Opinion ID: 1113193
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 40

Heading: Stringer v. Black

Text: (45) In his reply brief, defendant argues that the sentencing factors contained in section 190.3 are impermissibly vague under Stringer v. Black (1992) 503 U.S. ___ [117 L.Ed.2d 367, 112 S.Ct. 1130]. We have held that, assuming our statute is subject to the rationale of Stringer, factors (a) (circumstances of crimes adjudicated in capital guilt proceeding), (b) (other violent criminal activity), and (i) (defendant's age at time of capital crime) withstand vagueness challenges. Each of these factors [directs] the sentencer's attention to specific, provable, and commonly understandable facts about the defendant and the capital crime that might bear on his moral culpability.... ( People v. Tuilaepa, supra, 4 Cal.4th 569, 595; see also People v. Noguera (1992) 4 Cal.4th 599, 648-649 [15 Cal. Rptr.2d 400, 842 P.2d 1160]; People v. Proctor, supra, 4 Cal.4th 499, 550-551.) Similar considerations apply to factor (c) (prior felony convictions), and to factors (d) through (k), which further channel the sentencer's discretion by identifying additional specific, provable, and commonly understandable facts about the capital offense and offender which the state properly deems pertinent to the penalty determination. [39] Defendant urges that section 190.3 violates Stringer because it does not expressly identify which sentencing factors are aggravating and which are mitigating. We disagree. We have noted that certain of the factors can only be mitigating (e.g., factors (d), (e), (f), (g), (h), and (k)), and we have further concluded that the mitigating nature of these factors is clear even in the face of contrary argument. (See discussion, ante, pp. 937-938.) The aggravating nature of certain others (e.g., factors (b) [other violent criminal activity], (c) [prior felony convictions]) is equally apparent. Still other factors may allow either aggravating or mitigating consideration, depending on the particular circumstances. However, so long as they focus the sentencer's consideration on specific, provable, and commonly understandable facts that properly bear on the appropriate penalty, they cannot be deemed unconstitutionally vague simply because they leave the sentencer free to evaluate the evidence in accordance with his or her own subjective values. ( People v. Tuilaepa, supra, 4 Cal.4th 569, 595.) Defendant's challenge must be rejected.