Opinion ID: 1426947
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 19

Heading: Failing to object to the instruction on executive clemency.

Text: Leonard contends that his counsel were ineffective in failing to object to the jury instruction on the Pardons Board's power to modify sentences, given pursuant to Petrocelli v. State, 101 Nev. 46, 692 P.2d 503 (1985), modified by Sonner v. State, 112 Nev. 1328, 1334, 930 P.2d 707, 711-12 (1996). He says that NRS 213.1099(4) would prevent him from ever receiving parole; therefore, the instruction was erroneous under Hamilton v. Vasquez, 17 F.3d 1149 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 512 U.S. 1220, 114 S.Ct. 2706, ___ L.Ed.2d ___ (1994), and Geary v. State, 112 Nev. 1434, 930 P.2d 719 (1996), reh'g granted on other grounds, 114 Nev. ___, 952 P.2d 431 (1998). Even assuming that those cases would preclude this instruction in Leonard's case, we conclude that Hamilton and Geary announced a new rule of law and that Leonard has failed to show that his counsel were ineffective for failing to anticipate that rule. In Geary, this court relied on Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U.S. 154, 114 S.Ct. 2187, 129 L.Ed.2d 133 (1994). Although Simmons was a plurality opinion, a majority of the United States Supreme Court agreed that a state cannot constitutionally preclude a defendant from informing a jury that he has little chance of receiving parole if the jury otherwise faces a false choice between sentencing the defendant to death or sentencing him to a limited period of incarceration, at least where the state argues future dangerousness. Simmons, 512 U.S. at 161, 176-77, 114 S.Ct. 2187. The Supreme Court recently concluded that Simmons announced a new rule of law and does not apply retroactively in federal habeas proceedings. O'Dell v. Netherland, 521 U.S. 151, 117 S.Ct. 1969, 138 L.Ed.2d 351 (1997). Leonard's conviction became final when the Supreme Court denied his petition for certiorari in 1992. Simmons and Hamilton were decided in 1994 and Geary in 1996. Therefore, we decline to apply the new rule announced in these cases to this post-conviction proceeding. [6]