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LANKFORD V. IDAHO, 500 U. S. 110 - Volume 500 - 1991 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 500 > LANKFORD V. IDAHO, 500 U. S. 110 (1991) > Full Text
The unique circumstance that gives rise to concern about the adequacy of the notice in this case is the fact that, pursuant to court order, the prosecutor had formally advised the trial judge and the petitioner that the State would not recommend the death penalty. To place this circumstance in
Page 500 U. S. 112
After the arraignment, petitioner's appointed counsel entered into plea negotiations with the prosecutor. During these negotiations, petitioner agreed to take two lie-detector tests. Although the results of the tests were not entirely satisfactory, they convinced the prosecutor that petitioner's older brother Mark was primarily responsible for the crimes, and was the actual killer of both victims. Id. at 193. The parties agreed on an indeterminate sentence with a 1-year minimum in exchange for a guilty plea, subject to a commitment from the trial judge that he would impose that sentence. In February, 1984, the judge refused to make that commitment. In March, the case went to trial. The State proved that petitioner and his brother Mark decided to steal their victims' Volkswagen van. Petitioner walked into the Bravences' campsite armed with a shotgun and engaged them in conversation. When Cheryl left and went to a nearby creek, Mark entered the campsite, ordered Robert to kneel down, and struck him on the head with a nightstick. When Cheryl returned, Mark gave her the same order, and killed her in the same manner. See State v. Lankford, 113 Idaho 688, 691, 747 P.2d 710, 713 (1987).
Page 500 U. S. 113
Petitioner testified in support of a defense theory that he was only an accessory after the fact. [Footnote 2] The jury was instructed, however, that evidence that petitioner "was present, and that he aided and abetted in the commission of the crime of robbery" was sufficient to support a conviction for first-degree murder. App. 16. [Footnote 3] The trial judge refused
Page 500 U. S. 114
to instruct the jury that a specific intent to kill was required. [Footnote 4] The jury found petitioner guilty on both counts.
"In relation to the above-named defendant, Bryan Stuart Lankford, the State through the Prosecuting Attorney
Page 500 U. S. 115
will not be recommending the death penalty as to either count of first degree murder for which the defendant was earlier convicted."
In the following month, there was a flurry of activity. The trial court granted petitioner's pro se request for a new lawyer, denied that lawyer's motion for a new trial based on the alleged incompetence of trial counsel, denied a motion for a continuance of the sentencing hearing, and denied the new lawyer's request for a typewritten copy of the trial transcript. [Footnote 6] In none of these proceedings was there any mention of the possibility that petitioner might receive a death sentence. [Footnote 7]
Page 500 U. S. 116
At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial judge made a rather lengthy statement in which he indicated that he considered petitioner's testimony unworthy of belief and that the seriousness of the crime warranted more severe punishment than that which the State had recommended. Id. at 114-118. At the beginning of this lengthy statement, he described the options available to the court, including the indeterminate
Page 500 U. S. 117
life sentence recommended by the State,
On that Monday, the trial judge spent the entire day conducting the sentencing hearing in Mark's case. At 9:38 p.m., he reconvened petitioner's sentencing hearing. After a preliminary colloquy, he read his written findings and sentenced petitioner to death. These findings, some of which were repeated almost verbatim in his later order sentencing Mark to death, repeatedly reflected the judge's opinion that the two brothers were equally culpable. [Footnote 11]
Page 500 U. S. 118
One Justice dissented from the affirmance of petitioner's sentence. Id. at 705, 747 P.2d at 727. Relying on the absence of any contention that petitioner struck any of the fatal blows, and the fact that the evidence concerning petitioner's intent was equivocal, he concluded that the sentence was invalid under our decisions in Enmund v. Florida [Footnote 12] and Tison v. Arizona, [Footnote 13] as well as under the Idaho cases that the majority had considered in its proportionality review. [Footnote 14]
Page 500 U. S. 119
As a factual matter, it is also undisputed that the character of the sentencing proceeding did not provide the petitioner with any indication that the trial judge contemplated death as a possible sentence. A hearing to decide whether the sentences should be indeterminate or fixed, whether they should run concurrently or consecutively, and what period of imprisonment was appropriate, would have proceeded in exactly the
Page 500 U. S. 120
It is, of course, true that this order did not expressly place any limits on counsel's preparation. The question, however, is whether it can be said that counsel had adequate notice of the critical issue that the judge was actually debating. Our
Page 500 U. S. 121
answer to that question must reflect the importance that we attach to the concept of fair notice as the bedrock of any constitutionally fair procedure. Justice Frankfurter eloquently made this point in Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee v. McGrath, 341 U. S. 123 (1951):
"Man, being what he is, cannot safely be trusted with complete immunity from outward responsibility in depriving others of their rights. At least such is the conviction underlying our Bill of Rights. That a conclusion satisfies one's private conscience does not attest its reliability. The validity and moral authority of a conclusion largely depend on the mode by which it was reached. Secrecy is not congenial to truth-seeking and self-righteousness gives too slender an assurance of rightness. No better instrument has been devised for arriving at truth than to give a person in jeopardy of serious loss notice of the case against him and opportunity to meet it. Nor has a better way been found for generating
Page 500 U. S. 122
the feeling, so important to a popular government, that justice has been done."
One of the arguments that petitioner's counsel could have raised had she known the death penalty was still at issue pertained to a concern voiced by the dissenting Justice in the Idaho Supreme Court, who was troubled by the question whether Bryan Lankford's level of participation met the standard described in Enmund v. Florida, 458 U. S. 782 (1982), Tison v. Arizona, 481 U. S. 137 (1987), and several Idaho cases. [Footnote 16] The dissenting Justice described the majority's
Page 500 U. S. 123
opinion as having mischaracterized the trial court's findings as to Bryan Lankford's state of mind. State v. Lankford, 113 Idaho 688, 706, 747 P.2d 710, 728 (1987). The factual dispute over the record, combined with the dissenting Justice's reliance on Idaho cases, demonstrates that petitioner failed to make an argument that, at least as a matter of state law, might have influenced the trial judge's deliberations. There was, however, no point in making such an argument if the death penalty was not at issue.
In view of the fact that the trial Judge's sentence appears to rest largely on his disbelief of petitioner's testimony [Footnote 18] and
Page 500 U. S. 124
consequent conclusion that he was just as culpable as his brother, the omission of certain factual evidence takes on special significance. In her postconviction motion, petitioner's counsel represented that the results of two polygraph examinations demonstrated that petitioner was truthful in his testimony concerning "his lack of participation in, or knowledge of, the killings." App. 170. Such evidence is inadmissible in Idaho in an ordinary case, and therefore, appropriately, was not offered at the sentencing hearing. Petitioner argues, however, that under the teaching of our decision in Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U. S. 586 (1978), [Footnote 19] such evidence would be admissible in a capital sentencing proceeding. Whether petitioner would ultimately prevail on this argument is not at issue at this point; rather, the question is whether inadequate notice concerning the character of the hearing frustrated counsel's opportunity to make an argument that might have persuaded the trial judge to impose a different sentence, or at least to make different findings than those he made.
At the very least, this is a case in which reasonable judges might differ concerning the appropriateness of the death sentence. It is therefore a case in which some of the reasoning that motivated our decision in Gardner v. Florida, 430 U.S.
Page 500 U. S. 125
349 (1977), is applicable. In that case, relying partly on the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and partly on the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, the Court held that a procedure for selecting people for the death penalty that permits consideration of secret information about the defendant is unacceptable. The plurality opinion, like the opinion concurring in the judgment, [Footnote 20] emphasized the special importance of fair procedure in the capital sentencing context. We emphasized that "death is a different kind of punishment from any other which may be imposed in this country." Id. at 430 U. S. 357. [Footnote 21] We explained:
Page 500 U. S. 126
Although the trial judge in this case did not rely on secret information, his silence following the State's response to the presentencing order had the practical effect of concealing from the parties the principal issue to be decided at the hearing. Notice of issues to be resolved by the adversary process is a fundamental characteristic of fair procedure. [Footnote 22]
Page 500 U. S. 127
430 U.S. at 430 U. S. 360. [Footnote 23] If notice is not given, and the adversary process is not permitted to function properly, there is an increased chance of error, see, e.g., United States v. Cardenas, 917 F.2d 683, 688-689 (CA2 1990), and with that, the possibility of an incorrect result. See, e.g., Herring v. New York, 422 U. S. 853, 422 U. S. 862 (1975) ("The very premise of our adversary system of criminal justice is that partisan advocacy on both sides of a case will best promote the ultimate objective that the guilty be convicted and the innocent go free"). Petitioner's lack of adequate notice that the judge was contemplating the imposition of the death sentence created an impermissible risk that the adversary process may have malfunctioned in this case.
Page 500 U. S. 128
"[w]here the court finds a statutory aggravating circumstance the court shall sentence the defendant to death unless the court finds that mitigating circumstances which may be
Page 500 U. S. 129
presented outweigh the gravity of any aggravating circumstance."
Idaho Code § 19-2515(c) (1987) (emphasis added). Moreover, the finding of a statutory aggravating circumstance is not dependent upon any presentation by the prosecution. Under Idaho law, "[e]vidence admitted at trial shall be considered and need not be repeated at the sentencing hearing." Idaho Code § 19-2515(d). Anyone familiar with Lankford's case and Idaho law should have recognized immediately that the judge would necessarily find at least one statutory aggravating circumstance, for the jury's guilty verdict on the two separate murder counts established that, "[a]t the time the murder was committed the defendant also committed another murder," Idaho Code § 19-2515(g)(2). [Footnote 2/1] Thus, the judge would be bound by law, see Idaho Code § 19-2515(e), to weigh all mitigating and aggravating circumstances and to impose the death penalty unless the former outweighed the latter. Moreover, since an aggravating circumstance would necessarily have been found, in the event that Lankford did not receive the death penalty, the court would be required to "detail in writing its reasons" for giving a lesser sentence. Ibid. No provision of the Idaho Code suggests that these duties placed upon the judge by § 19-2515 dissolve upon the State's recommending a lower sentence.
Page 500 U. S. 130
The Court nevertheless holds that Lankford reasonably concluded from the judge's September 6 order and the State's response that the death penalty did not remain an issue. "The presentencing order," the Court says, ". . . was comparable to a pretrial order limiting the issues to be tried." Ante at 500 U. S. 120. To say that is simply to assume the conclusion. Assuredly, despite the clarity of Idaho law, if the judge explicitly limited the issues to be considered at sentencing, or in some other way indicated that he would not exceed the prosecutor's recommendation, Lankford would have a case. But was it reasonable to view the September 6 order as "a pretrial order limiting the issues to be tried"? A pretrial order having such preclusive effect is typically entered pursuant to a rule or statute that says it will be preclusive. See, e.g.,
Page 500 U. S. 110
Fed.Rule Civ.Proc. 16(e). When an order is not entered pursuant to such a provision, as was the case here, one would expect the order itself to specify its preclusive effect, if any. But the present order said only that the prosecutor must state his intentions. It seems to me that the absolute limit of preclusion even inferable from that order was that the prosecutor, if he did not express the intention to seek the death penalty, would not be permitted to argue for it at the sentencing hearing. The consequence of that, of course, would be that the death penalty would be less likely to be imposed, since no one would be pressing it upon the judge and defense counsel's arguments against it would go unanswered. But neither explicitly in the order, nor as an inference of the order, nor even as a consequence of an inference, does it appear that the judge would be entirely precluded from imposing the death penalty. There was simply no basis for thinking that.
"THE COURT: I don't know that there is any provision that the state notify. "
Page 500 U. S. 132
(Emphasis added.) Pursuant to that section, the judge did order a presentence investigation -- a step not required (or even specifically contemplated) by the Code except in death penalty cases. And the trial judge's reference to statutory aggravating circumstances itself shows that the death penalty remained
Page 500 U. S. 133
at issue, for only as to that penalty are qualifying aggravating circumstances specifically listed, see Idaho Code § 19-2515(g). [Footnote 2/2]
The Court believes, and I have assumed up to this point, that Lankford and his counsel did detrimentally rely upon the State's declaration, i.e., that they did believe, albeit unreasonably, that the death penalty was foreclosed as an option at sentencing. It is far from clear, however, that that was so,
Page 500 U. S. 134
and I do not believe that Lankford has carried the burden of establishing it.
There remains, of course, the possibility that counsel genuinely (though unreasonably) believed, because of the September 6 order, that the death penalty had been precluded not in law, but as a matter of the judge's intentions. But there is some indication that even this was not so. The judge, in his lengthy statement at the end of the sentencing hearing -- concluding with the announcement that he would not sentence immediately but would take the matter under advisement -- stated that the available sentences included "[f]or example, a fixed term of 40 years or death or a fixed life sentence. So there are a great number of possibilities available to this Court." Id. at 330 (emphasis added). If Lankford's counsel believed that the defense had been given assurance that the death penalty was (at least as a practical matter) out of the case, one would have expected a shocked objection at this point. None was made -- though counsel was aggressive
Page 500 U. S. 135
enough in objecting to another portion of the judge's concluding statement, two pages later in the transcript, that the judge interrupted with "Counsel, I'm not here to argue with you." Id. at 332.