Opinion ID: 1059140
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Constitutionality of Virginia's Capital Murder Statutes

Text: In his third and eleventh assignments of error, Powell attacks the trial court's order overruling his motions to have the Virginia capital murder statutes declared unconstitutional. With respect to the motion filed April 25, 2002 and overruled by the trial court on May 6, 2002, Powell has restated, in summary fashion, five of his arguments advanced in the trial court, without citation to authority. [8] The failure to adequately brief an assignment of error constitutes a waiver of the argument. See, e.g., Burns v. Commonwealth, 261 Va. 307, 318, 541 S.E.2d 872, 880, cert. denied, 534 U.S. 1043, 122 S.Ct. 621, 151 L.Ed.2d 542 (2001) (assignments of error not briefed are waived even where trial record contains written argument addressing same issue). Moreover, the arguments raised by Powell have been previously considered and rejected by this Court. The arguments raised by Powell and recent decisions rejecting those arguments are: That the statutes fail to provide meaningful guidance with respect to the vileness and future dangerousness aggravating factors and that the jury is not provided adequate guidance with respect to the application of aggravating and mitigating factors. Rejected in Morrisette v. Commonwealth, 264 Va. 386, 397, 569 S.E.2d 47, 55 (2002), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 124 S.Ct. 928, 157 L.Ed.2d 750 (2003). That permitting evidence of unadjudicated criminal conduct to be used to establish the defendant's future dangerousness fails to meet the heightened reliability requirement of the 8th and 14th Amendments. Rejected in Bell v. Commonwealth, 264 Va. 172, 203, 563 S.E.2d 695, 716 (2002), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 1123, 123 S.Ct. 860, 154 L.Ed.2d 805 (2003). That the trial court is improperly vested with discretion whether to set aside the death sentence for good cause shown and is permitted to consider hearsay evidence in the pre-sentence report. Rejected in Lenz v. Commonwealth, 261 Va. 451, 459, 544 S.E.2d 299, 303-04, cert. denied, 534 U.S. 1003, 122 S.Ct. 481, 151 L.Ed.2d 395 (2001). That the mandatory proportionality review procedures employed by this Court fail to meet constitutional standards. Rejected in Lovitt v. Commonwealth, 260 Va. 497, 509, 537 S.E.2d 866, 874 (2000), cert. denied, 534 U.S. 815, 122 S.Ct. 41, 151 L.Ed.2d 14 (2001); Bailey, 259 Va. at 740-42, 529 S.E.2d at 580-81, cert. denied, 531 U.S. 995, 121 S.Ct. 488, 148 L.Ed.2d 460 (2000). With respect to the December 11, 2002 motion, overruled by the trial court on December 23, 2002, Powell asserts, as he did in the trial court, that the United States Supreme Court's decision in Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002), requires that many of the procedural safeguards that heretofore have only been required during the guilt/innocence phase of trial must now be extended to the sentencing phase. Powell reasons that because Ring held that it was impermissible in a jury trial to allow the trial judge to determine whether there were aggravating factors sufficient to warrant the imposition of the death penalty, id. at 609, 122 S.Ct. 2428, the aggravating factors required to be found by Code § 19.2-264.4(B) before a sentence of death may be imposed are to be treated as elements of the offense of a death-eligible capital murder. Powell contends that the standards of proof and rules of evidence applicable to the determination of guilt must also be applied to the determination of sentence, and that, contrary to decisions of this Court made prior to Ring, this precludes the Commonwealth from presenting under a relaxed evidentiary standard evidence of unadjudicated criminal conduct or hearsay evidence when the declarant is not available for cross-examination as required by the confrontation clause. The Commonwealth responds that Ring does not alter the analysis of the constitutionality of the procedures applied during the penalty determination phase of a capital murder trial in Virginia. Rather, the Commonwealth contends that the procedures for the admission of relevant evidence during the penalty determination phase under Code § 19.2-264.4(B) continue to be fully in accord with the Sixth Amendment due process concerns underpinning the decision in Ring. We agree with the Commonwealth. First, we note that Powell's expansive reading of Ring is unwarranted for the obvious reason that the statutory scheme at issue in that case, which permitted the judge in a capital murder jury trial to assume the role of the jury in determining whether aggravating factors permitting the imposition of the death penalty were present, is markedly different from that of Virginia's death penalty sentencing statute. See Ring, 536 U.S. at 588. Moreover, nothing in the United States Supreme Court's opinion in Ring suggests that the Court intended to revisit broader issues of due process protections afforded in the penalty determination phase of all capital murder trials. We further reject Powell's contention that there is a relaxed evidentiary standard applicable to the penalty determination phase of a capital murder trial in Virginia. To the contrary, Code § 19.2-264.4(B) expressly provides, and we have consistently held, that the Commonwealth must prove the existence of one or both aggravating factors beyond a reasonable doubt. See, e.g., Clark v. Commonwealth, 220 Va. 201, 212, 257 S.E.2d 784, 791 (1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1049, 100 S.Ct. 741, 62 L.Ed.2d 736 (1980). Powell's contention that the introduction of evidence of unadjudicated criminal acts is not admissible because Ring somehow refines the need for heightened reliability in capital sentencing is, as the Commonwealth notes, nothing more than a reassertion of the same argument raised in his prior motion and consistently rejected by this Court. Jackson v. Commonwealth, 267 Va. 178, 188, 590 S.E.2d 520, 526 (2004) (today decided). Powell's assertion that Code § 19.2-264.4(B) permits the introduction of hearsay evidence not otherwise subject to an exception is simply wrong. [9] See, e.g., Lovitt v. Warden, 266 Va. 216, 259, 585 S.E.2d 801, 826 (2003); Jackson, 267 Va. at 188, 590 S.E.2d at 526. For these reasons, we hold that the trial court did not err in overruling Powell's motion to have the Virginia capital murder statutes declared unconstitutional.