Opinion ID: 2611126
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: ors 163.150 permits a general mitigation question

Text: The source of the trial court's authority and responsibility to charge the jury is statutory. ORCP 58 B(6) and 59 B, applicable to criminal proceedings pursuant to ORS 136.330, respectively provide in relevant part: The court    shall charge the jury. In charging the jury, the court shall state to them all matters of law necessary for their information in giving their verdict. This source of authority and responsibility traces back in all essential particulars to the 19th century Civil Code in Oregon. See, e.g., Smith v. Shattuck, 12 Or. 362, 369, 7 P. 335 (1885). Hand in hand with the trial court's responsibility to instruct the jury on all [necessary] matters of law is the well-established rule in this state that a party litigant is entitled to have the court instruct the jury upon his theory of the case as formulated in properly requested instructions which correctly state the law, and which are founded upon the pleadings and the proof in the case. Denton v. Arnstein, 197 Or. 28, 46, 250 P.2d 407 (1952). (Emphasis added.) In State v. Farrar, 309 Or. 132, 786 P.2d 161 (1990) (decided this date), for example, the defendant correctly contended, and submitted instructions accordingly, that he cannot constitutionally be sentenced to death unless the jury is instructed that it may spare his life if the jury believes, under all the circumstances, that it is appropriate to do so. See State v. Wagner, supra, 305 Or. at 161, 752 P.2d 1136 (agreeing that the jury must be permitted to consider `non statutory mitigating circumstances'). In this case, the pro se defendant at trial did not submit properly requested instructions on general mitigation, although on appeal defendant asserts that evidence was received that required the submission of a fourth question and that [d]efendant was entitled to additional jury instructions under Penry.  For purposes of this inquiry into the application of ORS 163.150 and because the ruling in this case has general applicability to each of the death penalty verdicts rendered before the July 24, 1989, amendment of ORS 163.150, some of which cases expressly raised the issue at trial, the considerations expressed in Denton v. Arnstein, supra , which are equally applicable in the criminal sentencing context, apply in our analysis in this case. We are thus left with circumstances in which (1) the federal constitution requires admission of all mitigating evidence; (2) the statute permits admission of such evidence; (3) the federal constitution requires a mechanism for meaningful consideration of all mitigating evidence, including evidence beyond the scope of the statutory questions; (4) the statute permits arguments by defendant for life based on all mitigating evidence; (5) the trial court is obliged to instruct the sentencing jury on all necessary matters of law; and (6) defendant is entitled to an instruction that, notwithstanding an affirmative answer to the statutory questions, the jury may conclude that mitigating evidence justifies imposition of a life sentence. [4] We hold that, in such circumstances, the trial court has the statutory authority under ORS 163.150(1), (and the constitutional responsibility if the facts require it), to submit to the sentencing jury a fourth question, in response to which the sentencing jury may spare a defendant from the death penalty, notwithstanding an affirmative finding on the issues listed in subsection (1)(b) of the statute. Our conclusion is further supported by the fact that the United States Supreme Court has held that the capital-sentencing procedures of Texas, which are substantially identical to those in Oregon, are not facially unconstitutional in their treatment of mitigating evidence. See Jurek v. Texas, 428 U.S. 262, 276, 96 S.Ct. 2950, 2958, 49 L.Ed.2d 929 (1976) (We conclude that Texas' capital-sentencing procedures, like those of Georgia and Florida, do not violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments). This court made a similar determination regarding the Oregon capital sentencing procedures under the state and federal constitutions in Wagner. The United States Supreme Court did not reconsider the facial constitutionality of the Texas statute in its Penry decision. That court also remanded Wagner to this court for reconsideration in light of Penry. In neither instance did it overrule Jurek. If the United States Supreme Court wishes to overrule Jurek, that is its responsibility, not ours. This court has determined that the statute is facially constitutional in Wagner and now on reconsideration in light of Penry we adhere to that decision.