Opinion ID: 2584947
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Argument Pertaining to Mitigating Evidence

Text: Defendant argues the prosecutor violated the law and deprived him of a fair penalty determination by telling the jury that its job as a sentencing body was not to consider his background or other relevant mitigating evidence, but solely to seek justice for the victim's death. Specifically, he refers to the prosecutor's argument that the question for you folks is what should be the punishment for the murder of and the murderer of Theresa Schmiedt. That's the question here. [¶] . . . [¶] We are not here to decide why crime occurred. We are not here to decide how personalities develop over fifty-three years, whether you have an alcoholic mother, you are predestined to kill someone fifty-three years later. [¶] We are not here to decide that. [¶] We are here to decide what is the appropriate punishment for Theresa Schmiedt. [¶] And there are two compelling reasons that I say virtually dictate the answer to that question thatthat really leave you with no choice. And that's the nature of the crime and the nature of the killer as shown by his criminal-conviction history. This is a brutal killing by a lifelong criminal. [¶] What else can we do with him for what he's done and the way he has lived. (Italics added.) Even assuming this claim was preserved for review, the prosecutor did not exceed the bounds of proper argument. As the record discloses, the prosecut or first addressed all the aggravating factors, including the circumstances of the crime and defendant's 10 prior felony convictions. He then pointed out the lack of evidence supporting the defense's rage killing theory. When the prosecutor next turned to the defense's mitigating evidence, he did not urge the jury to disregard or ignore such evidence. Instead, he remarked that the mitigating effect of [the defense's] evidence gets washed out because when you look at it as a whole for every step forward they tookone step forward they took, they ended up stepping back one. After reminding the jury of various facts that undercut the mitigating force of defendant's background evidence, the prosecutor again argued: [S]o the mitigating evidence that they have tried to present, at least in terms of his life history, for everything they can try and say is good about him is offset by something bad, to the point to where the mitigating evidence in that regard just washes out. And it has no force and effect. [¶] When you weigh it, then, in the balance which the judge will instruct you, there is just no weight to it, it just doesn't have any kind of picture that is deserving of sympathy or deserving of any mitigating effect as far as Richard Parson and the punishment that he deserves for his crime. Subsequently, the prosecutor reviewed the testimony of defendant's mental health experts and, after highlighting what he viewed as weaknesses, told those jurors who might be having difficulty in voting for a death sentence to ask themselves: Are you concerned because of your own personal qualms, or is it something really based on the evidence. [¶] Is there something about this evidence that tells you that Richard Parson shouldn't be punished in the ultimate fashion, in the most serious fashion known to the law? [¶] Is there something really there that strikes you as so mitigating that the appropriate punishment is . . . life without parole. Contrary to defendant's contention, the record does not reflect that the prosecutor told or otherwise suggested to the jury that its job was not to consider defendant's background or other relevant mitigating evidence. Rather, the record confirms that the prosecutor consistently and properly argued to the jury that, based on the evidence presented, it could and should conclude that defendant's evidence was not sufficiently mitigating so as to outweigh the heinous nature of the crimes committed or the other factors in aggravation. ( People v. Sims (1993) 5 Cal.4th 405, 464 [20 Cal.Rptr.2d 537, 853 P.2d 992]; see People v. Seaton (2001) 26 Cal.4th 598, 682 [110 Cal.Rptr.2d 441, 28 P.3d 175] [the prosecutor did not ask the jury to ignore defendant's mitigating evidence, but merely argued that the circumstances of the murder outweighed that evidence ...].) No misconduct appears.