Opinion ID: 1172635
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Proportionality of Death Judgment

Text: (70) Defendant argues the judgment of death entered against him must be reversed because it is impermissibly disproportionate to his culpability. Defendant's argument has three parts. First, defendant argues the trial court erred in denying his motion to strike the death penalty and for discovery. At the penalty phase, defendant moved to strike the death penalty on the ground that it was arbitrary, discriminatory and disproportionate. Defendant also requested that the People produce, for comparison purposes, all records concerning California murder cases since 1978 in which the defendant was charged with a special circumstance under section 190.2, subdivision (a)(2) (prior murder) or (a)(3) (multiple murder), and in which the district attorney did not seek the death penalty. As we have held on many prior occasions, intercase proportionality review is not constitutionally required. (See, e.g., People v. Hayes, supra, 52 Cal.3d at p. 645; People v. Adcox (1988) 47 Cal.3d 207, 274 [253 Cal. Rptr. 55, 763 P.2d 906].) Nevertheless, in this case, on defendant's motion, a hearing was held at the conclusion of the penalty phase. Curt Livesay, a representative of the Los Angeles County District Attorney, testified he was the attorney in that office responsible for deciding in which special circumstance cases the death penalty would be sought and in which a penalty of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole would be sought. Livesay testified the district attorney's decision to seek the death penalty in this case was based upon the facts of the case, including defendant's criminal history. Livesay also testified regarding differences and similarities between this case and over 60 others. The trial court denied defendant's motion, ruling he had not articulated a valid claim that the district attorney's decision to seek the death penalty was arbitrary, capricious or irrational. We agree. Defendant acknowledges that, under California law, the individual prosecutor has complete discretion to determine whether to seek the death penalty in appropriate cases of first degree murder. Defendant asserts such prosecutorial discretion is contrary to the principled decisionmaking mandated by the United States Supreme Court, but we have long held to the contrary. [P]rosecutorial discretion to select those eligible cases in which the death penalty would actually be sought does not in and of itself evidence an arbitrary and capricious capital punishment system or offend principles of equal protection, due process, or cruel and/or unusual punishment. ( People v. Keenan (1988) 46 Cal.3d 478, 505 [250 Cal. Rptr. 550, 758 P.2d 1081], citing numerous high court decisions.) Defendant offers no persuasive reason for our departing, in this case, from our previous pronouncements. Defendant asserts the prosecutor here acted arbitrarily and capriciously in deciding to seek the death penalty in that he did not adhere to the guidelines set forth in section 190.3. Defendant concedes, however, that Curt Livesay testified precisely to the contrary  i.e., that the district attorney relied on the factors listed in section 190.3 in determining the appropriateness of the death penalty in this case. Indeed, Livesay summarized for the court a five-page memorandum memorializing the facts upon which his office relied in reaching its decision. Livesay's summary shows that the district attorney's decision process tracked the section 190.3 factors, with emphasis on the particular facts of the killings at issue in this case and defendant's participation in them. The district attorney also took into account defendant's age and lack of prior convictions in reaching the decision to seek the death penalty. Second, defendant argues that impermissible race factors affected the prosecutor's decision to seek death. Defendant suggests the prosecutor's remarks at voir dire that potential witnesses might have different cultural ethics, different ethical value[s] or different ethnic, social, cultural, moral backgrounds than some jurors constituted veiled references to racial bias. We agree with the People that the prosecutor's references were to the gang membership or prior criminality of certain witnesses, not to their race. As the People point out, defendant has presented the prosecutor's remarks somewhat out of context; the prosecutor followed up with the comment that it was not the jury's job to judge witnesses' morality or values, but only their credibility. As previously mentioned, all of the victims and most of the witnesses on both sides of this case were of the same race as defendant. Defendant simply has not established that the prosecutor, trial court or jury engaged in invidious racial discrimination. Finally, defendant argues he has been denied equal protection because he has not received either intercase proportionality review or appropriate intracase proportionality review. Defendant concedes, however, that he is not entitled to an intercase proportionality review on appeal. ( People v. Bacigalupo (1991) 1 Cal.4th 103, 151 [2 Cal. Rptr.2d 335, 820 P.2d 559].) Neither the Eighth Amendment nor equal protection requires us to provide such. ( People v. Bacigalupo, supra, 1 Cal.4th at p. 151.) The People do not dispute that, under article I, section 17 of the California Constitution, defendant is entitled to intracase review to determine whether the death penalty is disproportionate to his personal culpability. Defendant complains that Jerome Dunn's killing, Donald Billingsley's killing and the Cakewalk shooting all involved multiple perpetrators, yet the prosecutor sought the death penalty against defendant only. Defendant asserts that seeking a death sentence as to one participant while failing to charge other participants constitutes impermissible disproportionality. We disagree. Even if defendant had demonstrated his factual premise (as he has not), the legal conclusion he urges is erroneous. As the People point out, we previously have affirmed judgments of death rendered against only one of multiple perpetrators. (See, e.g., People v. Carrera, supra, 49 Cal.3d at p. 346.) Unless the state's capital punishment system is shown by the defendant to operate in an arbitrary and capricious manner, the fact that such defendant has been sentenced to death and others who may be similarly situated have not does not establish disproportionality violative of constitutional principles. ( People v. McLain, supra 46 Cal.3d 97, 121, citing McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) 481 U.S. 279, 306-312 [107 S.Ct. 1756, 1774-1777, 95 L.Ed.2d 262].) For the foregoing reasons, and in view of the facts reviewed, ante, defendant fails to demonstrate that the penalty of death imposed upon him is impermissibly disproportionate to his culpability.