Opinion ID: 2569354
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 34

Heading: Whether the trial court excluded substantial mitigation evidence.

Text: In addition to the testimony of Dr. Suzanne Bernhard and therapists Walt Simon and Roger Lyons, see supra Part IV.A., Harlan asserts that the trial court erred in excluding additional evidence he deems mitigating. We find: (1) because Harlan declined to introduce the transcript of his sentencing for misdemeanor sexual assault in 1992, there was no error; (2) a witness's opinion of whether or not the car's line of travel in the 1984 accident involving Robert and Colleen Harlan would have made the car hit the rail full on or graze off, was properly excluded because it called for speculation; (3) exclusion of LaWanda Davis's testimony about a statement Colleen Harlan made to her five years before the trial was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt given: the lapse of time between the statement and the time of trial; the fact that the jury knew Harlan and his ex-wife were divorced at the time of trial; and that the evidence at the sentencing hearing was overwhelmingly against Harlan; and (4) evidence regarding the deterrent effect of the death penalty, its disproportionality in this case by reference to other cases, public opinion, and the costs of execution was properly excluded because it was not relevant to the issues the jury considers in the sentencing phase, and was outside the scope of constitutionally required mitigating evidence. See Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 604, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978); People v. Tenneson, 788 P.2d 786, 799 (Colo.1990).