Opinion ID: 1926660
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 22

Heading: assignment of cumulative error

Text: Defendant finally contends that, although none of his assigned errors may individually warrant reversal of his conviction and sentence, taken together they indicate that defendant did not receive a fair trial. We do not agree. We have carefully examined each of the errors alleged by defendant and found them to be without merit. We are unwilling to say that the cumulative effect of assignments of error lacking in merit warrants reversal of a conviction. Hence, defendant's claim of cumulative error is without substance. After defendant was sentenced in this matter, the United States Supreme Court in Roberts v. Louisiana, 428 U.S. 325, 96 S.Ct. 3001, 49 L.Ed.2d 974 (1976) held unconstitutional Louisiana's mandatory death sentence for first degree murder. In accordance with that decision, this court has vacated death sentences in first degree murder cases but, when no other reversible error has been found, we have remanded the cases to the trial court for resentencing of defendants to the most severe valid penalty established by the legislature for criminal homicide at the time of the offense. State v. Williams, 343 So.2d 1026 (La.1977); State v. Jenkins, 340 So.2d 157 (La.1976); State v. Clark, 340 So.2d 208 (La.1976). In the instant case, the crime was committed on September 14, 1974. The most severe valid penalty for criminal homicide applicable on that date was the penalty for second degree murder, life imprisonment at hard labor without eligibility for parole, probation or suspension of sentence for twenty years. Accordingly, even though we affirm the conviction, we vacate and set aside the imposition of the death penalty and remand the case to the trial court for resentencing.