Opinion ID: 2605164
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: constitutionality of new mexico's capital punishment statutes

Text: Defendant challenges the constitutionality of New Mexico's capital punishment statutes, NMSA 1978, Sections 31-20A-1 through 31-20A-6 (Repl.Pamp. 1981), on six grounds. The New Mexico Public Defender Department also submitted a brief of amicus curiae challenging the statutes' constitutionality. A. Defendant first asserts that the capital punishment statutes are unconstitutional because they neither require any specific finding by the jury on mitigating circumstances nor provide any standard by which the jury determines that the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances. This Court has already decided this issue adverse to Defendant. State v. Garcia, 99 N.M. 771, 664 P.2d 969, cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 103 S.Ct. 2464, 77 L.Ed.2d 1341 (1983). See Gray v. Lucas, 677 F.2d 1086 (5th Cir.1982). B. Defendant next asserts that the capital punishment statutes impermissibly require him to carry the burden of proof and the risk of nonpersuasion at the sentencing phase of trial. Defendant argues that if the evidence is inconclusive, or if defense counsel does not or cannot present the evidence effectively, the defendant must be put to death. We are not persuaded by Defendant's argument. Section 31-20A-3 provides for a proceeding in which the jury must specify and unanimously find beyond a reasonable doubt at least one of the aggravating circumstances enumerated in Section 31-20A-5. The jury must also unanimously specify that the sentence of death should be imposed pursuant to Section 31-20A-2. In providing the jury the necessary guidance by which to effectuate the statutes, this Court has promulgated oral and written instructions that apprise the jury that the burden of establishing the aggravating circumstances remains at all times upon the State. See NMSA 1978, UJI Crim. 39.10, 39.11, 39.14 through 39.20, 39.31, 39.32 (Repl.Pamp. 1982); see also State v. Garcia. Defendant does not contend that the instructions as given were improper in any particular. Rather, Defendant asserts the constitutional invalidity of the New Mexico capital punishment statutes on the grounds that this law requires him to assume the burden of proof and the risk of non-persuasion. Defendant's contention that if he presents no mitigating circumstances or presents them poorly, this essentially condemns him to a mandatory death is without merit. Both the burden of proof and the burden of final persuasion rest squarely upon the State. See Gray v. Lucas . C. We have considered Defendant's claim that the jury has unlimited and unrestrained discretion during the sentencing phase of the trial. We find his argument without merit. Under New Mexico's statutes, a defendant is afforded substantial constitutional safeguards by the limitation on the aggravating circumstances as set forth in Section 31-20A-5, and the virtually unlimited mitigating circumstances provided for in Section 31-20A-6. See Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 102 S.Ct. 869, 71 L.Ed.2d 1 (1982); Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978). D. Defendant claims that the New Mexico statutes are unconstitutional because the provisions requiring a bifurcated trial on the issues of guilt and sentencing operate to deny due process of law and equal protection. In essence, Defendant claims that once the jury had convicted him of the criminal offenses, the jury was biased and was not able fairly and impartially to weigh the evidence for and against the death penalty. The legislative mandate is that all evidence admitted at the trial shall be considered and additional evidence may be presented as to the circumstances of the crime and as to any aggravating or mitigating circumstances. NMSA 1978, § 31-20A-1(C) (Repl.Pamp. 1981). Indeed, liberal admission of evidence for consideration by the sentencing authority is necessary for a just result. As the United States Supreme Court has stated, [w]e think it desirable for the jury to have as much information before it as possible when it makes the sentencing decision. Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 204, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 2939, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976) (citation omitted). Firsthand observation of the evidence adduced at trial provides the jury with the best information possible to make the weighty decisions involved in both guilt determination and sentencing. The bifurcated trial to one jury does not offend constitutional principles. Cf. People v. Lewis, 88 Ill.2d 129, 58 Ill.Dec. 895, 430 N.E.2d 1346 (1981). E. Defendant claims that the mitigating circumstances relating to a defendant's having no significant history of prior criminal activity, NMSA 1978, § 31-20A-6(A) (Repl.Pamp. 1981), is unconstitutionally vague and indefinite. Amicus argues that arbitrary and capricious sentencing will occur because this mitigating circumstance fails in objectivity. We disagree. We are not persuaded that the wording is vague and indefinite as to render Section 31-20A-6(A) unconstitutional. As the Supreme Court of Florida stated in answer to a similar contention, [a]s to what is significant criminal activity an average man can easily look at a defendant's record, weigh traffic offenses on the one hand and armed robberies on the other, and determine which represents significant prior criminal activity. State v. Dixon, 283 So.2d 1, 9 (Fla. 1973); see also People v. Lewis, 88 Ill.2d 129, 58 Ill.Dec. 895, 430 N.E.2d 1346 (1981); State v. Holtan, 197 Neb. 544, 250 N.W.2d 876 (1977). F. We previously discussed Defendant's final challenge to New Mexico's capital felony sentencing act in State v. Garcia. In that case we held that the death penalty in and of itself, does not violate federal or state constitutional mandates against cruel and unusual punishment.