Opinion ID: 1901509
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Issue 5 Double Jeopardy

Text: May next argues that trial counsel were ineffective for failing to argue that the jury's determination, in his first sentencing proceeding, that he had no significant history of criminal convictions, estopped the Commonwealth from proving that aggravating circumstance during the second sentencing hearing. Specifically, May asserts that because the 1991 sentencing jury rejected the significant history aggravating circumstance, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(9), and specifically found that he had no significant history of prior criminal convictions, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(e)(1), the 1995 re-sentencing jury should have been estopped from finding the significant history aggravator and rejecting the no significant history mitigator. In Poland v. Arizona, 476 U.S. 147, 106 S.Ct. 1749, 90 L.Ed.2d 123 (1986), the United States Supreme Court rejected the argument that a capital sentencer's refusal to find a particular aggravating circumstance alleged by the prosecution always constitutes an acquittal of that aggravating circumstance for double jeopardy purposes. Id. at 155, 106 S.Ct. 1749. The Court explained that it was not prepared to view the capital sentencing hearing as a set of mini-trials. Id. at 156, 106 S.Ct. 1749. Aggravating circumstances are not separate penalties or offenses, but are standards to guide the making of [the] choice between the alternative verdicts of death and life imprisonment. Bullington v. Missouri, 451 U.S. 430, 438, 101 S.Ct. 1852, 68 L.Ed.2d 270 (1981). This Court has followed the reasoning of Poland, noting that: it is not the finding of the presence or absence of an aggravating circumstance that is dispositive of whether the defendant will receive the death penalty, but rather it is the ultimate conclusion reached after the factfinder weighs all the factors found, both aggravating and mitigating . . . . When a jury has imposed a death penalty in a first trial, double jeopardy does not attach no matter what aggravating circumstances were found by the jury in the first trial or what aggravating circumstances are presented to the jury in the second trial. Commonwealth v. Gibbs, 533 Pa. 539, 626 A.2d 133, 136-37 (1993). May avers that his case is distinguishable from Gibbs because the 1991 sentencing jury specifically found that he had no prior history of criminal convictions. Brief for Appellant at 64 n. 54. Yet, his position ignores the reasoning of Gibbs and Poland that double jeopardy does not attach in such situations, regardless of what mitigator and/or aggravators were or were not found in the first and second sentencing proceedings. Although not raised by either May or the Commonwealth, it is worth noting that the United States Supreme Court stated, albeit in dicta, that if [a] petitioner's first sentencing jury had unanimously concluded that Pennsylvania failed to prove any aggravating circumstances, that conclusion would operate as an `acquittal' of the greater offense . . . bar[ring] Pennsylvania from . . . [re-]seeking the death penalty. Sattazahn v. Pennsylvania, 537 U.S. 101, 112, 123 S.Ct. 732, 154 L.Ed.2d 588 (2003). While this language may initially appear to provide some support for May's claim of entitlement to relief, Sattazahn is inapposite to the instant matter. Sattazahn speaks to the situation where the original jury did not find any aggravating circumstances, and, thus, the sentence of life imprisonment was statutorily mandated. In May's 1991 sentencing hearing, while the jury did not unanimously find the (d)(9) aggravating circumstance, nevertheless, it did find the (d)(6) aggravating circumstance, that May committed the murder while in the perpetration of another felony. [16] Moreover, sentencing juries in this Commonwealth do not reject aggravating circumstances unanimously; rather, unless the jury finds an aggravator unanimously, it is discarded. Thus, no sentencing proceeding in Pennsylvania can ensure a unanimous decision against any specific aggravator, let alone all aggravators presented by the Commonwealth. Accordingly, the trial court correctly determined that the Commonwealth could pursue the significant history of felony convictions using the threat of violence aggravating circumstance. Because the trial court correctly decided this issue, appellate counsel were not ineffective for failing to raise it on appeal.