Opinion ID: 1386258
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 22

Heading: Other Death Penalty Issues

Text: With some deference to Engberg's 212-page brief, some major and not so minor death penalty issues remain for this post-conviction-relief review. Upon retrial, if death penalty imposition is again undertaken, most of these peculiar Engberg-Hopkinson type of issues should disappear with a new trial and a changed statute. Only a brief mention will now be made of those issues to avoid further extension of this presently overlong writing. 1. The constitutionality under present concept and case law of the unanimity and mandatory weighing process provided in particularity by the prior statute. McKoy, 110 S.Ct. 1227; Smith v. McCormick, 914 F.2d 1153 (9th Cir.1990); State v. Smith, 328 N.C. 99, 400 S.E.2d 712 (1991); State v. Jones, 327 N.C. 439, 396 S.E.2d 309 (1990); State v. Landrum, 53 Ohio St.3d 107, 559 N.E.2d 710, reh'g denied 54 Ohio St.3d 710, 561 N.E.2d 945 (1990), cert. denied ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 1092, 112 L.Ed.2d 1196 (1991); State v. Stevens, 311 Or. 119, 806 P.2d 92 (1991). Cf. Parker v. Dugger, ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 731, 112 L.Ed.2d 812 (1991). See also the cases cited in n. 48, supra and Sundby, The Lockett Paradox: Reconciling Guided Discretion and Unguided Mitigation in Capital Sentencing, 38 UCLA L.Rev. 1147 (1991). 2. Improper instruction of mitigation and aggravation which in any light were specifically in conflict as given relating to the burden of persuasion. McKoy, 110 S.Ct. 1227; Mills, 486 U.S. 367, 108 S.Ct. 1860; Landrum, 559 N.E.2d 710. Compare People v. Bean, 137 Ill.2d 65, 147 Ill.Dec. 891, 560 N.E.2d 258 (1990), cert. denied ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 1338, 113 L.Ed.2d 270 (1991) with State v. McDougald, 120 N.J. 523, 577 A.2d 419 (1990); State v. Sanderson, 327 N.C. 397, 394 S.E.2d 803 (1990); and State v. Wagner, 309 Or. 5, 786 P.2d 93, cert. denied ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 212, 112 L.Ed.2d 171 (1990). Perhaps two cases most interesting in touching questions about the prior and the present Wyoming statute and the way the jury was actually instructed in Engberg (both ways) are People v. Tenneson, 788 P.2d 786 (Colo. 1990), addressing a prior Colorado statute, and the present statute declared to be unconstitutional in People v. Young, 814 P.2d 834 (Colo. 1991). 3. Prosecutorial error in final argument minimizing the jury decisional responsibility and maximizing requirement as a matter of law to assess the death penalty and also expanding aggravative factors to include non-statutory elements. Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U.S. 320, 105 S.Ct. 2633, 86 L.Ed.2d 231 (1985). 4. Improper documentation provided in death penalty trial session, including use of pure hearsay for prior conviction documentation. See generally Comment, The Evidence for Death, 78 Calif.L.Rev. 973 (1990). VII.