Opinion ID: 1516216
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Characterization of Mitigation Evidence

Text: Next, appellant claims that the Commonwealth improperly diminished his mitigation evidence with the following argument: Well, there were many, many children, there are thousands of children in this city who grew up without parents, let alone single parents, who have managed to crawled [sic] and climb under out of that, that ring of poverty and make something out of themselves. And not to be just people who obey the law but people who prevail and go above the law. There are thousands of them who prevail and any argument to say that Mr. Carson didn't have that opportunity is a slap in the face to any one of those children who managed to succeed, to have managed to climb out of the gutter and make something of themselves instead of putting a bullet through some 53-year-old man's head. N.T. 7/17/1995 at 82. Appellant contends that it is irrelevant whether other people succeeded under similar circumstances. Arguing that the prosecutor violated his Eighth Amendment rights, appellant asserts that the above remarks prevented the jury from giving full effect to his mitigation evidence. We find appellant's claim is without merit, as we agree with the Commonwealth that this Court has expressly permitted a prosecutor to rebut mitigation evidence. See, e.g., Rollins, 738 A.2d at 449 (no error in stating that defendant's mitigation evidence was of too little weight to influence the verdict); Basemore, 582 A.2d at 869 (prosecutor was permitted to dispute that defendant's age and occupation did not constitute mitigating evidence); Commonwealth v. Duffey, 519 Pa. 348, 548 A.2d 1178, 1189 (1988) (no harm in prosecutor's argument that defendant's epilepsy should not constitute mitigation factor). The prosecutor permissibly argued against appellant's catchall mitigator, which appellant supported by offering testimony from his family that appellant provided monetary support for his family and friends.