Opinion ID: 222406
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Constitutionality of the Act's Penalty Phase Evidentiary Standard

Text: Gabrion next asserts that the Federal Death Penalty Act is facially unconstitutional, because it provides that the Federal Rules of Evidence (the Rules) do not apply to material presented by the parties during the penalty phase of a death penalty trial. This issue is one of first impression in this Circuit, but every other circuit which has confronted it has rejected this argument and upheld the Act. See United States v. Fulks, 454 F.3d 410, 437 (4th Cir.2006); United States v. Lee, 374 F.3d 637, 648-49 (8th Cir.2004); United States v. Fell, 360 F.3d 135, 140-46 (2d Cir.2004); United States v. Jones, 132 F.3d 232, 241-42 (5th Cir.1998). We join those circuits, reject Gabrion's argument, and decline to find the Act unconstitutional on this basis. The Act provides in relevant part that during the penalty phase of a death penalty trial, [i]nformation is admissible regardless of its admissibility under the rules governing admission of evidence at criminal trials except that information may be excluded if its probative value is outweighed by the danger of creating unfair prejudice, confusing the issues, or misleading the jury. 18 U.S.C. § 3593(c). Gabrion's principal argument is that this evidentiary standard's constitutionality is foreclosed by the Supreme Court's reasoning in Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002). Ring invalidated Arizona's death penalty statutewhich provided that, after a capital defendant was found guilty by a jury, the trial judge himself would find aggravating factors required for the imposition of the death penalty sentenceas unconstitutional under the Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury. Ring, 536 U.S. at 588-89, 122 S.Ct. 2428. The core holding of Ring is that where a death penalty statute requires aggravating facts to be found before the death penalty is imposed, those facts must be found by a jury, not by a judge. Id. at 609, 122 S.Ct. 2428. Gabrion asks us to extend this reasoning one step further and hold that those aggravating facts must, as a constitutional matter, be proven to the jury using evidence admissible under the Rules. He is apparently raising this constitutional argument for the first time on appeal, and so our review is for plain error. Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b); United States v. Murphy, 241 F.3d 447, 450-51 (6th Cir.2001). Gabrion's argument consciously takes as its inspiration a decision of the District Court in United States v. Fell, 217 F.Supp.2d 469 (D.Vt.2002), rev'd, 360 F.3d 135 (2d Cir.2004), which found the relevant provision of the Act unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment. That decision was reversed in a thorough and well-reasoned opinion of the Second Circuit, and we largely follow their analysis in disposing of Gabrion's argument in the instant matter. We begin by noting that the Federal Rules of Evidence are not a collection of constitutional rules: the limitations on the introduction of evidence presented by the Rules are not coextensive with the limitations required by the Constitution. See Dowling v. United States, 493 U.S. 342, 352-54, 110 S.Ct. 668, 107 L.Ed.2d 708 (1990) (finding, in the admission of evidence at trial, an error under the Rules, but declining to find a constitutional error); Fell, 360 F.3d at 144-45 (following this reading of Dowling and other cases and concluding that [the Rules] establish neither the floor nor the ceiling of constitutionally permissible evidence). Where a given evidentiary rule is not inconsistent with a constitutional principle, Congress retains the ultimate authority to modify or set [it] aside. Dickerson v. United States, 530 U.S. 428, 437, 120 S.Ct. 2326, 147 L.Ed.2d 405 (2000). In the Federal Death Penalty Act, Congress enacted an evidentiary standard governing the penalty phase of capital prosecutions that provided that the Rules do not apply, and left only one limitation on the admission of information (notably, the relevant provision does not even speak of evidence): that information may be excluded if its probative value is outweighed by the danger of creating unfair prejudice, confusing the issues, or misleading the jury. 18 U.S.C. § 3593(c). Gabrion on appeal argues that the constitutional principle with which this provision is inconsistent (and therefore outside of Congress's authority to enact) is the one announced in Ring: that aggravating factors, the proof of which is part of the business of the penalty phase, must be proven to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. The link between Ring, which concerned primarily the identity of the trier of fact and not the standards limiting the material introduced before it, and Gabrion's present argument is reliability: Gabrion argues that, since Ring required proof of aggravating factors to be made to a jury and not to a judge, that proof should be reliable, and reliability would best be guaranteed by Rules, which govern other matters proven before juries in federal court. Concerns about reliability are obviously at their apogee when the determination is literally one of life and death, as is the case in capital sentencing proceedings. See, e.g., Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 604, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978) (stating that [the] qualitative difference between death and other penalties calls for a greater degree of reliability when the death sentence is imposed). The problem with Gabrion's argument is his contention that, in the capital sentencing context, the Rules are the only means of assuring reliability, so much so that their application is constitutionally required. On the contrary, the unique context of the penalty phasethe ultimate object of which is not the determination of the objective fact of the defendant's guilt or innocence but the much more abstract, irreducibly moral determination of whether an individual, already adjudicated guilty, deserves mercy or deathpresents distinct reliability concerns that could be plausibly thought to merit a different, much broader set of limitations on what information may be considered. The Supreme Court has long recognized this to be the case. See, e.g., Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 204, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976) (We think it desirable for the jury to have as much information before it as possible when it makes the sentencing decision.); Williams v. New York, 337 U.S. 241, 246, 69 S.Ct. 1079, 93 L.Ed. 1337 (1949) (noting the sound practical reasons for having different evidentiary rules govern[] trial and sentencing procedures). What may distract a jury in the guilt phase from its narrow determination of guilt or innocencea defendant's good or bad character, as demonstrated through prior acts, for examplemay be vital to its determination of whether the particular guilty defendant before it deserves society's ultimate punishment. Accordingly, Congress's decision to relax the evidentiary standard for this specific purpose is no constitutional defect. Gabrion also contends that the Act may only be deemed constitutional if we create a new federal capital murder offense that would treat the aggravating factors as elements of the offense, as, he argues, is required by Ring. He continues that we should not create such an offense, citing principles of constitutional avoidance, separation of powers, and the longstanding proscription against the creation of common law crimes. A similar argument was raised and rejected by the Eighth Circuit in United States v. Lee, 374 F.3d 637, 648-49 (8th Cir.2004), and we reject it here as well. We do not need to construe the Act as creating a new offense not already specified; as stated above, the Act complies with Ring by requiring aggravating facts to be found by a jury, not by a judge.