Opinion ID: 1801680
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Exclusion of Evidence in Mitigation and Admission of Evidence in Aggravation

Text: Defendant challenges several trial court rulings concerning the exclusion and admission of certain evidence. We see no error. Defendant complains the trial court erred in refusing to admit a photograph of two of his older half siblings whom defendant's mother gave up for adoption before he was born. The court properly ruled that the photograph was irrelevant, as there was no indication that defendant was ever aware of these siblings during his childhood. Defendant claims the trial court erred by refusing to issue a body attachment for his brother, Don Davis. As the court pointed out, however, it had no jurisdiction to do so, as Don had fled the state before the defense could serve him with a subpoena. (See Code Civ. Proc., § 1993, subd. (a)(1) [a bench warrant may issue only upon proof of the service of the subpoena].) Defendant contends the trial court erred by sustaining the prosecution's objection when defense counsel tried to ask defendant's sister, Darlene Schwarm, how she would be affected if defendant were sentenced to death. Later recognizing that a defense attorney may elicit opinions from a capital defendant's family members about the appropriate punishment ( People v. Lancaster (2007) 41 Cal.4th 50, 98 [58 Cal.Rptr.3d 608, 158 P.3d 157]; People v. Mickle (1991) 54 Cal.3d 140, 194 [284 Cal.Rptr. 511, 814 P.2d 290]), the trial court invited the defense to re-call Schwarm as a witness. Defendant's failure to re-call her forfeited the issue for purposes of appeal ( People v. Rodrigues, supra, 8 Cal.4th 1060, 1119), and, in any event, even without such testimony the jury would have inferred that Schwarm wanted her brother's life spared because she had testified that defendant was the only family I have left. Defendant argues the trial court prejudicially erred by admitting certain evidence in aggravation. As we will explain, much of the evidence was admissible, and any error pertinent to the remainder was harmless under either the state reasonable possibility standard for penalty phase error ( People v. Brown (1988) 46 Cal.3d 432, 446-448 [250 Cal.Rptr. 604, 758 P.2d 1135]), or the harmless beyond a reasonable doubt standard for federal constitutional error ( Chapman v. California, supra, 386 U.S. 18, 24). Defendant contends the trial court erred by allowing the prosecution to introduce hearsay statements describing his involvement in three robberies committed in Kennewick, Washington, in 1985. Two police officers testified and recited hearsay statements taken from defendant's victims at the robbery scenes. The trial court overruled defendant's confrontation clause objection to these hearsay statements and admitted the statements as spontaneous utterances (Evid. Code, § 1240), because the victims were still under the stress of the robberies when the officers questioned them. Even assuming that the admission of these statements was error under the recent holdings of the high court in Crawford v. Washington (2004) 541 U.S. 36 [158 L.Ed.2d 177, 124 S.Ct. 1354] and in Davis v. Washington (2006) 547 U.S. 813 [165 L.Ed.2d 224, 126 S.Ct. 2266], the error was harmless under both the federal and state standards, as the prosecution also introduced defendant's confessions to each of these three robberies ( People v. Brown, supra, 46 Cal.3d at pp. 446-448; Chapman v. California, supra, 386 U.S. at p. 24). (41) Defendant also faults the trial court for allowing the prosecution, over his objection, to cross-examine defense expert Dr. George Woods about defendant's lack of remorse and later to call Dr. Kathleen O'Meara in rebuttal to discuss remorse. Although a prosecutor cannot argue a lack of remorse as a factor in aggravation, the presence or absence of remorse may be considered as relevant to the evaluation of mitigating evidence and to the penalty determination, and the evidence in question was admissible for this purpose. ( People v. Jurado (2006) 38 Cal.4th 72, 141 [41 Cal.Rptr.3d 319, 131 P.3d 400]; People v. Cook (2006) 39 Cal.4th 566, 611 [47 Cal.Rptr.3d 22, 139 P.3d 492].) In addition, as Dr. Woods had diagnosed defendant as suffering from antisocial personality disorder, which includes the lack of remorse as one of its diagnostic criteria, the prosecution was entitled to explore the basis of Dr. Woods's diagnosis. ( People v. Ledesma (2006) 39 Cal.4th 641, 695 [47 Cal.Rptr.3d 326, 140 P.3d 657]; People v. Clark (1993) 5 Cal.4th 950, 1016 [22 Cal.Rptr.2d 689, 857 P.2d 1099].) Defendant contends the trial court erred in allowing prosecution expert Dr. O'Meara, over objection, to use the assertedly inflammatory term sexual sadism in her diagnosis of defendant. As the trial court noted, however, no legal authority requires the exclusion of this evidence, and defendant's presentation of Dr. Woods's diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder opened the door to rebuttal testimony questioning that diagnosis or suggesting an alternative diagnosis. ( People v. Smith (2005) 35 Cal.4th 334, 359 [25 Cal.Rptr.3d 554, 107 P.3d 229].)