALIA, J., filed a dissenting opinion, post, p. 53.
After Corella and Crummett concluded their encounter at the hotel, the group again went for a drive, this time to a deserted area outside Tucson, where, Crummett believed, Corella would perform another act of prostitution. Petitioner stopped the car and got out. He first struck Crummett to the ground and next threw several large rocks at Crummett's head. Crummett's watch and wallet werecralaw
Petitioner was convicted of both robbery and first degree murder. The jury was instructed as to the elements of felony murder as well as premeditated murder; the murder conviction was returned by a general verdict. Judge Roylston held the penalty hearing required by Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 13-703 (1989), then codified as § 13-454, and sentenced petitioner to death for the murder and 15-20 years' imprisonment for the robbery. The judge found two statutory aggravating factors: that petitioner had a prior felony conviction involving the use or threat of violence on another person, § 13-703(F)(2) (an armed kidnaping), and that petitioner "committed the offense in an especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner," § 13-703(F)(6) Â«F)(6) factor). Specifically, Judge Roylston's written order stated that "the Defendant did commit the offense in an especially heinous and cruel manner." App. 44. There was no explicit finding about the identity of the driver of the vehicle.
Petitioner unsuccessfully sought postconviction relief in the trial court, attaching two affidavits by persons whocralaw
Petitioner's resentencing took place in March 1980. At the hearing, one defense witness testified that Erwin had identified Corella as the driver, while another stated that Corella had admitted the same. The defense also produced evidence of petitioner's rehabilitation in prison and of the effect his execution would have on his family. Judge Roylston again sentenced petitioner to death, this time finding three statutory aggravating circumstances: under Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 13-703(F)(2) (prior violent felony) and § 13703(F)(6) ("especially heinous, cruel or depraved" offense), as before, and also under § 13-703(F)(1) (prior felony meriting life imprisonment), for a murder charge of which petitioner had been convicted after the first sentencing even though the murder predated Crummett's. Once again, the judge found that "the Defendant did commit the offense in this casecralaw
We denied certiorari. 464 U. S. 986 (1983). Petitioner filed a habeas corpus action in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, challenging his sentence and conviction. The District Court denied relief, Richmond v. Ricketts, 640 F. Supp. 767 (1986), and the Ninth Circuit affirmed, 921 F.2d 933 (1990). As to the (F)(6) factor, the panel held that a valid narrowing construction of that factorcralaw
First, a statutory aggravating factor is unconstitutionally vague if it fails to furnish principled guidance for the choice between death and a lesser penalty. See, e. g., Maynard v. Cartwright, 486 U. S. 356, 361-364 (1988); Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U. S. 420, 427-433 (1980). Second, in a "weighing" State, where the aggravating and mitigating factors are balanced against each other, it is constitutional error for the sentencer to give weight to an unconstitutionally vague aggravating factor, even if other, valid aggravating factors ob-cralaw
This provision governed petitioner's resentencing and remains unamended in relevant part. Read most naturally, it requires the sentencer to weigh aggravating and mitigating circumstances-to determine the relative "substan[ce]" of the two kinds of factors. And the provision has been con-cralaw
We agree with petitioner that the concurrence in Richmond II did not reweigh. Our prior cases do not specify the degree of clarity with which a state appellate court must reweigh in order to cure an otherwise invalid death sentence, see Clemons v. Mississippi, supra, at 750-752; cf. Sochor v. Florida, 504 U. S. 527, 540 (1992) (discussing clarity of state appellate court's harmless-error analysis); Stringer v. Black, 503 U. S., at 229-232 (same), and we need not do so here. At a minimum, we must determine that the state court actually reweighed. "[W]hen the sentencing body is told to weigh an invalid factor in its decision, a reviewing court may not assume it would have made no difference if the thumb had been removed from death's side of the scale," id., at 232, nor can a court "cure" the error without deciding, itself, that the valid aggravating factors are weightier than the mitigating factors. "[O]nly constitutional harmless-error analysis orcralaw
The plain meaning of this passage is that petitioner's aggravated background provided a conclusive justification for the death penalty. The passage plainly evinces the sort of automatic affirmance rule proscribed in a "weighing" State-"a rule authorizing or requiring affirmance of a death sentence so long as there remains at least one valid aggravating circumstance." Clemons v. Mississippi, 494 U. S., at 751.cralaw
But we need not decide whether the principal opinion in Richmond II remained within the constitutional boundaries of the (F)(6) factor. Respondents assume that at least a majority of the Supreme Court of Arizona needed to perform a proper reweighing and vote to affirm petitioner's death sentence if that court was to cure the sentence of the initial vagueness error. See Brief for Respondents 27, 49, n. 16. Thus, even assuming that the two justices who joined the principal opinion properly reweighed, their votes did not suffice to validate the death sentence. One more proper vote was needed, but there was none. As we have already ex-cralaw
The Court holds that the concurring Arizona Supreme Court justices violated the rule of Clemons v. Mississippi, 494 U. S. 738 (1990), by failing to reweigh aggravating and mitigating circumstances after concluding that only two of the three aggravating circumstances found by the trial court were present in this case. Respondents do not claim that this rule is a new one for purposes of Teague v. Lane, 489 U. S. 288 (1989), and that it is consequently unavailable to a habeas petitioner. The reason, presumably, is that a Teague defense is foreclosed by Stringer v. Black, 503 U. S. 222 (1992), which held that "there was no arguable basis" in Feb-cralaw
*Richmond's conviction became final on November 14, 1983-15 months before Stringer's conviction became final. I cannot imagine, however, that this distinction renders Stringer inapplicable to this case. The decision in Stringer rested on the premise that the rule against automatic affirmance "emerges not from any single case," but from a "long line of authority," Stringer v. Black, 503 U. S., at 232, and that "line of authority" consists entirely of cases decided before Richmond's conviction became final, see id., at 227-232.cralaw
Since in my view compliance with Furman is all that was required, any error committed by Chief Justice Holohan'scralaw