Opinion ID: 2381990
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Permissibility of Multiple Resentencing

Text: Harris points out that upon remand, he will undergo capital sentencing for the fourth consecutive time. Repeatedly subjecting him to resentencing, Harris argues, violates the doctrines of cruel and unusual punishment, [5] due process, and double jeopardy. [6] He asks that we vacate his death sentence and impose a life sentence instead of remanding for resentencing. We are prepared to assume that the State cannot continue to resentence Harris indefinitely, and that there will come a day when further sentencing hearings will be constitutionally impermissible. That day, however, has not yet arrived. We explain.
Harris maintains that the State's conduct throughout his last three capital sentencings amounted to prosecutorial overreaching. Because of this asserted overreaching and the psychological trauma caused by multiple sentencings, a fourth sentencing is barred by the double jeopardy clause, runs his argument. We analyze the problem from a different perspective. The fifth amendment's double jeopardy clause, applicable to the states through the fourteenth amendment, Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784, 795-796, 89 S.Ct. 2056, 2062-2063, 23 L.Ed.2d 707, 716-717 (1969), protects a criminal defendant from repeated prosecutions for the same offense. Oregon v. Kennedy, 456 U.S. 667, 671, 102 S.Ct. 2083, 2087, 72 L.Ed.2d 416, 422 (1982). The protection afforded by the double jeopardy clause not only applies to the guilt phase of trial, but under some circumstances to the sentencing phase as well. Bullington v. Missouri, 451 U.S. 430, 446, 101 S.Ct. 1852, 1862, 68 L.Ed.2d 270, 283-284 (1981). Bullington is instructive in this regard. There, a defendant in a capital case was sentenced to life imprisonment at a sentencing hearing that involved procedures quite similar to those employed in Harris's case. 451 U.S. at 432-436, 101 S.Ct. at 1855-1856, 68 L.Ed.2d at 275-276. Later, the defendant's motion for new trial was granted, and the State again sought the death penalty. The Supreme Court held that the State's attempt to do so was barred by double jeopardy. 451 U.S. at 446, 101 S.Ct. at 1862, 68 L.Ed.2d at 283-284. In its analysis, the Court pointed out that a capital sentencing procedure like that used in Bullington was substantially similar to a criminal trial on the issue of guilt or innocence. At the sentencing hearing, the prosecution undertook the burden of establishing certain facts beyond a reasonable doubt in its quest to obtain the harsher of the two alternative verdicts. The presentencing hearing resembled and, indeed, in all relevant respects was like the immediately preceding trial on the issue of guilt or innocence. It was itself a trial on the issue of punishment.... 451 U.S. at 438, 101 S.Ct. at 1858, 68 L.Ed.2d at 278-279 [footnote omitted]. The Court then pointed to the normal rule that double jeopardy does not bar the retrial of a defendant who has succeeded in overturning his conviction. See, e.g., North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 719-720, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 2077-2078, 23 L.Ed.2d 656, 666 (1969); United States v. Tateo, 377 U.S. 463, 465, 84 S.Ct. 1587, 1589, 12 L.Ed.2d 448, 450 (1964); United States v. Ball, 163 U.S. 662, 671-672, 16 S.Ct. 1192, 1195, 41 L.Ed. 300, 303 (1896). That is because the original conviction has been nullified and `the slate wiped clean.' Bullington, 451 U.S. at 442, 101 S.Ct. at 1860, 68 L.Ed.2d at 281 (quoting Pearce, 395 U.S. at 721, 89 S.Ct. at 2078, 23 L.Ed.2d at 667). But it went on to explain that the normal rule is subject to an exception: a defendant who obtains a reversal of a conviction on the ground of insufficiency of the evidence may not be retried. 451 U.S. at 442-443, 101 S.Ct. at 1860, 68 L.Ed.2d at 281 (citing Burks v. United States, 437 U.S. 1, 98 S.Ct. 2141, 57 L.Ed.2d 1 (1978)). When the prosecution has failed to prove its case at the first trial, the clean slate rule does not apply. In the context of a capital sentencing hearing, the Bullington Court viewed the sentence of life imprisonment as tantamount to an acquittal for insufficiency of evidence. Thus, it invoked double jeopardy and prohibited a new capital sentencing hearing because the State, [h]aving received `one fair opportunity to offer whatever proof it could assemble,' ... [was] not entitled to another. Bullington, 451 U.S. at 446, 101 S.Ct. at 1862, 68 L.Ed.2d at 283-284 (quoting Burks v. United States, 437 U.S. at 16, 98 S.Ct. at 2150, 57 L.Ed.2d at 13) (citations omitted). As we have noted, the capital sentencing procedure described in Bullington is like that used in the case before us. It is a procedure that closely resembles a criminal trial. As a consequence, Bullington would be dispositive had Harris received a life sentence. But he did not; the jury sentenced him to death. That result cannot be equated to an acquittal in the double jeopardy calculus, nor can the vacating of that sentence on Booth grounds be treated as the functional equivalent of a reversal of a conviction for insufficient evidence. As a consequence the rule of Bullington is inapplicable; the clean slate rule of Ball and its progeny is. See Tichnell v. State, 297 Md. 432, 440, 468 A.2d 1, 5 (1983), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 993, 104 S.Ct. 2374, 80 L.Ed.2d 846, reh'g denied, 467 U.S. 1268, 104 S.Ct. 3564, 82 L.Ed.2d 865 (1984); Jones v. State, 288 Md. 618, 625, 420 A.2d 1241, 1244 (1980), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1115, 101 S.Ct. 928, 66 L.Ed.2d 845 (1981); Sweetwine v. State, 288 Md. 199, 204, 421 A.2d 60, 63, cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1017, 101 S.Ct. 579, 66 L.Ed.2d 477 (1980), habeas corpus, Sweetwine v. Maryland, 769 F.2d 991 (4th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1021, 106 S.Ct. 1209, 89 L.Ed.2d 322 (1986); Parks v. State, 287 Md. 11, 16, 410 A.2d 597, 601 (1980) (discussing the clean slate rule). Harris having been successful in his efforts to clean the sentencing slate, double jeopardy does not bar the State from seeking, once again, the death penalty. [7]
Harris asserts that yet another capital sentencing hearing would constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the United States Constitution's eighth amendment and Article 25 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights. Brief at 15. In support of this contention, Harris argues that the unnerving strain induced by the numerous death penalty hearings constitutes a penalty so severe that further proceedings would amount to cruel and unusual punishment. Since this is an issue of first impression in Maryland, we must look to other courts for guidance. Most, if not all, of the courts that have addressed this issue have been reluctant to find that successive retrial of an accused constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. See United States v. Persico, 425 F.2d 1375, 1384-1385 (2d Cir.1970) (five trials coupled with a delay of two and one-half years following reversal of the fourth trial did not amount to cruel and unusual punishment in a non-capital case); Purvis v. California, 234 F. Supp. 147, 151 (N.D.Cal. 1964) (fourth trial in a capital case did not amount to cruel and unusual punishment even though court noted that [a]s a general proposition having to sit through a trial may be an onerous burden for a defendant ...); People v. Terry, 70 Cal.2d 410, 418, 77 Cal. Rptr. 460, 465-466, 454 P.2d 36, 41-42 (1969) (while pointing out that there is a constitutional limit to the number of times a man must undergo a trial where his life is at stake, ... the court found that a capital defendant's fifth trial did not subject him to cruel and unusual punishment); Weatherford v. State, 164 Ind. App. 340, 343-344, 328 N.E.2d 756, 758 (1975) (third trial of non-capital defendant did not amount to cruel and unusual punishment), overruled on other grounds, Holland v. State, 265 Ind. 216, 352 N.E.2d 752 (1976); People v. Kirby, 112 Misc.2d 906, 908, 447 N.Y.S.2d 606, 607 (1982), rev'd on other grounds, 92 A.D.2d 848, 460 N.Y.S.2d 572 (1983) (fourth trial in a non-capital case was not cruel and unusual punishment since reprosecution after the declaration of a mistrial is not punishment in any constitutional sense). Though we acknowledge, as did the court in People v. Terry, supra , that having to undergo four successive capital sentencings is an onerous burden for Harris, that burden does not in and of itself amount to cruel and unusual punishment proscribed by the eighth amendment and our Article 25.
Finally Harris argues in a single paragraph that a fourth capital sentencing proceeding would violate his due process rights. This too is an issue of first impression in Maryland. Other courts confronting this question have held that a fourth retrial is not barred on due process grounds. See Ex Parte Anderson, 457 So.2d 435, 443-445 (Ala. Crim. App. 1984); People v. Cummings, 47 Ill. App.3d 578, 581, 5 Ill.Dec. 944, 946, 362 N.E.2d 415, 417 (1977) (holding that the number of trials is not a violation of due process unless it also places the defendant in double jeopardy); People v. Thompson, 424 Mich. 118, 131-134, 379 N.W.2d 49, 54-56 (1985). In People v. Thompson , the defendant's first trial resulted in a jury verdict of guilty but was reversed due to improper jury instructions; the second trial resulted in a hung jury; and the third resulted in a conviction. Thompson claimed that retrying him following jury deadlock at his second trial violated the fundamental fairness principles of the due process clause. The court rejected that claim, holding that Thompson received the full benefits of due process of law. Id. at 133, 379 N.W.2d at 55. In Ex Parte Anderson, supra , the court rejected a capital defendant's challenge to the prosecution's fourth attempt to convict him. The three prior proceedings ended in mistrials because the respective juries were unable to agree on a verdict. Anderson claimed that a fourth trial would violate his due process rights. The court engaged in a balancing test, weighing the public's right to justice [against] ... the State's and the defendant's right to a final determination of the accusation. 457 So.2d at 445. Though it recognized that a mistrial due to the inability of the jury to agree upon a verdict `involves acute possibilities for prejudice to the defendant,' id. (quoting Schulhofer, Jeopardy and Mistrials, 125 U.Pa.L.Rev. 449, 522 (1977)), the court noted that [a] contrary ruling ... would `subvert the public interest and permit a person, however guilty of serious crimes against society, to walk away unadjudicated, thereby reducing the detriment of punishment by increasing in a large measure the probabilities of escaping it.' 457 So.2d at 445 (quoting People v. Baker, 70 Misc.2d 986, 991, 335 N.Y.S.2d 487, 492 (1972)). Moreover, the court in Ex Parte Anderson found that no substantial and specifically identifiable prejudice had resulted from the delay, because Anderson's chance of acquittal had not been hampered. 457 So.2d at 445. Likewise, we can identify no substantial prejudice to Harris because the three prior penalty hearings were reversed on appeal. Balancing the interests of Harris, the State and the public, we find that a fourth penalty hearing will not violate Harris's due process rights. [8]