Opinion ID: 3003989
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Indiana’s Capital Sentencing Statute

Text: At this point, we could remand to the district court with instructions to grant Corcoran’s habeas petition, and call it a day. But that would allow Corcoran’s remaining habeas challenges to continue languishing unadjudicated, a scenario we have cautioned against. Indeed, we have advised that “the better practice in habeas corpus death cases is for the judge to rule on all the grounds presented in the petition.” Stewart, 958 F.2d at 1388. So we proceed with Corcoran’s next claim, that Indiana’s capital sentencing statute was unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment and the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of due process, because the statute’s factors for determining whether one is eligible for the death penalty “subject a defendant to life without parole or death,” thus providing “no guidance to differentiate between life or death.” Habeas Pet. at 11-12. The statute at the time of Corcoran’s sentence provided, and now also provides, that a defendant “may be sentenced to (1) death; or (2) life imprisonment without parole,” if the state “prove[s] beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of at least one . . . aggravating circumstance[].” Ind. Code. §§ 35-50-2-3, 9 (1993). Because the eligibility factors subject a defendant to either death or life imprisonment without parole, Corcoran argued, “the Indiana legislature is equating the penological purposes between the two penalties,” thus failing to provide “con- stitutionally required narrowing.” Habeas Pet. at 11. It is true that death penalty statutes must adequately narrow the class of persons eligible for death. Thus, the Nos. 07-2093 and 07-2182 11 Supreme Court has invalidated statutes providing juries with untrammeled discretion to impose the death penalty, Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), or guiding juries’ discretion with overly vague aggravating circumstances. Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420 (1980). But Corcoran made no challenge to the existence or nature of the then thirteen aggravating circumstances used to narrow the class of persons eligible for death. Rather, he challenged only that the existence of at least one of those circumstances made him eligible not only for death, but also for life without parole. It matters not whether the statute says that a defendant may be sentenced to “death or life imprisonment without parole,” as the statute reads, or simply “death,” as Corcoran would have it. In both cases, the door has been opened so that a defendant may be sentenced to either. Thus, Corcoran’s eligibility challenge lacks merit, because the semantic changes he would make to the statute’s language on eligibility would have no effect on its meaning. Nor does it matter that death and life without parole are “dueling options” for selection once a defendant is found eligible. Habeas Pet. at 11-12. The Indiana statute provides that a jury may impose either death or life without parole upon finding (1) an aggravating circumstance, and (2) that aggravating circumstances outweigh any mitigating circumstances. Ind. Code §§ 35-50-2- 9(e), (l). In other words, the statute guides the jury in imposing death or life without parole, but it affords no guidance on how to choose between the two. But these “dueling options” are not the sort of “untrammeled discretion to impose or withhold the death penalty” that 12 Nos. 07-2093 and 07-2182 the Constitution prohibits. Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 195 n.47 (1976) (citing Furman, 408 U.S. 238). Rather, the Supreme Court upheld in Gregg a scheme where the jury, as an alternative to death, “may fix the penalty at life imprisonment, if you see fit to do so, for any reason satisfactory to you or without any reason.” Ga. Suggested Pattern Jury Instruction 2.15.50 (2009) (cited as existing when Gregg was decided in Linda E. Carter, Ellen S. Kreitzberg, and Scott W. Howe, Understanding Capital Punishment Law 155 (2d ed. 2008)). In sum, “the isolated decision of a jury to afford mercy does not render unconstitutional death sentences imposed on defendants who were sentenced under a system that does not create a substantial risk of arbitrariness or caprice.” Gregg, 428 U.S. at 203. Corcoran also claimed that the statute is unconstitutional because it “informs the jury that a death sentence acts as an act of mercy in comparison to the life without parole sentence.” Habeas Pet. at 12. But the statute does no such thing. Rather, as Corcoran admits, the statute offers “no guidance to differentiate between life or death” once a defendant is found eligible, id., which as discussed above is constitutional under Gregg. Finally, Corcoran argues that the statute “penalizes individuals for presenting mitigation.” Id. Again, the statute does no such thing. Rather, it encourages defendants to present mitigating circumstances, because if enough of them outweigh the aggravating circumstances then a jury is barred from sentencing a defendant to death or life without parole. Ind. Code §§ 3550-2-9(e), (l). Nos. 07-2093 and 07-2182 13