Opinion ID: 501759
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: burden of bringing forth evidence in mitigation

Text: 41 In Fitzpatrick v. State, 638 P.2d 1002 (Mont.1981), the Montana supreme court held that Montana's death penalty statute did not impose upon the State the burden of proving the nonexistence of mitigating circumstances, but rather, placed the burden on the defendant to bring forth the evidence pertinent to the question of mitigation. Id. at 1013. The court stated that [t]his statute undoubtedly places the burden on the defendant to show that his life should be spared, but we find this to be constitutionally permissible. Id. (discussing Coleman II, 185 Mont. 299, 605 P.2d 1000 (1979), and State v. Stewart, 175 Mont. 286, 573 P.2d 1138, 1146 (1977)). 5 Coleman argues that [b]y requiring the defendant to bear the burden of establishing the presence of mitigating circumstances, and by requiring the sentencing authority to weigh the 'substantiality' of the mitigating circumstances, the Montana statute prevents the kind of individualized attention to the appropriateness of the death sentence that the Constitution demands. 42 To resolve Coleman's contention, we must examine two lines of Supreme Court authority which have intersected only once before in this court. See Harris v. Pulley, 692 F.2d 1189, 1194-95 (9th Cir.1982) (involving state death penalty statute relieving state from burden of proving non-existence of mitigating factors beyond a reasonable doubt), reversed on other grounds, 465 U.S. 37, 104 S.Ct. 871, 79 L.Ed.2d 29 (1984). These are cases involving the facial adequacy of a state's death penalty statute as measured by the eighth and fourteenth amendments, see, e.g., Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976), and cases involving the allocation of the burden of proof in establishing guilt, see, e.g., In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970).
43 In Gregg, a plurality of the Court stated that the constitutional concerns expressed in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (1972)--that a court not act in an arbitrary or capricious manner--are best satisfied by a system that provides for a bifurcated proceeding at which the sentencing authority is apprised of the information relevant to the imposition of sentence and provided with standards to guide its use of the information. 428 U.S. at 195, 96 S.Ct. at 2935. The Montana death penalty statute provides for a bifurcated sentencing procedure conducted by the judge who presided at the trial or before whom the guilty plea was entered. Mont.Code Ann. Sec. 95-2206.6. The defendant may present any probative evidence regarding aggravating or mitigating circumstances. Id. Sec. 95-2206.7. The Montana statute also satisfies the general criteria established in Gregg, Proffitt, 428 U.S. 242, 96 S.Ct. 2960, 49 L.Ed.2d 913, Jurek v. Texas, 428 U.S. 262, 96 S.Ct. 2950, 49 L.Ed.2d 929 (1976) and Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978), for constitutional state death penalty statutes: the statute requires the sentencing judge to find at least one aggravating circumstance, Mont.Code Ann. Sec. 95-2206.10; the judge must consider mitigating circumstances and must find that no mitigating circumstance is sufficiently substantial to call for leniency, id. Secs. 95-2206.7, 95-2206.9 and 95-2206.10; and the defendant receives prompt and extensive judicial review, id. Sec. 95-2206.10 (and discussion supra ). See, e.g., Spaziano v. Florida, 468 U.S. 447, 466, 104 S.Ct. 3154, 3165, 82 L.Ed.2d 340 (1984) (upholding similar statute). That the Montana statute does not require the State to prove the absence of mitigating circumstances, and permits the trial judge to weigh and balance mitigating and aggravating circumstances, does not violate the guidelines established in these cases. See Proffitt, 428 U.S. at 257-58, 96 S.Ct. at 2969 (upholding statute that did not impose a burden on state and permitted sentencing authority to balance factors in mitigation and aggravation); Jurek, 428 U.S. at 276, 96 S.Ct. at 2958 (allowing defendant to bring forth evidence on mitigation, but imposing no such burden on state); Harris, 692 F.2d at 1195 (interpreting Proffitt in similar fashion); accord McMillan v. Pennsylvania, 477 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 2411, 2420, 91 L.Ed.2d 79 (1986) (same).
44 The Supreme Court's pronouncements on the proper allocation of the burden of proof in criminal cases do not alter this conclusion. In Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368, the Court held that due process prevents conviction except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact or element of the crime charged. Id. at 364, 90 S.Ct. at 1072. See also Mullaney v. Wilbur, 421 U.S. 684, 95 S.Ct. 1881, 44 L.Ed.2d 508 (1975). Winship and Mullaney emphasized society's interest in the reliability of jury verdicts: 45 The requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt has [a] vital role in our criminal procedure for cogent reasons. The accused during a criminal prosecution has at stake interests of immense importance, both because of the possibility that he may lose his liberty upon conviction and because of the certainty that he would be stigmatized by the conviction.... 46 421 U.S. at 699-700, 95 S.Ct. at 1890 (quoting Winship, 397 U.S. at 363, 90 S.Ct. at 1072); see also Winship, 397 U.S. at 372, 90 S.Ct. at 1076-77 (Harlin, J. concurring). 47 In Patterson v. New York, 432 U.S. 197, 97 S.Ct. 2319, 53 L.Ed.2d 281 (1977), the Court refined the principles established in Winship and Mullaney. There, appellant was charged with second-degree murder which, under New York law, contained only two elements: intent to cause death; and causing death. Id. at 198, 97 S.Ct. at 2321. New York permitted the defendant to raise as an affirmative defense the mitigating circumstance of acting under extreme emotional disturbance, but the jury was instructed that the defendant bore the burden of proving the defense by a preponderance of evidence. Id. at 200, 97 S.Ct. at 2322. Appellant argued that placing the burden on a defendant to prove mitigating factors violated Winship and Mullaney. Specifically, he argued that Mullaney's holding ... is that the State may not permit the blameworthiness of an act or the severity of the punishment authorized ... to depend on the presence or absence of an identified fact without assuming the burden of proving the presence or absence of that fact ... beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. at 214, 97 S.Ct. at 2329. The Court held, however, that Mullaney and Winship only required the State to prove each element of the crime for which the defendant is charged: 48 Mullaney surely held that a State must prove every ingredient of an offense beyond a reasonable doubt, and that it may not shift the burden of proof to the defendant by presuming that ingredient upon proof of the other elements of the offense. This is true even though the State's practice, as in Maine, had been traditionally to the contrary. Such shifting of the burden of persuasion with respect to a fact which the state deems so important that it must be either proved or presumed is impermissible under the Due Process Clause. 49 Id. at 215, 97 S.Ct. at 2329 (emphasis added). 50 Winship, Mullaney and Patterson teach that due process requires the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt all of the elements included in the definition of the offense of which the defendant is charged. Patterson, 432 U.S. at 210, 97 S.Ct. at 2327. See also McMillan, 106 S.Ct. at 2416. Under Montana law, circumstances affecting mitigation are not facts or elements of the crime for which a defendant is charged; rather, they are facts weighed by the sentencing judge after the defendant has been convicted. Mont.Code Ann. Sec. 95-2206.6. See, e.g., McMillan, 106 S.Ct. at 2417 (noting this fundamental distinction); id. at 2420 & n. 8 (discussing Proffitt ); Patterson, 432 U.S. at 226-27, 97 S.Ct. at 2335 (Powell, J., dissenting); Foster v. Strickland, 707 F.2d 1339, 1345 (11th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 983, 104 S.Ct. 3564, 82 L.Ed.2d 865 (1984); Ford v. Strickland, 696 F.2d 804, 817-18 (11th Cir.) (en banc) (per curiam) (due process not violated when sentencing authority is permitted to weigh aggravating and mitigating circumstances after state has proven aggravating circumstances), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 865, 104 S.Ct. 201, 78 L.Ed.2d 176 (1983); Andrews v. Shulsen, 600 F.Supp. 408, 423 (D.Utah 1984); Richmond v. Cardwell, 450 F.Supp. 519, 524-25 (D.Ariz.1978), later proceeding, Richmond v. Ricketts, 774 F.2d 957 (9th Cir.1985). Accord Harris, 692 F.2d at 1195. Nor under Montana law is the existence of mitigating circumstances a fact which must be proved or presumed in obtaining a conviction or even in imposing sentencing. Patterson, 432 U.S. at 215, 97 S.Ct. at 2329. Montana only requires the sentencing judge to find one aggravating circumstance, Mont.Code Ann. Sec. 95-2206.10, and then to consider mitigating circumstances. The statute comports with the general standards enunciated in Gregg, Proffitt, Jurek, and Lockett and does not transgress the specific limitations established in Winship, Mullaney, and Patterson. 51 Finally, in Patterson and recently in McMillan, 106 S.Ct. 2411, the Court has recognized that due process may limit a state's authority to define elements or facts necessary for a crime. Id. at 2416 (citing Patterson, 432 U.S. at 211 n. 12, 97 S.Ct. at 2327 n. 12). See generally McGautha v. California, 402 U.S. 183, 206 n. 16, 91 S.Ct. 1454, 1466-67 n. 16, 28 L.Ed.2d 711 (1971) (noting that aggravating circumstances could have been part of offense but instead were used as post-conviction enhancement). Several factors convince us that due process does not require Montana to disprove the existence of mitigating circumstances in order to impose a death sentence. First, as noted, the Court has approved of several death penalty statutes imposing no such burden on the state. See, e.g., Jurek, 428 U.S. at 276, 96 S.Ct. at 2958. Second, the Montana death penalty statute establishes no presumptions and does not relieve the State of its burden of proving the defendant's underlying guilt. See McMillan, 106 S.Ct. at 2417. Third, mitigating circumstances as defined under Montana's death penalty statute permit the sentencing authority to exercise leniency. See Patterson, 432 U.S. at 203 n. 9, 97 S.Ct. at 2323-24 n. 9 (the Due Process Clause did not invalidate every instance of burdening the defendant with proving an exculpatory fact). They do not increase the punishment. Id. Compare McMillan, 106 S.Ct. 2411 (rejecting due process argument that state definition of element in aggravation in sentencing defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt); id. at 2421-26 (Stevens, J., dissenting). 52 We therefore reject Coleman's argument regarding the allocation of the burden under Montana's death penalty statute and the trial court's weighing and balancing of mitigating and aggravating circumstances.