Opinion ID: 2299781
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 35

Heading: Daniel Hart

Text: On January 22, 1990, Daniel Hart and William Hoffman were at Hoffman's home drinking alcohol and getting high on PCP and marijuana. Hoffman came up with the idea to kill a twenty-three-year-old woman whom they believed to be a snitch. Hoffman had taken a key to the woman's apartment building from the woman's ex-boyfriend. To get the woman out of her apartment, Hoffman rang the buzzer at the main entrance. When the woman went to the main entrance, Hart tried to sneak into her apartment. The woman saw Hart enter her apartment when she and Hoffman were returning to the apartment. Hoffman and the woman went into the bedroom to talk while Hart waited in the living room. Hoffman told her that he and Hart had been in a fight and needed a place to hide. Sensing that he was lying, the woman asked Hoffman to leave. Hoffman then tried to smother her with a pillow. The woman tried to fend off the attack, and Hart entered the room and slashed the woman's throat thirty times, killing her. An autopsy revealed that the woman had numerous stab wounds to the neck, head and back. Hoffman took $25 from the woman. He also put a VCR in a bag, but decided not to take it because they were going to have to walk home. Hoffman gave a statement to the police detailing the crime. Hart was charged with two counts of murder, felony murder, robbery, burglary, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and possession of a weapon other than a firearm. Pursuant to a plea agreement, Hart pled guilty to aggravated manslaughter, robbery and burglary. He was sentenced to thirty-years' imprisonment with a fifteen-year parole bar for manslaughter, a consecutive twenty-year term with a ten-year parole bar for robbery, and a ten-year term for burglary, to run concurrent the manslaughter and robbery charge. At the time of the crime, Hart was twenty years old. For a few months prior to the murder, Hart had been employed by an airline. Hart's father was an abusive alcoholic and Hart quit school in the tenth grade. Hart began drinking beer at twelve years of age, smoking marijuana on a daily basis at thirteen years of age, and by the time he was seventeen, he was using various drugs on a daily basis. Hart has multiple convictions as a juvenile and as an adult, including a conviction for aggravated assault. The AOC has coded this case with aggravating factor c(4)(g), contemporaneous felony, and mitigating factors c(5)(c), the defendant's age; c(5)(d), mental disease, defect, or intoxication; and c(5)(h), the catch-all factor. HANDLER, J., dissenting. In October 1986, on a retrial, Nathaniel Harvey was convicted by a jury for the murder of Irene Schnaps. Schnaps was found alone in her apartment, having been struck on the head several times with a blunt instrumentkilled in an apparent burglary. There were no signs of forced entry and no signs of a struggle in the bedroom where she was discovered. The jury found defendant guilty of purposeful-or-knowing murder, felony murder, first-degree robbery, and second-degree burglary. At the penalty phase, the jurors determined that the State had proven beyond a reasonable doubt two statutory aggravating factors: N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(4)(f) (murder committed to escape apprehension for another offense) and N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(4)(g) (murder committed during the course of a robbery and burglary). The jury did not find as an aggravating factor the State's submission that the murder involved aggravated assault of the victim, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(4)(c). Several of the jury members found some of the ten non-statutory mitigating factors presented by defendant pursuant to N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(5)(h), the catch-all mitigating factor. See ante at 312, 731 A. 2d at 1139. Finding that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors, the jury sentenced defendant to death for the capital charges. The trial court sentenced defendant to an aggregate sentence of life plus sixty-five years with a fifty-seven and one-half-year parole disqualifier for the non-capital counts of first-degree robbery and second-degree burglary. The Court affirmed defendant's convictions and death sentence. State v. Harvey, 151 N.J. 117, 233, 699 A. 2d 596 (1997) ( Harvey II ). This appeal is based on defendant's request for a proportionality review. In State v. Loftin, 157 N.J. 253, 724 A. 2d 129 (1999) ( Loftin II ), the Court appointed a Special Master to evaluate its proportionality review methodology and make recommendations for improvements. [1] The Court then proceeded to apply the existing methodology to Loftin's case, stating, Until we have had the benefit of [the Special Master's] report, ... we will continue ... to carry out proportionality review as before. Id. at 266, 724 A. 2d 129. The Special Master released his report on April 28, 1999. The Honorable David S. Baime, Report to the New Jersey Supreme Court: Proportionality Review Project (Apr. 28, 1999) ( Special Master Report ). In that report, the Special Master determined that several aspects of our methodology are faulty and require revision. Id. at 6-7. Despite the Special Master's recommendations, the Court goes ahead with defendant Harvey's case, applying existing methodology. This course of action, in addition to its needless inefficiency and unfairness, can only further confuse and undermine the accuracy and integrity of our proportionality review. The Court, in proceeding with this review, makes it pointless to delve into the Special Master Report in detail here. Suffice it to say that the proposed revisions wouldI predict, willhave a significant impact on defendant's proportionality review. The Court's decision to proceed with defendant's review when oral arguments on a new methodology are scheduled to occur the week of this decision's filing, see ante at 300, 731 A. 2d at 1133, does a grave disservice to both defendant and this Court's commitment to justice. The Court holds that defendant's sentence is not disproportionate. See ante at 283, 731 A. 2d at 1124. First, the Court has previously decided not to apply the Legislature's 1992 capital murder statute amendment, which severely limits the universe of cases constituting a basis for comparison among defendants, until the appointed Special Master reviewed the validity of such a limitation. See Loftin II, supra, 157 N.J. at 265-66, 724 A. 2d 129. In this case, even though the Special Master has spoken on the issue, the majority again defers judgment on the constitutionality of the statutory amendment. See ante at 288-89, 731 A. 2d at 1126-27. Further, the Court holds that defendant has not relentlessly documented with adequate evidence that racial discrimination influences this State's imposition of the death penalty. See ante at 319-20, 731 A. 2d at 1143-44. Finally, the Court affirms the proportionality of defendant's death sentence, holding that when defendant is compared to other similarly situated death-eligible defendants, defendant's sentence is not disproportionate. See ante at 319, 731 A. 2d at 1143. I disagree with the Court's holdings regarding systemic issues in the application of the New Jersey capital murder statute. First, I reiterate that consideration of the constitutionality of the 1992 amendment should not be postponed. Accord Loftin II, supra, 157 N.J. at 373, 724 A. 2d 129 (Handler, J., dissenting). This Court has expressed a strong commitment to meaningful proportionality review and has firmly rejected the possibility that a universe limited to cases in which the death penalty has been imposed could form the basis for such review. See State v. Marshall, 130 N.J. 109, 137, 613 A. 2d 1059 (1992) ( Marshall II ). In light of the Special Master's strong statement that a universe limited to cases in which the death sentence was imposed cannot support a coherent proportionality review system, Special Master Report, supra, at 10, the Court should act at this time by declaring the 1992 amendment unconstitutional. Second, I believe the statistical evidence before the Court, already presented in Loftin II, supra, demonstrates a constitutionally impermissible risk that race discrimination infects our State's imposition of the death penalty. This risk is especially great in transracial cases like this one, involving black defendants and white victims. Given the startling evidence of race discrimination before us, the Court should declare the death penalty statute unconstitutional or, at the very least, place a moratorium on the imposition of the death penalty until such time as the evidence demonstrates that race is not playing a role in capital prosecuting and sentencing. Accord Loftin II, supra, 157 N.J. at 446, 724 A. 2d 129 (Handler, J., dissenting). With regard to defendant's individual proportionality review, I object to the majority's novel decision to limit the class of cases to which defendant is compared in precedent-seeking review to his salient-factors subcategory (E-1), a step that renders the Court's proportionality review incomplete. Further, I find the Court's statistical analyses and its precedent-seeking review extremely subjective, arbitrary, and ultimately unreliable. I strongly disagree with the Court's conclusion and find defendant's sentence to be disproportionate. I, therefore, dissent.