Opinion ID: 1152592
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Limitation on defense argument.

Text: (41) The prosecutor argued pursuant to section 190.3, factor (a), that the circumstances of the charged crimes warranted the imposition of the death penalty. In the course of this argument, he made statements such as: If it's not this case, then what case[?] [21] In response to this argument, the defendant began to argue that this case was not an appropriate one for the death penalty, as other multiple murders had been punished with life in prison without the possibility of parole. The prosecutor objected, and the court sustained the objection and instructed the jury to disregard defense counsel's comments on this point. Defendant asserts the trial court improperly limited the scope of his argument to the jury in violation of his state and federal constitutional right to due process and a reliable verdict. He argues he had a due process right to deny, rebut or explain the basis offered by the People for the imposition of the death penalty. Because the People opened up the issue of comparing the punishment for a crime such as defendant's to the punishment in other cases, he claims he was entitled to rebut the People's argument with comparisons of his own. In support, he cites Simmons v. South Carolina (1994) 512 U.S. 154,  [129 L.Ed.2d 133, 145, 114 S.Ct. 2187] ( Simmons ). In Simmons, supra, 512 U.S. 154, the court was faced with a question of proper jury instruction in a capital penalty trial. The prosecutor had made much of defendant's potential for future violence, an issue that the high court explained it has permitted to be raised in capital trials. ( Id. at pp. ___-___ [129 L.Ed.2d at pp. 141-142] (plur. opn. by Blackmun, J.).) The defense introduced rebuttal evidence that defendant only posed a danger to elderly women, who would not be subject to his depredations if he were in prison. The court, however, refused to instruct the jury that defendant was statutorily ineligible for parole should they elect to impose a life term in prison rather than the death penalty. The plurality opinion reversing the judgment opened with the observation that [t]he Due Process Clause does not allow the execution of a person `on the basis of information which he had no opportunity to deny or explain.' ( Id. at p. ___ [129 L.Ed. at p. 141] (plur. opn. by Blackmun, J.).) It held that in a capital penalty trial, when the People put the issue of defendant's future dangerousness in issue and the defendant is legally ineligible for parole, it is a denial of due process to reject the defendant's request to instruct the jury on a natural question raised by the issue of future dangerousness, that is, whether defendant is legally eligible for parole should the jury elect to impose a term of life in prison. ( Ibid. ) Justice O'Connor, writing for herself and two other justices, concurred in the judgment, indicating that in a case of statutory ineligibility for parole, when future dangerousness had been put in issue, due process requires that the jury be informed, either through argument or instruction, of the defendant's ineligibility for parole. ( Id. at pp. ___-___ [129 L.Ed.2d at pp. 149-151] (conc. opn. by O'Connor, J.).) [22] Unlike in Simmons, in which the court stated future dangerousness may be a permissible consideration in determining penalty, the question of the punishment meted out to persons other than the defendant is generally not relevant to the penalty determination. As we have explained in rejecting the claim that the evidence of the punishment imposed on an accomplice should be admitted and considered at a penalty trial, such evidence bears no relevance to the jury's properly guided function at the penalty phase. `[I]n capital cases the fundamental respect for humanity underlying the Eighth Amendment ... requires consideration of the character and record of the individual offender and the circumstances of the particular offense as a constitutionally indispensable part of the process of inflicting the penalty of death (italics added).' ( People v. Belmontes (1988) 45 Cal.3d 744, 811 [248 Cal. Rptr. 126, 755 P.2d 310], quoting Lockett v. Ohio (1978) 438 U.S. 586, 604 [57 L.Ed.2d 973, 989-990, 98 S.Ct. 2954]; and Woodson v. North Carolina (1976) 428 U.S. 280 [49 L.Ed.2d 944, 96 S.Ct. 2978]; see also People v. Cain, supra, 10 Cal.4th at p. 63; People v. Fudge, supra, 7 Cal.4th at p. 1124.) The proper focus of a penalty trial is the character or record of the individual offender and the circumstances of his particular offense. ( Woodson v. North Carolina, supra, 428 U.S. at p. 304 [49 L.Ed.2d at p. 961].) In accord with this rule, this state's capital sentencing scheme requires the jury to make an assessment of the defendant's background and culpability and to make an individualized determination of the appropriate punishment. ( People v. Brown supra, 40 Cal.3d 512, 540-545; People v. Fudge, supra, 7 Cal.4th at p. 1124.) To the extent that defendant claims, on the basis of Simmons, supra, 512 U.S. 154, that regardless of the relevance of the prosecutor's point, once it was made, defendant was entitled to rebut it, we reject that claim as well. In such a situation, it would seem defendant's proper remedy would be to object to the argument and secure an admonition to the jury to disregard it, rather than to use the argument as a wedge to introduce an irrelevant factor into his own argument. In any event, defendant's comparative culpability was not placed in issue in this case in the way future dangerousness was in Simmons. There, it appears both the prosecutor and the defense presented evidence on the issue, the prosecution dwelt on the issue in argument, and a question propounded by the jury established it had focused on the problem. Here, by contrast, no evidence was presented on the question of comparative culpability. The prosecutor made only a brief, oblique and rhetorical reference to the point when he said, without objection: If it's not this case, then what case[?] It is clear that far from intending to open up the issue of comparative culpability, the prosecutor wished to focus the jury's attention on the horror of defendant's crimes in an effort to stress defendant's individual culpability for these particular crimes. No jury question indicated any interest in the issue of comparative culpability, and defendant did not request any special instruction on the point. Under the circumstances, we do not think that principles of fundamental fairness or due process required the court to permit the defendant to argue regarding his comparative culpability  an issue that is basically unrelated to the jury's function at the penalty trial.