Opinion ID: 2382857
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 46

Heading: Numerical Preponderance of Aggravating and Mitigating Factors

Text: The majority includes two variations on this general approach: cases with one aggravating factor and two mitigating factors and cases with one aggravating factor. I would tend to agree with the majority that such a comparison group has extremely limited applicability given our repeated admonition that jurors are supposed to make qualitative rather than quantitative judgments concerning the aggravating and mitigating factors. Ante at 171, 613 A. 2d at 1091. Nevertheless, I do use a comparison group consisting of cases involving one aggravating factor and two mitigating factors, because it tends to confirm the results suggested by the other comparisons. Moreover, although the jury found only one aggravating factor, specifically, the contract murder factor, I also create a comparison group of cases involving two aggravating factors and two mitigating factors because the killing of Maria Marshall appears to have been both a contract-murder and a murder for pecuniary gain. Because a comparison group that fails to consider mitigating factors is virtually useless in conducting proportionality review, I do not undertake a comparison involving all cases with one aggravating factor.