Opinion ID: 495040
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Societal Self-Defense

Text: 34 The prosecutor made the following argument during the sentencing proceeding: 35 This is the sort of case--I like to call it society's right of self-defense in this case. Mr. Campbell, by his actions, has declared war on society. Society should not have to put up and cannot put up with what he has done and what he did to those three people, what he may do to anyone else in the future that crosses him. 36 You members of the jury are in effect the conscience of the community. You have heard all of the evidence in this case. You've heard everything you can and will hear about Mr. Campbell's background and now it is up to you to make a decision. Can society--should society tolerate this? We urge you to say, No, society should not tolerate this, that there are not sufficient mitigating circumstances to merit leniency. 37 Campbell contends that this argument misle[d] the jury with an inappropriate analogy to the doctrine of self-defense. See People v. Holman, 103 Ill.2d 133, 82 Ill.Dec. 585, 602, 469 N.E.2d 119, 136 (1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1220, 105 S.Ct. 1204, 84 L.Ed.2d 347 (1985) (prosecutor improperly argued that the jury may impose the death penalty just as an individual may use deadly force against a person who threatens bodily harm to individual or family member). 38 Here, the prosecutor's argument again relates, at least indirectly, to the future dangerousness of the defendant. Furthermore, when the entire sentencing proceeding is reviewed, it cannot be contended that the argument rendered the proceeding fundamentally unfair. This is particularly true in light of the fact that Campbell's own attorney, during his argument to the jury, concurred in the self-defense argument: 39 There are certain things that [the prosecutor] said that I have to agree with. Given the fact that you found Mr. Campbell guilty, society has to protect itself. That doesn't mean the man has to be put to death. But I grant him that much, that we cannot have people who commit these kind of crimes running around loose among us ever again. 40 See Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 595, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 2959-60, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978) (prosecutor's arguments not unconstitutional in light of defendant's own counsel's remarks along same line).