Opinion ID: 844220
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Statements Regarding Costs of Punishments

Text: Defendant contends that during jury selection the trial court and the prosecutor gave prospective jurors incorrect and irrelevant information about the costs incurred by the government to impose the death penalty in a particular case as compared to the costs of imposing a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The claim lacks merit. The questionnaire that prospective jurors were required to complete included this question: “Without having heard any evidence in this case, what are your general thoughts about the benefit of imposing a death sentence of [sic] a criminal defendant?” In response to this open-ended question, some jurors wrote that they thought, or had heard, that the death penalty costs less than life 19 imprisonment. During voir dire, defense counsel was the first to raise the issue, asking whether, in deciding penalty, a prospective juror would “think about economics, how much it cost to keep a person alive for the rest of their lives.” The prosecutor also explored the issue on voir dire, but she cautioned the jurors that the cost of housing a defendant was not one of the circumstances they would be allowed to consider in reaching the penalty verdict. The trial court likewise cautioned prospective jurors to “put it out of your minds” because any difference in the state‟s costs to administer the death penalty, as compared to life imprisonment, was “not one of the factors that you‟re allowed to consider in determining the question of life or death.” In this context, the trial court and the prosecutor here made the remarks of which defendant now complains. In questioning a prospective juror who said she had “heard conflicting statements” on which penalty was cheaper for the state, the prosecutor said that “on the one hand, if a person has life without [parole], and the state is supporting them for the rest of their lives, on the other hand if they have a death penalty, the court is paying for their appeals and we‟re paying for them to be alive and we‟re paying for their lawyers, and the appellate process, and whatnot, would you say it about evens out?” The defense did not object to this remark, which the prosecutor immediately clarified by cautioning that penaltyadministration costs were not a factor that the jurors would be permitted to consider in determining penalty. The trial court, directly before it cautioned the jurors that costs of punishment could not considered in determining penalty, stated that “financially, to put this to rest, without going into a great deal of detail, there isn‟t an awful lot of difference between the cost to the State in a death penalty and a life without possibility of parole case.” The defense did not object to this remark. 20 To preserve for appeal a claim of prosecutorial or judicial misconduct, a timely objection and a request for a jury admonition is required. (People v. Lee (2011) 51 Cal.4th 620, 646 [prosecutorial misconduct]; People v. Seaton (2001) 26 Cal.4th 598, 635 [trial court misconduct].) Because he did not object to these remarks by the prosecutor and the trial court, and an admonition would have cured any harm, defendant has forfeited his misconduct claims. Had the claims not been forfeited, we would reject them on the merits. The court and the prosecutor correctly advised the prospective jurors that in deciding the penalty issue, if the case reached the penalty stage, they would not be permitted to consider the respective government costs of the death penalty and life imprisonment without parole. Telling the prospective jurors that the costs would “even[] out,” and that there was not “an awful lot of difference” between the costs, could only further diminish the possibility that jurors would be tempted to allow cost considerations to influence the penalty decision. For this reason, those remarks could not have prejudiced defendant.