Opinion ID: 1181110
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Dual Use of Aggravating Factors.

Text: (41a) Defendant contends that the trial court's failure sua sponte to modify CALJIC No. 8.84.1 improperly permitted the jury to consider the circumstances of Leah Schendel's death under both factors (a) and (b) and his 1973 Massachusetts robberies under both factors (b) and (c), [27] thereby increasing the likelihood that the jury would find that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating and would therefore return a death sentence. (42) It is settled that factors (b) and (c) of section 190.3 pertain only to criminal activity other than the crimes for which the defendant was convicted in the present proceeding. ( People v. Miranda, supra, 44 Cal.3d at pp. 105-106; see also People v. Melton, supra, 44 Cal.3d at p. 764.) We have also determined, however, that section 190.3 contemplates the dual consideration of a prior felony conviction under factors (b) and (c) when the underlying felony involved violence. ( People v. Melton, supra, at pp. 765-766; cf. People v. Balderas (1985) 41 Cal.3d 144, 201 [222 Cal. Rptr. 184, 711 P.2d 480] [explaining the difference between factors (b) and (c)].) This is because factors (b) and (c) are directed to distinct aspects of the defendant's character: his propensity to violence and his failure to respond to correction. To consider each in aggravation does not artificially inflate the aggravating factors, but, rather, truly reflects the defendant's particularized circumstances ( Jurek v. Texas (1976) 428 U.S. 262, 274 [49 L.Ed.2d 929, 939, 96 S.Ct. 2950]). (See People v. Melton, supra, 44 Cal.3d at pp. 765-766.) It cannot seriously be disputed that a defendant whose prior conviction involved violence is more culpable than one whose did not, nor that a defendant whose prior violent activity resulted in conviction is more culpable than one who has not previously been punished by the criminal justice system. (41b) In the case at bench, in any event, there could have been no confusion concerning the application of the three factors. The prosecutor in closing argument explained that the circumstances of the crime referred to the nature of the attack on Leah Schendel, any prior felony convictions referred to defendant's two convictions for armed robbery, and other violent criminal conduct by defendant referred to the attack on Mavis W. and defendant's other specified assaultive behavior. Defense counsel covered the same ground.