Opinion ID: 1902143
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: First Amendment Capital Sentencing Hearing

Text: During Dawson's direct appeal, this Court was presented with a question of first impression: Does the United States Constitution erect a per se barrier to the admission of evidence concerning one's beliefs and associations, during a capital sentencing hearing, simply because those beliefs and associations are protected by the First Amendment? Dawson v. Delaware, 112 S.Ct. at 1097. This Court concluded that there was no such barrier. Dawson v. State, 581 A.2d at 1100-1104. The United States Supreme Court agreed with this Court's conclusion. Dawson v. Delaware, 112 S.Ct. at 1097. Nevertheless, the United States Supreme Court held that Dawson's First Amendment rights were violated by the admission of the Aryan Brotherhood evidence in this case, because the evidence proved nothing more than Dawson's abstract beliefs. Id. at 1098. The ratio decidendi of the Supreme Court's holding was, in part, as follows: Before the penalty hearing, the prosecution claimed that its expert witness would show that the Aryan Brotherhood is a white racist prison gang that is associated with drugs and violent escape attempts at prisons, and that advocates the murder of fellow inmates. If credible and otherwise admissible evidence to that effect had been presented, we would have a much different case. But, after reaching an agreement with Dawson, the prosecution limited its proof regarding the Aryan Brotherhood to the stipulation. The brief stipulation proved only that an Aryan Brotherhood prison gang originated in California in the 1960's, that it entertains white racist beliefs, and that a separate gang in the Delaware prison system calls itself the Aryan Brotherhood. We conclude that the narrowness of the stipulation left the Aryan Brotherhood evidence totally without relevance to Dawson's sentencing proceeding. Id. at 1097. The United States Supreme Court subsequently concluded that the question of whether the wrongful admission of the Aryan Brotherhood evidence at sentencing was harmless error was not before it at that time. Id. at 1099. Therefore, that issue was left open for consideration by this Court. Id. The parties have presented supplemental memoranda and oral argument on that subject to this Court.