Opinion ID: 2382857
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 14

Heading: Spousal Murders Involving High Levels of Blameworthiness and a Defenseless Victim.

Text: The Master has also analyzed the frequency of spousal murders that involved a high level of blameworthiness and a defenseless victim. The Marshall Report compares Marshall with three cases involving highly-premeditated, cold-blooded murders of a defenseless wife. Those comparison cases are Collins, Dreher, and Williams. Only Collins and Williams advanced to a penalty trial at which both defendants received a life sentence. Thus, all three defendants received life sentences. The figures are as follows: Penalty-Trial Eligible Universe Universe Including Marshall .33 (1/3) .25 (1/4) Excluding Marshall .00 (0/2) .00 (0/3) Premeditated Robbery/Kidnap Murder Cases Involving Extensive Premeditation, a Pecuniary Motive, Deception/Entrapment of the Victim, and a Defenseless Victim The Master also compared this fourth group of cases with Marshall. Of the five cases considered, three advanced to a penalty trial and one, Martini, resulted in a death sentence. In terms of criminal culpability, the Master ranked Martini higher than Marshall, finding that Martini's case involved two aggravating circumstances, extreme blameworthiness, substantial victimization, and a defendant with a poor character. A review of all of the categories of factually comparable cases shows a death-sentencing frequency of .22 (4/18) when Marshall is included. Excluding Marshall, the death-sentencing rate is .18 (3/17).
This test is more problematic than either the salient-factors or the index-of-outcomes analyses. Abstractly, we sense that a quantitative rather than a qualitative analysis will be rather unproductive. No matter how many aggravating factors and how few mitigating factors are presented, the jury's decision is intensely qualitative. We realize that the Master's data do not reflect a numerical analysis but rather reflect the weight that prosecutors and juries give to a specific factor; for example, a rape-murder will be viewed as more blameworthy than a robbery-murder. Still, a degree of abstraction exists that may not be present in the other frequency-analysis measures. We have repeatedly emphasized that juries are to make a qualitative, and not a quantitative, analysis of aggravating and mitigating factors. Hence, when we measure Robert Marshall's case against other cases with one aggravating factor and two mitigating factors, we are concerned about the infrequency. Cases with One Aggravating Factor and Two Mitigating Factors Penalty-Trial Eligible Universe Universe Including Marshall .20 (3/15) .07 (3/44) Excluding Marshall .14 (2/14) .05 (2/43) Cases With One Aggravating Factor Penalty-Trial Eligible Universe Universe Including Marshall .10 (5/50) .04 (5/123) Excluding Marshall .08 (4/49) .03 (4/122) As shown by the data, the overall death-sentencing frequency among capital cases involving a single aggravating factor is .08 (4/49). Among penalty-trial cases that, like Marshall, include one aggravating factor and two mitigating factors, the rate is.14 (2/14). However, death-sentencing frequencies among cases involving the c(4)(a) (prior murder) factor, c(4)(d) (hired gun) factor, c(4)(e) (payment for murder) factor, and c(4)(h) (cop-killer) factor have above-average death-sentencing rates. Marshall Report, supra, at 31 and Appendix H, Table 9 to the Final Report.
This method of analysis also indicates no significant disproportionality in Robert Marshall's sentence. Recall that this measure looks not only at the salient factors, or the number of factors, but at all of the facts and all of the cases to determine a pattern of capital sentencing. In this process we have spread all of the index cards on the table and have sought to identify the characteristics common to the cases in terms of their degree of blameworthiness as perceived by prosecutors and juries. These cases may be as factually dissimilar as a killing by a child molester or killing by a bank robber. All that they have in common is a roughly-equivalent measure of blameworthiness in the eyes of prosecutors and juries. Even under this largely empirical standard ( i.e., derived from the actual experience within the system), the measure of Robert Marshall's blameworthiness is significant. His support of family, community involvement, and prior good record do not counterbalance the other measures of blameworthiness found in similarly-blameworthy case records involving premeditation of the act, helplessness of the victim, and baseness of the motive. Under the index-of-outcomes analysis, using the expanded indices that include non-statutory factors, the predicted probability of a death sentence in Robert Marshall's case is .50 among all penalty-trial cases. The Master cautions, however, that that estimate is quite unstable because of the small number of c(4)(e) penalty-trial cases. The predicted probability of death for Marshall's case among all death-eligible cases is .17. Here again, the Master cautions that that estimate is uncertain because of the small sample number. After reranking the cases to reach a qualitative culpability level, based on blameworthiness, victimization, and character of the defendant, [6] the overall death-sentencing rate for the ten cases most comparable to Marshall's in the penalty-trial model is.60 (6/10). Including Marshall, the rate is .64 (7/11). Among all death-eligible cases the overall death-sentencing rate among the ten cases nearest Marshall's is .20 (2/10), excluding Marshall. With Marshall, the death-sentencing rate is .27 (3/11). When the indices are limited to statutory aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the predicted likelihood of a death sentence in the penalty-trial model for Marshall is .52 and among all death-eligible cases the probability of death is .27. Reranking the cases as above, among the cases nearest Marshall's in the penalty-trial model the death-sentencing rate is .69 (11/16), excluding Marshall. With Marshall, the rate is .71 (12/17). Among all death-eligible cases the death-sentencing rate among the ten cases nearest Marshall's is .50 (11/22), excluding Marshall. With Marshall, the rate is .52 (12/23). Summarizing all of the data, the Master concludes: [B]ecause of the small number of 4e cases, and no 4e cases that match Marshall on both the blameworthiness and victimization dimensions, we have a much less solid basis for saying that cases like his either will or will not be associated with frequent death sentencing over the long run. Because of this small sample problem, there is no way to resolve with confidence the uncertainty associated with predicting the future for defendants like Marshall. [ Marshall Report, supra, at 41.] On balance, by using the composite of these measures of frequency we conclude that capital death sentencing for contract murderers is not random or aberrational. See Tyler v. State, 247 Ga. 119, 274 S.E. 2d 549, 555 (1981) (reasoning that [a]lthough lesser sentences than death are frequently imposed in domestic murder cases, it does not follow that the death penalty would not be authorized for the murder of one spouse by another under any circumstances).