Opinion ID: 1300630
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Character as an aggravating factor.

Text: During closing argument, defense counsel focused on defendant's childhood and young adulthood, attempting to convince the jury that defendant's personal problems stemmed from his upbringing and justified imposition of a life sentence rather than death. Thus, counsel noted defendant's mother's apparent mental illness, his father's abandonment of the family, defendant's abuse of several different drugs at an early age, his relationship with his future wife while he was still a teenager, that his wife was emotionally unstable and an alcoholic, his continuing drug abuse as an adult, and his unsatisfying job. By contrast, the prosecutor argued defendant's background did not warrant leniency. Emphasizing the jury's weighing function, the prosecutor stated, is it just that this defendant should now be free of those frustrations, free of the wife, free of the job, eating three square meals a day, while these people are moldering in their grave. Is that an honest balance? Defendant argues that by these comments, the prosecutor impermissibly transformed mitigating character evidence into aggravating evidence. (Cf. People v. Davenport (1985) 41 Cal.3d 247, 288-290 [221 Cal. Rptr. 794, 710 P.2d 861] [misconduct for prosecutor to argue that absence of a mitigating circumstance was aggravating].) However, even assuming the prosecutor's argument was misconduct, any objection was waived by defendant's failure to object where a timely admonition to the jury would have cured any harm. ( Rodriguez, supra, 42 Cal.3d at p. 788.) In any event, we see no impropriety. (14) The prosecutor may argue that the absence of mitigating factors weighs against leniency, so long as he refrains from suggesting that the mere absence of a mitigating factor weighs in favor of the death penalty. (E.g., People v. Ruiz (1988) 44 Cal.3d 589, 620, 622 [244 Cal. Rptr. 200, 749 P.2d 854]; Ghent, supra, 43 Cal.3d at p. 775.) Moreover, he may rebut defense efforts to show that defendant's background and character constitute mitigating circumstances. ( Rodriguez, supra, 42 Cal.3d at p. 791; Boyd, supra, 38 Cal.3d at pp. 775-776.) The prosecutor did not overstep those bounds here. No basis for reversal appears.