Opinion ID: 2636899
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Inadequate penalty phase argument.

Text: We have reviewed the penalty phase argument and do not agree with appellant that it fell short of the quality demanded by the Sixth and Eighth Amendments. For the most part his argument here is only that a better or different penalty phase argument could have been made. This is not a basis for finding constitutionally ineffective assistance. ( People v. Mincey (1992) 2 Cal.4th 408, 471, 6 Cal.Rptr.2d 822, 827 P.2d 388.) Appellant also complains that trial counsel did not make it clear that the absence of prior violent criminal conduct in his past could be considered mitigating even if he had committed nonviolent criminal acts or that mental illness that was not extreme could be considered. But counsel did argue that unlike many capital cases, appellant had no prior felony convictions. With respect to mental illness, counsel acknowledged that the jury had found that appellant was not legally insane and argued that the jury could nonetheless say that he was crazy when he committed the crimes and urged the jury to remember that all five psychiatrists believed that he suffered a severe and prolonged mental defect absent which the crimes would not have occurred. Appellant received adequate representation in the penalty phase argument.