Opinion ID: 2516369
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Verdict Form Instructions for First Degree Premeditated Murder and Felony Murder

Text: ś 79 Defendant argues he was prejudiced by the court's instruction concerning the difference between premeditated murder and felony murder because (1) it implicitly encouraged the jury to find guilt before considering whether the murder was premeditated and (2) it improperly suggested that a less than unanimous verdict on the murder count was appropriate. ś 80 The state contends the instruction informed the jury that while unanimity is not required as between felony murder and premeditated murder, a conviction of first degree murder does require jurors to find unanimously that the defendant committed the crime under one theory or the other, either as premeditated murder or as felony murder. ś 81 The matter was fully clarified by the verdict form itself. In particular, the jury was given a special interrogatory for the purpose of informing the court, at the conclusion of deliberations, which theory of first degree murder the jury had chosen. The signed interrogatory response expressly states that, of the twelve jurors, nine found the defendant guilty of first degree premeditated murder alone, and the remaining three found him guilty of both premeditated and felony murder. All twelve were thus unanimous on the premeditated theory. Any notion that the jury misunderstood the instruction was fully resolved by the special interrogatory. The defendant's argument is without merit. X. Constitutionality of the Arizona Death Penalty Statute ś 82 Defendant, raising a series of challenges, argues that Arizona's death penalty statute is unconstitutional both facially and as applied on the record before us. A.R.S. § 13-703. First, he claims that section 13-703 creates a presumption that the death penalty is appropriate when aggravating circumstances are proved by the state and that this presumption violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. We have previously rejected this argument and adhere to our earlier decision. See State v. Salazar, 173 Ariz. 399, 411, 844 P.2d 566, 578 (1992). ś 83 He also argues that section 13-703 is invalid as a preclusion of relevant mitigating circumstances at the sentencing hearing. We have rejected this claim and decline to revisit the issue. See State v. White, 168 Ariz. 500, 514-15, 815 P.2d 869, 883-84 (1991), abrogated on other grounds by Salazar, 173 Ariz. at 416-17, 844 P.2d at 583-84. ś 84 Defendant claims section 13-703 is unconstitutional because it eliminates jury consideration in the sentencing process, violating the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments, and article 2, sections 23 and 24 of the Arizona Constitution. We have considered and rejected this argument and see no reason to depart from this settled area of law. See Atwood, 171 Ariz. at 646, 832 P.2d at 663. The issue was similarly resolved by the Supreme Court of the United States in Walton v. Arizona, 497 U.S. 639, 110 S.Ct. 3047, 111 L.Ed.2d 511 (1990). [5] ś 85 Finally, defendant claims the United States Supreme Court in Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978), required that death penalty statutes provide a greater degree of reliability in assessing punishment, and that section 13-703 fails to comply with that requirement. We disagree. Contrary to the defendant's characterization, Lockett simply required that death penalty statutes not preclude the sentencer from considering mitigation evidence. Because section 13-703 includes the right to introduce evidence of mitigation in the sentencing proceeding, the statute complies with the Lockett mandate. See State v. Lopez, 175 Ariz. 407, 415, 857 P.2d 1261, 1269 (1993) ([T]he only limitation on mitigating evidence is that it be relevant.).