Opinion ID: 2588202
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Mandatory statutory review of the death penalty

Text: NRS 177.055(2) requires this court to review every death sentence and consider: (b) Whether the evidence supports the finding of an aggravating circumstance or circumstances; (c) Whether the sentence of death was imposed under the influence of passion, prejudice or any arbitrary factor; and (d) Whether the sentence of death is excessive, considering both the crime and the defendant. Hernandez claims that his death sentence should be reversed under this statute. He invokes his earlier arguments challenging burglary, torture, and mutilation to suggest that the evidence did not support two pertinent aggravating circumstances. As discussed above, those arguments fail, and we conclude that the evidence supports all three aggravators. Claiming that his sentence was imposed under the influence of passion, prejudice, or an arbitrary factor, he again notes that two jurors purchased the victim's daughter a gift during the penalty phase. We do not agree that this shows that the jury acted under the influence of passion, prejudice, or any arbitrary factor, and we see no indication of such influence in the record. In arguing that his death sentence is excessive, Hernandez claims that [i]n nearly all other recent Nevada cases involving the murder of a person by their spouse or exspouse, the death penalty has not been imposed. He then cites with little or no analysis six opinions by this court. This court has stated that our determinations regarding excessiveness of the death sentences of similarly situated defendants may serve as a frame of reference for determining the crucial issue in the excessiveness analysis: are the crime and defendant before us on appeal of the class or kind that warrants the imposition of death? [59] Here, Hernandez provides no cogent argument demonstrating that the cases he cites involve similarly situated defendants. The jury recognized seven mitigating circumstances, but finding that the three aggravating circumstances outweighed them, imposed a death sentence. We perceive no basis to set aside this decision. Hernandez stalked his wife; murdered her without provocation in a horrific, savage manner; and did so in the presence of her, and his own, young daughter. We conclude that the death sentence is not excessive in this case.