Case Name: STATE of Louisiana v. Don JORDAN
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1983-10-17
Citations: 440 So. 2d 716
Docket Number: Nos. 83-KD-1392, 83-KD-1393
Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Don JORDAN.
Judges: CALOGERO, J., concurs in part, dissents in part and assigns reasons.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 440
Pages: 716–723

Head Matter:
STATE of Louisiana v. Don JORDAN.
Nos. 83-KD-1392, 83-KD-1393.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
Oct. 17, 1983.
Rehearing Denied Dec. 9, 1983.
Dwight Doskey, John M. Lawrence, Orleans Indigent Defender Program, New Orleans, for Don Jordan.
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Con-nick, Dist. Atty., John H. Craft, William R. Campbell, Jr., Asst. Dist. Attys., for the State.

Opinion:
BAILES, Justice Pro Tem.
The defendant was convicted of first degree murder for which the jury recommended the death sentence on its finding the aggravating circumstance in La.Code Crim.P. art. 905.4(a), i.e., that defendant committed the murder while engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of an armed robbery or aggravated burglary. On appeal, this court affirmed the defendant's conviction, however, the death penalty was set aside on the ground that an arbitrary factor had been injected into the jury's deliberations during the sentencing hearing. See State v. Jordan, 420 So.2d 420 (La.1982).
As provided by La.Code Crim.P. art. 905.-1, this court remanded to the district court for the empaneling of a new jury to determine the penalty.
By motion filed in limine, the defendant sought a ruling of the trial court prohibiting the state from using defendant's prior record of criminal convictions against him as evidence of an aggravating circumstance in the sentencing hearing. In support thereof, the defendant urged the trial court that La.Code Crim.P. art. 905.4(c) had been amended subsequent to the commission of the offense for which the defendant had been convicted to add an aggravating circumstance: "(c) the offender . has a significant prior history of criminal activity." Additionally, the defendant had not been Boykinized by the courts which accepted the pleas that led to his convictions that constituted his prior criminal record. %
The trial court ruled that the state could not argue the past criminal convictions of defendant as an aggravating circumstance. Additionally, the court ruled the state could anticipatorily introduce evidence of defendant's prior convictions. To this latter ruling, the defendant objected and sought writs in No. 83-KD-1392; the state objected to the first ruling and sought writs in No. 83-KD-1393. We granted both writs and both issues are before us at this time.
The 1979 amendment to art. 905.4(c) amended subparagraph (c) to read
(c) the offender was previously convicted of an unrelated murder, aggravated rape, or aggravated kidnapping or has a significant prior history of criminal activity; (The underscored portion is the amendment added in 1979.)
Before this amendment, the prior criminal record of the defendant unless specifically provided for did not constitute an aggravating circumstance. In other words, the amendment added to and enhanced the enumerated aggravating circumstances which prevailed at the time of the commission of the crime on April 8, 1979.
We find the amendment of La.Code Crim.P. art. 905.4(c), which provides an additional factor, is a substantive change in the law. Arguendo, let us assume that at the time this murder was committed, none of the then existing aggravating circumstances was applicable to this defendant, and consequently no ground existed for a jury to consider the death penalty. However, subsequent to the commission of this crime but before the conviction of this defendant, the legislature did add another factor, namely, "the offender . has a significant prior history of criminal activity," which is provable as to this defendant and which the jury may find beyond a reasonable doubt to exist. By the addition of this aggravating factor, this defendant is now exposed to the death penalty whereas, factually, prior to the commission of this murder, he was not so exposed. This change is ex post facto.
To apply this enhancing amendment to the aggravating circumstances to the sentencing procedure of this defendant for this crime is an ex post facto application of the law. Such is proscribed by the constitution. See State v. English, 367 So.2d 815 (La.1979) and State v. Collins, 370 So.2d 533 (La.1979).
Now, addressing the trial court's ruling that the state could anticipatorily introduce evidence of defendant's prior convictions obviously for the purpose of demonstrating the character and propensities of the offender, we consider the ruling correct.
La.Code Crim.P. art. 905 states:
Following a verdict of guilty in a capital case, a sentence of death may be imposed only after a sentencing hearing as provided herein.
Article 905.2, the interpretation of which is determinative of the issue before us, provides:
The sentencing hearing shall focus on the circumstances of the offense and the character and propensities of the offender. The hearing shall be conducted according to the rules of evidence. Evi dence relative to aggravating or mitigating circumstances shall be relevant irrespective of whether the defendant places his character at issue. Insofar as applicable, the procedure shall be the same as that provided for trial in the Code of Criminal Procedure. The jury may consider any evidence offered at the trial on the issue of guilt. The defendant may testify in his own behalf. In the event of retrial the defendant's testimony shall not be admissible except for purposes of impeachment.
The first sentence of art. 905.2 puts at issue the defendant's character and his propensities. It is the law which initiates the inquiry into the facts relating to the character of the defendant. With the defendant's character at issue, along with whatever else is germane to the determination of sentence, this article then mandates that the (sentencing) hearing shall be conducted according to the rules of evidence. Because of the gravity of this sentencing hearing, as distinguished from a penalty-determining process in a lesser offense conviction initiated and conducted by a judge as the sentencer, the safeguard is statutorily provided that this entire hearing shall be conducted according to the rules of evidence. These rules include the general rules on relevancy, documentary evidence, competency of witnesses, character evidence, impeaching and corroborative evidence.
Legitimate inquiry must include the character and propensities of the convicted defendant. No reported case questions the validity of the judge-sentencer's inquisitiveness of an offender's character. The character of the convicted offender is very much bound up in the process of determining sentence. See La.Code Crim.P. art. 894.1. Because of the uniqueness of the process by which the jury determines punishment, the legislature saw fit to premise the procedure on the statement that the focus shall be on the circumstances of the offense and the character and propensities of the offender. For very good reasons, the defendant-offender would gainsay the jury the right to focus on his character. With a procedure which denies to the sentencer, be it judge or jury, a full disclosure and assessment of the character of the offender, a finding short of substantial justice could well be the result.
While the character of the defendant is put at issue by art. 905.2, in presenting evidence on any mitigating circumstances by the defendant, the law of character evidence may conceivably be apropos vis-a-vis the defendant's witnesses, or even his own character if he should testify in his own behalf. The character per se of the defendant is not at issue in the guilt determining phase of the capital case (nor in any other criminal trial) as a factor to be considered as proof of guilt but only as it affects his credibility as a witness if he assumes the status of a witness in his own defense.
If the law were otherwise, there would not be a sure way for the sentencing jury to fulfill the mandates of this article of the code in the event the defendant elected not to testify or offer any witness who put his (the offender's) character at issue as to the mitigating circumstances or through other testimony. Not all of the mitigating circumstances are such that put at issue the defendant's character. To construe art. 905.2 in the manner urged by the defendant would be tantamount to holding that the convicted offender shall have the right to determine whether his character should be considered. Such a holding would fly right in the teeth of the clear and unequivocal first sentence which states: "The sentencing hearing shall focus on the circumstances of the offense and the character and propensities of the offender." (Emphasis added.)
It is axiomatic that the conviction per se puts the convicted offender's character at issue. Article 905.2 underpins that precept. To say that in such hearing the character of the defendant cannot be further developed unless he, the offender, first puts it at issue is to read out. of the statute its plain unambiguous language and to ignore the basic purpose of the sentencing hearing, i.e., a sentence tailored to the offense committed in keeping with the verdict, the character and the propensities of the offender.
The third sentence of art. 905.2 states: "Evidence relative to aggravating and mitigating circumstances' shall be relevant irrespective of whether the defendant places his character at issue." This provision has no restraining effect on the issue of evidence of the offender's character, and it complements the first sentence of the article. To hold otherwise would effectively hamstring the efficacy of the capital sentencing procedure.
From the relator's (Jordan) application for writs, it appears that the trial judge ruled the state could anticipatorily introduce evidence of defendant's prior convictions. We hold that the state may introduce prior convictions in its case-in-chief in the penalty phase of the case. See State v. Sawyer, 422 So.2d 95 (La.1982).
The defendant further argues that the state is prohibited from using prior convictions as evidence of his character for the reason those convictions are not based on proper Boykinized pleas. This issue is settled by our ruling in State v. Mattheson, 407 So.2d 1150 (La.1982), wherein we stated:
Nor do we find any merit in defendant's related argument that the trial judge erred in permitting introduction of the prior convictions without a showing by the state that defendant was represented by counsel or had waived same. In Lewis v. United States, 445 U.S. 55, 100 S.Ct. 915, 63 L.Ed.2d 198 (1980), the United States Supreme Court recognized that while uncounseled felony convictions could not be used for certain purposes, the Court stated that it had "never suggested that an uncounseled conviction was invalid for all purposes." In the instant case, the prior convictions were used in the sentencing phase of the trial. The convictions were not being used to enhance punishment; rather, defendant's past criminal history was merely a part of the total picture of his "character and propensities." It did not of itself trigger added penalties. Hence, we do not consider the sentencing hearing to be one of those instances where the state is required to affirmatively show that defendant was represented by counsel or had waived same before a prior conviction may be used to show the character and propensities of the defendant.
DECREE
Accordingly, for the reasons assigned, the rulings of the trial court are maintained and the trial court is to proceed with the sentencing hearing.
CALOGERO, J., concurs in part, dissents in part and assigns reasons.
DENNIS, J., dissents with reasons.
BLANCHE, J., concurs and assigns reasons.
WATSON, J., subscribes to the opinion and assigns additional reasons.
LEMMON, J., subscribes to the opinion and assigns additional reasons.
Bailes, J. sitting for Justice Marcus.
. In the absence of a codification of the law of evidence, the principal source of statutory evidence law is found in La.R.S. Title 15, Criminal Procedure, Chapter 2.
. Article 905.5 provides:
The following shall be considered mitigating circumstances;
(a) The offender has no significant prior history of criminal activity;
(b) The offense was committed while the offender was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance;
(c) The offense was committed while the offender was under the influence or under the domination of another person;
(d) The offense was committed under circumstances which the offender reasonably believed to provide moral justification or extenuation for his conduct;
(e) At the time of the offense the capacity of the offender to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law was impaired as a result of mental disease or defect or intoxication;
(f)The youth of the offender at the time of the offense;
(g) The offender was a principal whose participation was relatively minor;
(h) Any other relevant mitigating circumstance.