Opinion ID: 1119440
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 22

Heading: Preventing lawful arrest statutory aggravator.

Text: The State included the prevention of lawful arrest statutory aggravator listed in NRS 200.033(5) [7] as one of the aggravating circumstances in its notice of intent to seek the death penalty. Witter made a motion to strike that aggravator, arguing that the evidence adduced at trial shows that he killed James in an attempt to continue his sexual assault on Kathryn, not to avoid arrest. The district court denied Witter's motion. Witter now contends that the district court abused its discretion. In Cavanaugh v. State, 102 Nev. 478, 729 P.2d 481 (1986), this court held that for purposes of NRS 200.033(5), the arrest does not need to be imminent, and the victim does not have to be involved in some way with effectuating the arrest. More recently, in Canape v. State, 109 Nev. 864, 859 P.2d 1023 (1993), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ____, 115 S.Ct. 176, 130 L.Ed.2d 112 (1994), the evidence adduced at trial showed that Canape robbed his victim then walked him away from the freeway before shooting him in the back. We held that based on the evidence of the case, a jury could reasonably infer that the murder was committed to avoid lawful arrest. Id. at 874-75, 859 P.2d at 1030. In this case, Witter attacked James only after James told Witter that Kathryn was his wife and ordered Witter to exit the vehicle. Once Witter killed James, Witter grabbed Kathryn and forced her back into the vehicle. Rather than fleeing, or killing Kathryn to make sure no one could identify him, Witter hid James' body under his cab and resumed his sexual assault on Kathryn. The natural inference drawn from these facts is that Witter killed James so that he could continue his assault on Kathryn, not to avoid arrest. Clearly, the prosecution has not met its burden of proving this aggravator beyond a reasonable doubt. We therefore conclude that the jury could not have reasonably found that the murder was committed to avoid lawful arrest and that the district court erred when it denied Witter's motion to strike the aggravator. In McKenna v. McDaniel, 65 F.3d 1483 (9th Cir.1995), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was faced with a situation similar to the case at bar in which one of the aggravating circumstances used to sentence McKenna to death was found invalid. In commenting on Nevada's death penalty statute, the court stated: Even in a weighing state, however, invalidation of one of several aggravating factors may make no difference if there were no mitigating circumstances against which the state court could balance the remaining aggravating factors. See Neuschafer v. Whitley, 816 F.2d 1390, 1393 (9th Cir.1987). But where some mitigating factors exist, there must either be a new sentencing hearing before a jury or the state appellate court must reweigh or conduct harmless error review in order to give the defendant the individualized considerations required by the Constitution. Clemons [v. Mississippi], 494 U.S. [738] at 746, 752, 110 S.Ct. [1441] at 1447, 1450 [108 L.Ed.2d 725 (1990) ]. Id. at 1489-90. Even though we conclude that the prevention of lawful arrest aggravator should have been stricken, there remain four aggravators that the State has proven beyond a reasonable doubt. In mitigation, Witter offered the testimony of several members of his family and the testimony of a clinical psychologist, all of whom testified that Witter grew up in a very abusive and dysfunctional family. We conclude that the remaining four aggravators clearly outweigh the mitigating evidence presented by Witter. Moreover, for the same reason, we conclude that the district court's failure to strike the prevention of lawful arrest aggravator amounts to harmless error. See Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967). We therefore conclude that even though the district court erred in allowing the prevention of lawful arrest aggravator to be considered by the jury, Witter's sentence of death is still proper.