Opinion ID: 1945963
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Jury Instructions Relating to the Victim-Impact Statement

Text: Defendant argues that the trial court erred in instructing the jury in respect of how to evaluate the victim-impact evidence and how it was to be utilized during deliberations. Specifically, defendant contends that the court's instructions improperly permitted the jury to weigh or balance the worth of Jeremy Giordano against the worth of defendant, to consider sympathy for the victim's family, and to consider the victim-impact evidence in relation to evidence other than the catch-all mitigating factors. The State asserts that the trial judge's charge, when viewed in its entirety, properly instructed the jury on how to evaluate and utilize the victim-impact evidence. Because those asserted errors in the charge form a major basis of defendant's overall challenge, we recite the charge at length. After instructing the jury about aggravating factors, the court turned to mitigating factors, informing the jury: [I]n the area of mitigating factors we we see another sense in which there is a kind of preference in the law to a sentence of imprisonment. And that is that there are some listed statutory factors. The law dealing with mitigating factors and capital punishment list[s] a number of potential mitigating factors which may be present in a case. And if the defense thinks those are present, they can try to prove them. And so far that's the same thing as the law for aggravating factors. The law with respect to aggravating factors lists the aggravating factors. The difference, however, is that the [S]tate cannot go beyond the aggravating factors listed in the statute, nor can the jury. But when mitigating factors, in addition to a number of mitigating factors that are listed, there is a catch-all factor that is made extraordinarily broad. And the catch-all factor is any other factor relevant to the defendant's character or record or to his circumstances of the offense. So that is a very broad factor. And itit allows, under that heading, many potential mitigating factors to come in. So the Legislature has deliberately created not just a list of mitigating factors, but an opportunity for the defendant to argue that there are other mitigating factors in his particular case.