Opinion ID: 1902219
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Trifurcation

Text: Booth moved that his sentencing proceeding, already the second half of a bifurcated proceeding, be further bifurcated so that the jury would initially decide whether Booth was a first-degree principal before addressing the other sentencing issues. The trial judge denied the motion. Booth claims that the trial judge erred because evidence, such as the pre-sentence investigation report listing numerous prior crimes, prejudiced his hearing on principalship. After Booth filed his brief, however, this Court decided Wiggins v. State, 324 Md. 551, 597 A.2d 1359 (1991), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 112 S.Ct. 1765, 118 L.Ed.2d 427 (1992), which held that it was not error for a trial judge to refuse to order a separate hearing on the principalship issue. Id. at 578, 597 A.2d at 1372. Indeed, well before Wiggins this Court decided that it was permissible to consider the principalship issue together with the aggravation and mitigation issues. State v. Colvin, 314 Md. 1, 17 n. 5, 548 A.2d 506, 514 n. 5 (1988). We reaffirm those holdings, both of which relied on Rule 4-343. Booth also argues that a trial judge has discretion to bifurcate the principalship issue from the other issues in a sentencing proceeding, a question left unanswered by Wiggins. 324 Md. at 578, 597 A.2d at 1372. Because the trial judge denied bifurcation on the ground that, under Rule 4-343, this court is without authority to grant the motion, Booth submits that there was error requiring reversal. The trial judge did not have discretion to bifurcate the sentencing proceeding in order to separate out the principalship issue. Rule 4-343, and the sentencing form it incorporates, are binding. The rule makes clear that principalship and the other sentencing-related issues are resolved in a unitary sentencing proceeding. The rule applies whenever a sentence of death is sought under ...  413. Rule 4-343(a). Under Rule 4-343(e) the sentencing form is to be followed, except as provided in section (f). The form plainly contemplates that one jury will complete the form in one proceeding. Policy reasons advanced by Booth for separating the principalship issue from other sentencing issues were considered and rejected in our rule-making capacity when Rule 4-343 was adopted. They were reconsidered when the argument of the dissent in Colvin was rejected. Booth suggests that refusal further to bifurcate would violate the eighth amendment because principalship is an issue of guilt, rather than an issue of penalty, and Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 190-91, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 2933-34, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976), suggested that issues of guilt should be decided separately in a bifurcated proceeding. But Booth had been found guilty of murder in the first degree before the sentencing proceeding began.