Opinion ID: 1310716
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Appellate Review of the Death Sentence.

Text: Our unique responsibility in reviewing death sentences is defined in Code § 17.110.1. [6] In two assignments of error, neither briefed nor argued, Stamper asserted that the death sentence in each case was imposed under the influence of passion, prejudice, undue influence, and other arbitrary factors, and that the death sentence is excessive and disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases. A. Product of Passion or Other Arbitrary Factors. In other parts of this opinion we have considered various assignments of error relating to evidence alleged to have tended to inflame the jurors and bring them under the influence of passion and prejudice. In each instance we found no error in the trial court's ruling that the evidence in question, while undoubtedly prejudicial, was admissible. The jury and the trial judge, after careful deliberations, independently concluded that the penalties of death were appropriate. Indeed, the jury made a careful distinction between the grounds upon which the death sentences were based. In the murders of Cooley and Mrs. Hicks, the sentence was based upon Stamper's proclivity for violence; in the more aggravated murder of Staples, the sentence was based upon Stamper's proclivity for violence and also upon his outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman conduct in committing the offense. We find nothing in the record to suggest that these conclusions were not the product of reasoned judgment and were the result of passion, prejudice, improper influence or any other arbitrary factor. B. Excessiveness. We have not previously reviewed a case where a defendant has been convicted under the revised death penalty statutes of multiple murders during the commission of an armed robbery. Thus, we have no similar cases to consider in determining whether the death sentences imposed upon Stamper are excessive or disproportionate. Nevertheless, we will refer briefly to other capital murder cases where we have considered the question of excessive punishment. In Smith v. Commonwealth, supra , and Waye v. Commonwealth, supra , we affirmed the death sentence in each case for murder committed during the commission of rape, where the victims had been stabbed repeatedly and in other respects subjected to aggravated battery. In Mason v. Commonwealth, 219 Va. ___, 254 S.E.2d 116 (1979), we upheld the death sentence for murder of a woman, who was raped, struck with an ax, and set on fire. In Coppola v. Commonwealth , (this day decided), we upheld the death sentence for murder committed during the commission of armed robbery, where the murderer had repeatedly beaten the victim's head against the floor, knocking out five teeth, and had strangled her with a sock, although an accomplice, Miltier, who had participated in the crime and had struck the victim with his fist, had been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. We also upheld the death sentence imposed in Clark v. Commonwealth, (this day decided), for murder for hire, although the death sentence of a codefendant had been commuted by the trial court to life imprisonment. In the present case, there was evidence that Stamper tortured Staples or committed acts of aggravated battery against him before shooting him. Under these circumstances, even if Staples had been the only murder victim, the death sentence for this crime would not be excessive under the guidelines laid down in Smith and Waye. However, Staples was but one of three victims whom the jury found Stamper had deliberately killed with premeditation while he was committing armed robbery. As to the murders of Mrs. Hicks and Cooley, there was no direct evidence of torture or aggravated battery in the commission of those crimes, although mental torture might reasonably be inferred from what could be characterized as execution-type murders. But each murder, coupled with Stamper's previous record of violent conduct, showed him to be a vicious menace to the public who in all probability would commit further acts of violence and be a continuing serious threat to society as long as he lives. We have reviewed the record in the case of Kearnard Tyrone Bowling v. Commonwealth, Record No. 790401. Bowling, also charged with capital murder of Staples, Cooley, and Mrs. Hicks, was tried by a jury which found him guilty of first degree murder of Mrs. Hicks and guilty, as an accessory after the fact, of the murders of Staples and Cooley. [7] His punishment for the murder of Mrs. Hicks was fixed at confinement in the penitentiary for 25 years. We analyzed the meaning of disproportionate sentencing in Coppola. Under the principles approved by the Supreme Court in Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976), we held in Coppola that imposition of a sentence of life imprisonment upon a codefendant did not require commutation of the death sentence imposed upon the defendant who was convicted of the same capital murder. In that case, we held that there was a basis for distinguishing the atrociousness of the conduct of the defendant from that of his confederate, and we concluded that, as juries in this jurisdiction generally impose the death penalty for comparable or similar crimes, the death sentence conformed to the statewide standard. We apply the same principles in the present case. Stamper's conduct was far more horrifying than Bowling's. There were conflicts in the evidence in the Bowling trial which the jury apparently had difficulty in resolving to determine Bowling's role in the crimes. Such conflicts were not present in the Stamper trial. Moreover, there was nothing in the record to indicate that Bowling had a tendency towards violent conduct, as Stamper did, that would make him a serious threat to society. We cannot fairly determine whether a death sentence is excessive or disproportionate by comparing it with sentences imposed upon convictions for lesser included offenses, reached perhaps by compromise verdicts, even where there may be similarities in the evidence. The test is not whether a jury may have declined to recommend the death penalty in a particular case but whether generally juries in this jurisdiction impose the death sentence for conduct similar to that of the defendant. We have no hesitancy in holding that the commission of multiple murders during an armed robbery is as heinous and horrifying as the commission of single rape-murders for which the death penalty was affirmed in Smith, supra, Waye, supra, and Mason, supra. Therefore, juries in this jurisdiction generally approve the supreme penalty for comparable or similar crimes. Accordingly, we hold that, considering the crimes and Stamper's background and history, the death sentence imposed upon him in each case is not excessive or disproportionate to sentences imposed in similar cases. We have found no reversible error in the rulings of the trial court, and we have independently determined that the sentence of death was properly imposed in each case. Therefore, we decline to commute these sentences, and we will affirm the judgment of the trial court. Affirmed.