Opinion ID: 2639408
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Restriction on argument concerning effect of execution on defendant's family members

Text: During closing argument, defense counsel sought to discuss the likely effect of defendant's execution on his family and friends. The trial court sustained the prosecutor's objection to this line of argument. Defendant contends the ruling violated his Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to a reliable penalty determination, a fair trial and due process of law, in that it prevented the sentencer from considering and giving effect to evidence relevant to his background or character or to mitigating circumstances. (See Penry v. Lynaugh (1989) 492 U.S. 302, 318, 109 S.Ct. 2934, 106 L.Ed.2d 256, citing Eddings v. Oklahoma (1982) 455 U.S. 104, 113-114, 102 S.Ct. 869, 71 L.Ed.2d 1.) Defendant acknowledges our holding in People v. Ochoa (1998) 19 Cal.4th 353, 456, 79 Cal.Rptr.2d 408, 966 P.2d 442, that the jury must decide whether a defendant deserves to die, not whether the defendant's family deserves to suffer the pain of a member's execution, but may con sider the positive qualities of his background or character that would be illuminated by the impact his execution would have upon his family. Defendant argues that counsel's argument fit within the parameters of Ochoa or, alternatively, that counsel rendered ineffective assistance in failing to make an offer of proof as to the specific qualities of defendant's background or character that would have been illuminated by the effects of his execution on his family. We find no error in the trial court's ruling. Counsel's bare invitation to the jury to consider the likely effect of a death sentence on defendant's friends and family did not articulate a factor relevant to the jury's penalty determination. In view of counsel's numerous other references during his closing argument to the testimony concerning defendant's family and their mutual devotion to each other, moreover, defendant suffered no prejudice as a result of the ruling and thus was not deprived of the effective assistance of counsel.