Opinion ID: 1256193
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Lack of Mitigating Circumstances

Text: {107} Section 31-20A-5 of the CFSA limits the types of aggravating circumstances that a jury may consider in a capital felony sentencing proceeding. A defendant's failure to show any mitigating circumstances, in and of itself, is not an aggravating circumstance under the CFSA. In this case, Defendant asserts that the prosecutor violated Section 31-20A-5 by arguing to the jury that Defendant's lack of remorse and his failure to show other mitigating circumstances amounted to an additional aggravating circumstance supporting the death penalty. We disagree with Defendant's characterization of the prosecutor's argument. {108} Sections 31-20A-2 and 31-20A-6 allow the defendant in a capital felony sentencing proceeding to present mitigating circumstances for the jury's consideration in deciding whether to impose a death sentence. In this case, Defendant's mitigating evidence included a brief allocution in which he expressed remorse for the killing, and the trial court instructed the jury, at Defendant's request, that it must consider Defendant's age; any remorse of the [D]efendant; the circumstances of the offense which are mitigating, and anything else which would lead you to believe that the death penalty should not be imposed. Once Defendant asserted mitigating circumstances, the prosecutor was entitled to offer a rebuttal concerning that issue. See Clark III, 1999-NMSC-035, ¶ 52, 128 N.M. 119, 990 P.2d 793. We construe the prosecutor's remarks about Defendant's lack of remorse and failure to show other mitigating evidence as an attempt to rebut Defendant's assertion of mitigating circumstances. We do not view such a rebuttal as an attempt to create an additional, nonstatutory aggravating circumstance. For these reasons, the State's rebuttal did not violate the CFSA or deprive Defendant of a fair trial.