Opinion ID: 2344370
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Felix Díaz.

Text: Summary: Díaz and his co-defendant went to the home of the co-defendant's ex-lover seeking money for drugs. Díaz and the co-defendant beat, shot, and stabbed two members of the ex-lover's family, including his eight-year-old niece. The defendants then waited for the ex-lover to return home and also killed him. That victim's body was burned and a pet dog also was killed. The jury found the escape detection and felony murder aggravating factors. The jury also found Díaz's age (twenty-seven), lack of significant prior criminal history, and assistance to the State, in addition to the catch-all factor, to be mitigating. Díaz received consecutive life sentences; after the non-capital charges were added, his total term of parole ineligibility was more than one hundred years. Comparison: Defendant suggests that Díaz's case is simply a more aggravated version of his, save that Díaz received a life sentence. Defendant points out that the victimization in Díaz's case was about the same as in his own, except Díaz killed three people and, as to the last victim, Díaz lay in wait. Defendant concedes that Díaz was mildly retarded, but notes that defendant scored an eighty-one on a full-scale IQ test. Unlike Díaz, defendant suffered from bipolar disorder and had an abusive childhood. Defendant suggests that Díaz's case presents more criminal culpability than his, but in no event presents sufficiently less to justify Díaz's life sentence as opposed to defendant's death sentence. In contrast, the State points out that Díaz's jury found four mitigating factors: his age, his lack of significant criminal history, his assistance to the State, and the catch-all factor. This comparison is closely poised. Díaz's crime, with its additional victim and the fact that they waited for the final victim to return home, is more blameworthy than defendant's, but Díaz's character shows fewer indicia of culpability. The similarities in the cases are not dispositive of the issue of proportionality. We expect that juries may decide similar cases differently. Disparity alone does not demonstrate disproportionality. State v. Bey (IV), supra, 137 N.J. at 386, 645 A. 2d 685. Here, while there are disparate results in potentially similar cases, those differences, standing alone, are insufficient to suggest that defendant was unfairly singled-out for death.