Opinion ID: 844268
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Claim VI. Defendant's Death Sentence Is Cruel and Unusual Punishment Because It Is Based Primarily on Prior Murders Committed When He Was a Juvenile

Text: (15) Section 190.3, factor (b) provides that, in determining whether to sentence a defendant to death or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, the jury may consider [t]he presence or absence of criminal activity by the defendant which involved the use or attempted use of force or violence or the express or implied threat to use force or violence. We have long held that prior violent conduct committed while a defendant was a juvenile may be admitted as evidence of criminal activity that involved the use or attempted use of force or violence. ( People v. Roldan, supra, 35 Cal.4th at p. 737.) We have further explained that the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons (2005) 543 U.S. 551 [161 L.Ed.2d 1, 125 S.Ct. 1183], which held that the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment precludes execution of an individual who committed capital crimes while under the age of 18 years, says nothing about the propriety of permitting a capital sentencing jury, trying an adult defendant, to consider the defendant's prior violent conduct committed as a juvenile. ( People v. Lee (2011) 51 Cal.4th 620, 648-649 [122 Cal.Rptr.3d 117, 248 P.3d 651]; People v. Taylor (2010) 48 Cal.4th 574, 653-654 [108 Cal.Rptr.3d 87, 229 P.3d 12]; People v. Bramit (2009) 46 Cal.4th 1221, 1239 [96 Cal.Rptr.3d 574, 210 P.3d 1171].) Defendant contends his case differs from the previous cases in which we found no error in the consideration of prior juvenile violent conduct. Unlike People v. Lee, supra, 51 Cal.4th at pages 648-649, which involved assault, battery, and robbery, People v. Taylor, supra, 48 Cal.4th at pages 653-654, which involved sexual assault, and People v. Bramit, supra, 46 Cal.4th at page 1239, which involved robbery and assault, defendant's prior juvenile violent conduct involved three brutal, unprovoked murders. But this difference does not compel us to reconsider our prior decisions in favor of a rule in which no prior juvenile conduct is admissible in the penalty phase of a capital trial. As we have previously noted, Roper v. Simmons, supra, 543 U.S. 551, spoke only to the question of punishment for juvenile offenses, while defendant's challenge is to the admissibility of evidence, not the imposition of punishment. ( Bramit, at p. 1239.) That the juvenile conduct here was more severe than the juvenile conduct at issue in our prior cases does not alter this conclusion. Defendant further asserts it was primarily because of his three prior murders, rather than his having murdered a convicted child molester in prison, that the jury returned a verdict of death after less than one and one-half hours of deliberation. On this ground as well, he urges this court to reconsider our reading of Roper v. Simmons, supra, 543 U.S. 551, and hold that here, where the prior juvenile violent conduct is (assertedly) more heinous than the capital offense, the juvenile conduct should not be admissible as a factor in aggravation. Defendant's argument is both speculative and unpersuasive. As a formal matter, contrary to defendant's assertions, the death sentence imposed was for his commission, as an adult, of the capital offense of the first degree murder of Leonard Swartz, with special circumstances of lying in wait and prior first degree murder. Evidence of the three murders committed while a juvenile was, pursuant to section 190.3, factor (b), introduced in aggravation to enable the jury to make an individualized assessment of the character and history of . . . defendant to determine the nature of the punishment to be imposed. ( People v. Grant (1988) 45 Cal.3d 829, 851 [248 Cal.Rptr. 444, 755 P.2d 894].) In their determination of the appropriate punishment, the jury could properly consider defendant's commission of three prior murders. Without any evidence the jurors' sentencing decision was more influenced by defendant's prior violent conduct than by the capital offense, defendant's claim is purely speculative. The jurors may well have regarded the capital crime itselfthe premeditated, unprovoked killing of a fellow inmate by a life prisoneras egregious enough to warrant the death penalty. Moreover, any attempt to ground the claim in evidence of the jurors' subjective reasoning processes would violate Evidence Code section 1150. ( People v. Collins (2010) 49 Cal.4th 175, 250 [110 Cal.Rptr.3d 384, 232 P.3d 32].) Defendant has not established that the use in aggravation of three prior murders he committed as a juvenile rendered his death sentence for the charged in-prison murder unconstitutional.