Opinion ID: 2508446
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prior Conviction Introduced During the Penalty Phase of the Trial

Text: The second error raised by the defendant is that the circuit court erred by permitting the State to introduce evidence of a prior voluntary manslaughter conviction during the penalty phase of the trial without conducting a balancing test pursuant to Rule 403 of the West Virginia Rules of Evidence or assessing the prior conviction pursuant to the factors set forth in State v. McGinnis, 193 W.Va. 147, 455 S.E.2d 516 (1994). The penalty phase of the trial began on March 19, 2010. At the beginning of this hearing, counsel for the defendant objected to the circuit court's failure to hold a hearing pursuant to McGinnis, to determine whether the defendant's 1987 voluntary manslaughter conviction should be admitted into evidence. [9] Two weeks before the penalty phase of the trial began, this Court decided State ex rel. Dunlap v. McBride, 225 W.Va. 192, 691 S.E.2d 183 (2010). In Dunlap, the defendant was convicted of the first degree murder of his wife. He argued that during the penalty phase of his trial, the State improperly introduced other bad act evidence without the trial court first conducting a McGinnis hearing to determine whether that evidence should have been admitted. The Court found no error, stating: Mr. Dunlap has failed to cite any decision of this Court where we have required a McGinnis hearing for sentencing purposes only. As a general matter, [t]he rules of evidence, including Evid. R. 404(b) regarding `other acts,' do not strictly apply at sentencing hearings. State v. Combs, No. CA2000-03-047, 2005 WL 941133, at  (Ohio Ct.App.2005). See Patton v. State, 25 S.W.3d 387, 392 (Tex.App.2000) (It has been held that Rule 404(b) does not apply to the penalty or punishment phase of a bifurcated trial.). Moreover, [a] trial court has wide discretion in the sources and types of evidence used in determining the kind and extent of punishment to be imposed. And a sentencing court is not restricted by the federal constitution to the information received in open court. Elswick v. Holland, 623 F.Supp. 498, 504 (S.D.W.Va.1985) (citations omitted). Therefore, we find this issue to be without merit. Dunlap, 225 W.Va. at 202, 691 S.E.2d at 193. The circuit court, relying on Dunlap, overruled the defendant's objection and allowed testimony concerning the defendant's prior conviction. The subsequent testimony revealed that on February 20, 1987, the defendant was at a laundromat in Los Angeles, California, doing his laundry and drinking a beer. A man, Wesley Oren Wahl, approached the defendant and asked him for a drink of his beer. The defendant refused and a fight ensued, resulting in Wahl's death. The victim had injuries to the back of his head, the top of his head, his upper torso, and a laceration to the right side of his neck. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. The defendant was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and served twelve years in prison. Based on the plain language of Dunlap, we find no error with the circuit court's decision not to hold a McGinnis hearing prior to the introduction of the defendant's 1987 voluntary manslaughter conviction. The defendant has failed to cite any decision of this Court where we have required a McGinnis hearing for sentencing purposes only. The defendant next argues that the circuit court erred by failing to assess his prior conviction pursuant to Rule 403 of the West Virginia Rules of Evidence. Rule 403 states: Although relevant, evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence. The circuit court's decision to admit this evidence was guided by Dunlap, which stated that the rules of evidence... do not strictly apply at sentencing hearings. Id. Three months after the defendant was sentenced to life without mercy, this Court again addressed the type of evidence that is admissible during the penalty phase of a bifurcated trial and expanded on the discussion contained in Dunlap. In Syllabus Point 7 of State v. McLaughlin, 226 W.Va. 229, 700 S.E.2d 289 (2010), the Court held: The type of evidence that is admissible in the mercy phase of a bifurcated first degree murder proceeding is much broader than the evidence admissible for purposes of determining a defendant's guilt or innocence. Admissible evidence necessarily encompasses evidence of the defendant's character, including evidence concerning the defendant's past, present, and future, as well as evidence surrounding the nature of the crime committed by the defendant that warranted a jury finding the defendant guilty of first degree murder, so long as that evidence is found by the trial court to be relevant under Rule 401 of the West Virginia Rules of Evidence and not unduly prejudicial pursuant to Rule 403 of the West Virginia Rules of Evidence. McLaughlin did not overrule Dunlap, rather it expanded on it and set forth the precise analysis a circuit court should undertake when deciding whether evidence is admissible during the penalty phase of a bifurcated trial. This includes a relevancy analysis pursuant to Rule 401 of the West Virginia Rules of Evidence and deciding whether the evidence is unduly prejudicial pursuant to Rule 403. McLaughlin expressly states that [t]his holding is to be applied prospectively. McLaughlin, 226 W.Va. at 235, 700 S.E.2d at 295. McLaughlin was not in effect at the time the circuit court admitted the defendant's prior conviction in the case sub judice. The circuit court was guided by Dunlap, which did not require an analysis pursuant to Rules 401 and 403. Had the circuit court conducted an analysis pursuant to Rules 401 and 403, the defendant's prior conviction would have been admissible. The United States Supreme Court has stated that during the penalty stage of a trial, a jury considers the character and propensities of a defendant in order to make a unique, individualized judgment regarding the punishment that a particular person deserves. Zant v. Stephens, 462 U.S. 862, 900, 103 S.Ct. 2733, 77 L.Ed.2d 235 (1983) (Rehnquist, J., concurring). In State v. Finley, 219 W.Va. 747, 752, 639 S.E.2d 839, 844 (2006), this Court explained that: At the penalty phase, the jury is no longer looking narrowly at the circumstances surrounding the charged offense. In order to make a recommendation regarding mercy, the jury is bound to look at the broader picture of the defendant's characterexamining the defendant's past, present and future according to the evidence before itin order to reach its decision regarding whether the defendant is a person who is worthy of the chance to regain freedom. In a dissenting opinion to Schofield v. West Virginia Department of Corrections, 185 W.Va. 199, 207, 406 S.E.2d 425, 433 (1991) (Workman, J., dissenting), a similar rationale was set forth: [i]f a particular defendant has an egregious criminal history or a marked propensity for violence, for example, that would also be an appropriate factor for the jury to consider (during the mercy phase of a bifurcated trial). In the present case, the defendant's prior conviction was highly relevant to whether he should receive mercy. His prior conviction shows that he has a propensity for violence and that after receiving a twelve-year sentence for killing a man in 1987, this defendant did not reform himself and demonstrate that he was worthy of mercy. Rather, he killed another man, Steve Yarborough, through blunt force trauma to the head. The defendant's 1987 voluntary manslaughter conviction is clearly relevant and shows the broader picture of the defendant's character. The defendant has failed to articulate any plausible basis demonstrating why evidence of his prior conviction should not have been admitted under Rules 401 and 403. Based on all the reasons set forth above, we find that the circuit court did not commit error by failing to conduct an analysis pursuant to Rules 401 and 403 of the West Virginia Rules of Evidence prior to admitting the defendant's 1987 voluntary manslaughter conviction. [10]