Opinion ID: 1781771
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Due Process Right to a Fundamentally Fair Trial

Text: LSA-Const. Art. 1, § 2 declares that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, except by due process of law. The broad safeguards of this provision encompass the guarantee of fundamental fairness in the sentencing phase of a capital trial and in the decision making process from which the penalty results. A sentencing hearing procedure which influences or predisposes a jury to sentence a defendant to death, when it otherwise would not, is fundamentally unfair in violation of due process guarantees. The possibility of reprieve, pardon or commutation bears no relevant relationship to the constitutionally required focus of the capital sentencing hearing which properly is the circumstances of the offense and the character and propensities of the offender. The irrelevant instruction required by LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 905.2(B), injects a factor into the jury's decision making process which is arbitrary. The factor is arbitrary because it invites the jury to engage in irrelevant speculation of what the present or an unknown future governor will do at an unknown point in the future in response to a request by an unknown person to pardon defendant based upon unknown reasons. In short, it asks for a present answer to uncertain future events, provoking questions which no human mind can answer. State v. Lindsey, 404 So.2d at 486. In doing so, it diverts the jury from its proper purpose and it invites the jury to impose a death sentence on the basis of its ad hoc speculation about the likelihood of defendant's eventual release. California v. Ramos, 463 U.S. at 1019, 103 S.Ct. at 3463 (Marshall, J., dissenting). As we stated in State v. Lindsey , when a jury's attention is diverted from its primary responsibility of weighing the circumstances of the crime and the character and propensities of the offender and thrust into speculation about the future actions of yet unknown actors, a serious possibility arises that each death sentence imposed under such conditions is the result of an interjection of an unquantifiable factor into the deliberation process, thereby rendering the decision arbitrary ... 404 So.2d at 487. Under the required clemency instruction, one capital defendant may be sentenced to death and another to life imprisonment merely because one jury perceived the system provided a greater likelihood of commutation (with the consequence of parole) than did the other juryan arbitrary factor unconnected to the offense or offender. A recommendation of death based on a jury prediction of the likelihood defendant will eventually be released if not sentenced to death, is an arbitrary and capricious decision lacking in fundamental fairness. California v. Ramos, 463 U.S. at 1020, 103 S.Ct. at 3463 (Marshall, J., dissenting). The gubernatorial pardoning power is plainly not a meaningful, principled basis for distinguishing a case in which the death penalty should be imposed from one in which it should not. See Id.; 463 U.S. at 1020-1021, 103 S.Ct. at 3463-3464. Rather than purposely diverting the jury's focus to arbitrary factors, the trial court should channel its discretion to focus on the defendant's character and the nature of the crime, factors which minimize the risk of capricious imposition of the death penalty. By deterring the capital jury from this goal and marring its focus, LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 905.2(B) impermissibly increases the risk of an arbitrary factor affecting the jury's sentencing recommendation and, therefore, it compromises the reliability of the jury's decision making process. The clemency instruction also tends to diminish the jury's sense of responsibility for its action. Ramos II, 207 Cal.Rptr. at 813, 689 P.2d at 443. When the jury is informed of the possibility of commutation, reprieve and pardon, the information may cause the jury to avoid its responsibility under the notion that, if it mistakenly fails to recommend mercy, the error may be corrected by the governor. See Id. citing Smith v. State, 317 A.2d 20, 25 (Del.1974). The instruction then obscures the lines separating the judicial and executive powers by inducing the jury to fail to make the proper constitutionally ordained determination in the first instance, upon a belief that it will subsequently be handled by others. See People v. Ramos, 30 Cal.3d 553, 180 Cal.Rptr. 266, 289-90, 639 P.2d 908, 932 (1982) ( Ramos I ), cert. granted and rev 'd, California v. Ramos, 463 U.S. 992, 103 S.Ct. 3446, 77 L.Ed.2d 1171 (1983). The risk of improperly diminishing the jury's sense of responsibility by injecting thoughts of clemency is too great a hazard to chance since, through it, the punishment of death may be inflicted in error. Purposeful injection of the clemency issue blurs the constitutional separation of powers in yet another manner, by inviting the jury to pre-empt the governor's commutation power by opting for the death sentence to minimize or to thwart the governor's use of the power. Such a jury action would defeat the constitutional design of both the clemency power and the right of due process of law. See State v. Lindsey , 404 So.2d at 487; Ramos II, 207 Cal.Rptr. at 813, 689 P.2d at 443. The constitution grants the clemency power to the governor, while the function of the capital jury is solely to sentence defendant based on the circumstances of the offense and the character and propensities of the offender. The jury should not be induced to foreclose the executive branch from subsequently deciding the commutation (and parole) issue(s). People v. Morse, 60 Cal.2d 631, 36 Cal.Rptr. 201, 209, 388 P.2d 33, 41 (1964). A risk created by pre-emption of the gubernatorial clemency power of even greater constitutional dimension, is the jury's apprehension of misuse of the power could inspire it to frustrate the constitution's clemency scheme by recommending defendant be sentenced to death when it would have otherwise recommended a sentence of life-imprisonment. See State v. Lindsey , 404 So.2d at 487; Ramos II, 207 Cal.Rptr. at 813, 689 P.2d at 443. The sentence of death, then, is not the punishment defendant deserves but is a reactive punishment to stymie the clemency power. Due process is violated by a capital sentencing instruction which invites the jury to speculate if the executive branch will misuse its clemency power. People v. Morse, 36 Cal.Rptr. at 208-10, 388 P.2d at 40-41. Violation of due process is compounded when, as a result of such speculation, the jury recommends the punishment of death. The jury's duty is to decide its recommendation based upon present facts, what happens after the recommended sentence is imposed is simply not its concern. Id. Finally, the instruction is not one with a neutral effect. Defendant's due process right to a fundamentally fair capital sentencing hearing requires that he should not be placed in the defensive position of having to overcome any negative impact of the clemency power jury instruction. Defendant should not be forced to defensively respond to the irrelevant instruction in order to persuade or reassure the jury that he has little hope of obtaining a commutation (i.e., he is without political clout, his history would not make him a likely candidate for commutation, or he is unlikely to be rehabilitated, educated or to become terminally ill). Based on the foregoing reasons, we hold LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 905.2(B), which requires a capital jury to be instructed on the governor's clemency power, unconstitutionally violates the due process guarantee of a fundamentally fair trial. LSA-Const. Art. 1, § 2. The possible prejudicial effect of the instruction perniciously undermines the reliability of the capital sentencing hearing and the soundness of the process by which a jury arrives at the recommendation of death. It purposefully injects an irrelevant, arbitrary factor into the sentencing hearing risking speculation and chancing the recommendation of the death from a capital jury lacking confidence in governor's ability to wisely use the clemency power. See Ramos II, 207 Cal.Rptr. at 813, 689 P.2d at 443. Injecting this arbitrary factor into the capital sentencing process undermines the fundamental fairness requisite for the capital hearing, a hearing which requires a greater degree of scrutiny due to the qualitative difference between the death penalty from other statutory punishments.