Opinion ID: 1284318
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: issues raised by the state

Text: We next address the issues raised by the State. The State avers that the trial court erred in holding that the victim's prior criminal conduct, which did not amount to legal provocation for the offense, constituted a mitigating factor. We have held that the legislature's failure to list any mitigating factors in its capital sentencing scheme indicates its intent that the sentencing judge entertain the broadest of views in considering any and all matters appropriate to a determination of culpability. State of Idaho v. Small, 107 Idaho 504, 690 P.2d 1336 (1984). However, we conclude that consideration of the victim's character is not an appropriate matter. Hence, the trial court misconstrued the Idaho capital sentencing law in considering the victim's character to be a mitigating factor. The State cites Arizona v. Rumsey, ___ U.S. ___, 104 S.Ct. 2305, 81 L.Ed.2d 164 (1984) for the proposition that the defendant may be re-sentenced so long as no new fact finding accompanies the re-sentencing. We do not agree with the State's reading of Rumsey. In Rumsey, the defendant was convicted of first-degree murder and armed robbery. The trial court found no statutory aggravating circumstances, believing that the Arizona statute defining the receipt or expectation of anything of value as an aggravating circumstance applied only to murders for hire, and sentenced Rumsey to life imprisonment. When Rumsey appealed his conviction, the State cross-appealed, contending that the trial court had made an error of law by limiting the statutory gain factor to the circumstance of murder committed for hire. The Arizona Supreme Court found for the State and remanded the case for resentencing. On remand the trial court held a new sentencing hearing. Neither petitioner nor respondent presented any new evidence, although they had the opportunity to do so. Upon resentencing, the trial court imposed the death penalty and Rumsey appealed. The Arizona Supreme Court reversed and Certiorari was granted. The Supreme Court, Justice O'Connor, held that the double jeopardy clause prohibited Arizona from sentencing Rumsey to death after the life sentence was set aside on appeal, notwithstanding that the trial court's failure to initially impose the death penalty was based on its misconstruction of the State's capital sentencing law. The Court's ruling was grounded in its belief that the Arizona capital sentencing proceeding was comparable to a trial for double jeopardy purposes. Referring to Bullington v. Missouri, 451 U.S. 430 at 438, 101 S.Ct. 1852 at 1857, 68 L.Ed.2d 270 (1981) the Rumsey Court stated, Because the Court believed that the anxiety and ordeal suffered by a defendant in Missouri's capital sentencing proceeding are the equal of those suffered in a trial on the issue of guilt, the Court concluded that the Double Jeopardy Clause prohibits the State from resentencing the defendant to death after the sentencer has in effect acquitted the defendant of that penalty. Rumsey, 104 S.Ct. at 2309. In Rumsey, the double jeopardy clause was violated even though there was no new fact-finding. The Court's emphasis was not, as the state suggests, on the existence or non-existence of additional fact-finding but on the anxiety the resentencing procedure would have on the convicted defendant who had previously been acquitted of the ultimate criminal penalty. Because we conclude that resentencing at the trial level or the appellate level would violate the double jeopardy clause as explained in Rumsey, we will not vacate the sentence already imposed even though the trial court erroneously considered an inappropriate mitigating factor. The State also challenges the trial court's conclusion that the murder did not exhibit an utter disregard for human life within the contemplation of I.C. § 19-2515(f)(6). The Court determined that this aggravating factor did not apply in the instant case because factor (f)(6) overlapped factor (f)(7) which had already been found to apply.