Opinion ID: 1536017
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Prior Murder Aggravating Factor

Text: The c(4)(a) prior murder aggravating factor involved a January 13, 1974, murder in Pennsylvania for which defendant was convicted of second-degree murder. He argues that because the Pennsylvania conviction was congruent with both manslaughter and some forms of murder under N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3a, and because it cannot be determined whether, under the jury charge in Pennsylvania, he was convicted of murder or aggravated manslaughter under New Jersey law, the Pennsylvania conviction should not have been used as an aggravating factor. The pertinent provision in our Death Penalty Act, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(4)(a), provides that one of the aggravating factors justifying the imposition of the death penalty is that [t]he defendant has been convicted, at any time, of another murder. Whether the Legislature intended that a foreign second-degree murder conviction that occurred prior to the enactment of our Death Penalty Act in 1982 could be used as an aggravating factor has to be determined from the statutory language, the legislative history, and our decisional law. Because no clear answer emerges from the statutory language itself, [w]e must, therefore, resort to intrinsic and extrinsic aids of statutory interpretation to glean the legislative intent. State v. Biegenwald, 96 N.J. 630, 635, 477 A. 2d 318 (1984). First, we will consider the historical antecedents to the c(4)(a) statutory language that will be somewhat enlightening. State v. Brown, 22 N.J. 405, 415, 126 A. 2d 161 (1956).