Opinion ID: 2394990
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: VIII, IX and X

Text: Appellant's eighth, ninth, and tenth contentions will be considered together because they involve the exercise by Booth of the right of allocution in capital cases conferred by Maryland Rule 4-343. Subsection (d) provides: Allocution.  Before sentence is determined, the court shall afford the defendant the opportunity, personally and through counsel, to make a statement. After Booth had been found by the jury to be guilty of Mr. Bronstein's murder, that same jury sat to determine whether his sentence should be life imprisonment or death. The State's case at the sentencing phase consisted entirely of the presentence investigation report and the victim impact statement. After nonparty witnesses for the defense had testified, Booth and his counsel approached the bench. Counsel repeated on the record advice previously given Booth concerning his right to testify. Counsel told Booth that if he decided not to testify he still had the right to allocute, which was explained as the right to tell the jury why you feel they should not execute you. Counsel said that the court would instruct the jury that Booth's failure to testify could not be held against him, but when counsel asked the court to confirm the legal accuracy of that statement the judge replied: No, I don't believe that's accurate. That only held true for the guilt or innocence phase of this trial. The court said it was directly up to Mr. Booth whether he wants to testify or not at this point. Nothing will be said to the jury about that. After further discussion the court agreed with Booth's request that he be allowed to consider the matter overnight and advise of his decision the following morning. The next morning Booth said that he would not testify but that he would allocute. At the court's request Booth explained the difference in his own words. Well, if I testify, I would be subject to cross-examination by the counsel for the State and if I allocute, I can't be cross-examined  well, I won't be cross-examined. THE COURT: All right. Do[  ]you will make an argument to the jury concerning whatever you want to say to the jury; is that correct? THE DEFENDANT: Yes, sir. THE COURT: All right. You understand that you will not be under oath and you will not be examined by anyone as to what you say to the jury? THE DEFENDANT: Yes sir. The jury was then brought into the courtroom and told by the judge that the defendant has the right to address you and say whatever it is he wishes to say to you concerning the matters that you are going to be deliberating on. Booth, who had elected not to testify at the guilt or innocence phase, opened his statement to the jury by saying that I finally get a chance to say something to you. In his address, which transcribes to seven and one-half pages, Booth denied killing anyone. He admitted only to having entered the Bronstein home late in the evening, after the murders had been committed, in order to steal. He attacked the prosecutors for fabricating statements of witnesses and putting words in their mouths. He said his general occupation was being a thief but he was not a robber or murderer. In its summation the State told the jury, over objections by defense counsel, that Booth's statement was not evidence, that Booth, in order to avoid cross-examination, had not taken the witness stand, and that Booth had lied to the jury and should not be believed. [5] In his brief to us Booth argues that the trial court erred (a) in allowing the State to argue that Booth's allocution was not evidence to be considered by the jury, (b) in permitting the prosecutor to comment on appellant's failure to testify at his capital sentencing proceeding, and (c) in refusing to instruct the jury that it could not draw any inference adverse to appellant from his failure to testify during the sentencing proceeding. Before we can address these specific assignments of error, we must explore the nature of the allocution here involved. After January 1, 1979, and prior to the revision of the Maryland Rules effective July 1, 1984, there was no rule applicable to allocution in capital cases. There was, however, an allocution rule applicable to noncapital cases, former Rule 772 d. At the Rules Committee meeting of October 15/16, 1982, a member proposed that the allocution rule apply to capital cases as well. Minutes of the committee reflect that certain benefits of such a change were discussed. These were the opportunity for the defendant to make a statement in favor of imposition of a sentence of life imprisonment as opposed to death and that, because in a court sentencing in a capital case a judge would likely never refuse a request by the defendant to make a statement, the absence of a provision for allocution before a jury in capital cases might raise constitutional questions. As burdens to be anticipated from the proposal one member pointed to the existing complexity of capital cases while the chief of the Criminal Division of the Attorney General's Office anticipated concerns in State's Attorneys' offices about unsworn statements being made by the defendant immediately prior to the jury's retiring to consider its verdict. The Rules Committee then voted to recommend to this Court that the rule applicable to noncapital cases be amended as follows (brackets indicate matter to be deleted and italics indicate matter to be added to the text of former Rule 772 d, then tentatively renumbered Rule 4-703(d) in the Committee's working draft for the rules revision project): Before imposing sentence, the court shall [inform] afford the defendant [that he has the right] the opportunity, personally and through counsel, to make a statement and to present information in mitigation of punishment[, and the court shall afford an opportunity to exercise the right]. That recommendation is now Rule 4-342(d). The Committee also decided to make the amended allocution rule applicable to capital cases, with the further deletion of the provision for presentation of information in mitigation of punishment. That recommendation is now Rule 4-343(d). The obvious purpose of Rule 4-343(d) is to afford the death penalty eligible, convicted murderer the opportunity to make an unsworn statement in mitigation of the death penalty without being subject to cross-examination. In this respect the statement is similar to closing argument, but it is not completely analogous to closing argument because the factual content of the allocution is not limited, in general, to the record in the case, inferences therefrom, and matters of common human experience. In that allocution is unsworn and is not subject to cross-examination, it is not testimony in the conventional sense. Nevertheless, allocution may be considered by the sentencing authority. Under Md.Code (1957, 1982 Repl.Vol., 1985 Cum.Supp.), Art. 27, § 413(g)(8) the sentencing authority may find by the preponderance test [a]ny other facts which the [sentencing authority] specifically sets forth in writing that it finds as mitigating circumstances in the case. [6] In Booth's case, after the jury had found the aggravating circumstance of murder in the course of robbery, the jury was free to find as a mitigating circumstance such aspect of the content of Booth's allocution on which the jury could unanimously agree, simply by specifically setting it forth on the sentencing form. Further, if the jury found any such mitigating circumstance in the allocution the jury was obliged to weigh that mitigating factor in determining whether the sentence should be life or death. Within the bounds of permissible jury argument the prosecutor's summation honored the principles discussed above. Counsel for the State contrasted Booth's allocution with the elevated level of evidence which is sworn testimony subject to cross-examination. The record does not factually support Booth's contention that the prosecutor told the jury that it could not consider Booth's allocution. Indeed, the entire thrust of the argument objected to by Booth was a recognition by the State that the jury could consider the content of Booth's statement to be true, but that the jury should not. Among the reasons given by the State why the jury should reject as false the content of Booth's allocution was that it was unsworn and was not subject to cross-examination. Because the content of a convicted defendant's allocution may be considered by the jury or court in mitigation, the State, as a matter of nonconstitutional Maryland law, may comment on that allocution and urge its rejection by arguments which may include attacking the defendant's credibility by explicit reference to the lack of an oath and to the lack of testing by cross-examination. Booth further submits that such comment violates his Fifth Amendment protection against compulsory self-incrimination because it is also a comment on Booth's failure to testify at the sentencing proceeding. Appellant's argument assumes as its major premise the applicability here of the rule in Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106 (1965). After Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U.S. 1, 84 S.Ct. 1489, 12 L.Ed.2d 653 (1964) had held that the Fifth Amendment prohibition against compulsory self-incrimination was applicable to the states through the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Griffin held that references by a California court and prosecutor to Griffin's failure to testify violated the United States Constitution. The case was a two-stage death penalty trial. Griffin had not testified at the guilt or innocence stage. The court had instructed the jury that it could take into consideration on the issue of guilt Griffin's failure to deny or explain evidence which he would reasonably be expected to deny or explain because of facts within his knowledge. In argument the prosecutor had enumerated aspects of the case which the defendant had not seen fit to explain or deny by taking the stand. Such comment on the refusal to testify was held to be a penalty imposed by courts for exercising a constitutional privilege [which] cuts down on the privilege by making its assertion costly. Id. at 614, 85 S.Ct. at 1232-33, 14 L.Ed.2d at 109-10. The right is also infringed where the government elicits on cross-examination of the defendant at a second retrial that the defendant had not testified at the prior trials. See Stewart v. United States, 366 U.S. 1, 81 S.Ct. 941, 6 L.Ed.2d 84 (1961). Nor is a procedure constitutionally permissible which requires the defendant to testify as the first witness in the defense case or not at all. Brooks v. Tennessee, 406 U.S. 605, 92 S.Ct. 1891, 32 L.Ed.2d 358 (1972). In Carter v. Kentucky, 450 U.S. 288, 101 S.Ct. 1112, 67 L.Ed.2d 241 (1981), the Court held that a defendant who had not testified was entitled, upon request, to an instruction that his election not to testify could not be used as an inference of guilt and should not prejudice him in any way. The Court reasoned that [j]ust as adverse comment on a defendant's silence cuts down on the privilege by making its assertion costly, [ Griffin, 380 U.S.] at 614 [85 S.Ct. at 1232], the failure to limit the jurors' speculation on the meaning of that silence, when the defendant makes a timely request that a prophylactic instruction be given, exacts an impermissible toll on the full and free exercise of the privilege. [450 U.S. at 305, 101 S.Ct. at 1121, 67 L.Ed.2d at 254.] Even though such an instruction calls attention to the failure of the defendant to testify there is no Fifth Amendment violation in a court's giving the instruction without request because the instruction is not adverse to the defendant and cannot provide the pressure on a defendant found impermissible in Griffin. Lakeside v. Oregon, 435 U.S. 333, 339, 98 S.Ct. 1091, 1095, 55 L.Ed.2d 319, 325 (1978). It has also been determined that at least certain aspects of the privilege against compulsory self-incrimination apply to one who invokes the privilege after that person has been found guilty and before sentencing. We have held that one who had plead guilty but who had not yet been sentenced could not be compelled to be a witness at the trial of a co-defendant on the same charges. Smith v. State, 283 Md. 187, 388 A.2d 539 (1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1130, 99 S.Ct. 1050, 59 L.Ed.2d 92 (1979). The Supreme Court has also addressed an aspect of the Fifth Amendment right arising out of the sentencing phase of a two-phase capital murder trial in Texas. Texas law requires finding future dangerousness, inter alia, before imposing a death penalty. In Estelle v. Smith, 451 U.S. 454, 101 S.Ct. 1866, 68 L.Ed.2d 359 (1981), the accused, while confined in jail on the murder charge, had submitted to a pretrial psychiatric examination informally ordered by the trial judge to determine the accused's capacity to stand trial. The psychiatrist did not give any Miranda warnings. The state used the defendant's statements against him in the sentencing proceedings. This was held to violate the Miranda rule. Answering contentions that incrimination was complete once guilt had been adjudicated and that the Fifth Amendment privilege had no relevancy to the penalty phase of a capital murder trial, the Court said: We can discern no basis to distinguish between the guilt and penalty phases of respondent's capital murder trial so far as the protection of the Fifth Amendment privilege is concerned. Given the gravity of the decision to be made at the penalty phase, the State is not relieved of the obligation to observe fundamental constitutional guarantees. Any effort by the State to compel respondent to testify against his will at the sentencing hearing clearly would contravene the Fifth Amendment. Yet the State's attempt to establish respondent's future dangerousness by relying on the unwarned statements he made to [the psychiatrist] similarly infringes Fifth Amendment values. [451 U.S. at 462-63, 101 S.Ct. at 1873, 68 L.Ed.2d at 369 (footnotes and citations omitted).] In the case before us Booth combines the Griffin prohibition against adverse commentary on silence and the Estelle recognition that there can be self-incrimination after a finding of guilty to urge that the prosecutor's jury argument at his sentencing violated his Fifth Amendment rights. Booth's contention ignores the fact that he did not remain silent and that the prosecutor's comments were directed at Booth's allocution. When more bluntly stated Booth's argument is that the law must pretend that he remained silent because MD.R. 4-343(d) benefited him by allowing him to make for the jury's consideration a statement which was unsworn and not subject to cross-examination. We will not construe this state's prohibition against self-incrimination to incorporate such a fiction. [7] The remaining question is whether the prohibition against compulsory self-incrimination in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as applicable to Maryland through the Fourteenth Amendment, imposes a contrary rule. We assume that, if Booth had neither testified nor allocuted at the sentencing phase, the Griffin rule would continue to apply. Further, if Booth had testified under oath and subject to cross-examination at his sentencing he would have waived the Fifth Amendment privilege. Cf. Caminetti v. United States, 242 U.S. 470, 37 S.Ct. 192, 61 L.Ed. 442 (1917) (testimony by accused at unitary trial is a waiver). Allocution under Rule 4-343(d) falls between the two. Booth's allocution is more like testimony than silence and for Fifth Amendment purposes is testimonial, carrying with it, at a minimum, a waiver of any privilege to avoid comment by the prosecutor on the allocution. Although the Supreme Court seems not directly to have addressed this problem, considerable light is cast on it by a capital case from Ohio reported with McGautha v. California, 402 U.S. 183, 91 S.Ct. 1454, 28 L.Ed.2d 711 (1971), vacated on other grounds, 408 U.S. 941, 92 S.Ct. 2873, 33 L.Ed.2d 765 (1972). [8] Under the then Ohio procedure the decision on guilt or innocence and, if guilt, the jury role in sentencing were accomplished in one proceeding. Unless the jury, when returning a verdict of guilty of murder, also recommended mercy, a death sentence was automatic. The defendant contended that this procedure placed unconstitutional pressure on him to testify because, if he remained silent with respect to guilt or innocence, as he had done, he suffered imposition of the death penalty without the jury ever having heard him speak in mitigation of that punishment. The Court did not think that Ohio was required to provide an opportunity for petitioner to speak to the jury free from any adverse consequences on the issue of guilt. 402 U.S. at 220, 91 S.Ct. at 1474, 28 L.Ed.2d at 734. A fortiori, Maryland is not required, when it provides an opportunity for the person found guilty of capital murder to speak to the jury in mitigation of sentence, to make that allocution free from any adverse consequences on the issue of sentence. Having the State argue that allocution is unsworn, not subject to cross-examination, not evidence, and not to be believed is not as adverse as the procedure which passed constitutional muster in McGautha. The issue now before us was presented in a highly analogous format in Jones v. State, 381 So.2d 983 (Miss.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1003, 101 S.Ct. 543, 66 L.Ed.2d 300 (1980). The Mississippi constitution guarantees an accused the right to argue his case to the jury. Jones was a two-stage capital murder prosecution. The defendant had not testified on guilt or innocence but elected to argue at the sentencing phase. In his argument he told the jury, as facts, matters which were not in evidence. The prosecutor objected on grounds, apparently expressed in the presence of the jury, which included the following: That's testifying and there's no way to contradict that and it's not fair, Judge, if he doesn't take the stand and let the State cross examine him on this but to stand up here and to be able to do something that the State does not have a right to cross examine him on is not proper.... The State didn't have a right to call him, Judge. We couldn't put him on the stand. [381 So.2d at 998.] The Supreme Court of Mississippi ruled that the state constitutional right to argue and the rights of the accused under Griffin create a conflict which requires a defendant to make a choice. If he chooses to argue his case to the jury and at the same time invokes the Fifth Amendment, he must confine his remarks to the evidence in the record. The Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination is a shield, not a sword. A criminal defendant who takes advantage of his right to argue his case to the jury must not be permitted to say all the things he might have testified to had he chosen to call himself as a witness. When he does so, he will be deemed to have waived the right not to have his failure to take the stand commented upon. [381 So.2d at 993.] And further: The practical solution to the dilemma presented by the accused who uses his constitutional right to argue his case to the jury to give, what is for all practical purposes, testimony is to treat the unsworn testimonial statements of the accused which were not supported by the record as a partial waiver of the privilege against self-incrimination. It is not a total waiver of the privilege, since the prosecution is unable to cross-examine the accused at this late stage of the trial. But the prosecution may comment to the jury that the defendant's statements were not given under oath and that he was not subject to cross-examination about them. [ Id. ] Williams v. State, 445 So.2d 798 (Miss. 1984), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 105 S.Ct. 803, 83 L.Ed.2d 795 (1985) held that, unlike Jones, supra, there was no waiver where the defendant's opening statement at a capital sentencing hearing asserted self-defense which was already in evidence, albeit not in detail, via admissions related by police witnesses. At the trial resulting in the conviction attacked in State v. Bontempo, 170 N.J. Super. 220, 406 A.2d 203 (1979), a post-conviction case, the presiding judge had departed from applicable procedure and allowed the accused who had not testified to make an unsworn statement to the jury in addition to the argument by counsel for the accused. In rebuttal the prosecutor emphasized to the jury that the defendant's statement was not under oath, was not subject to cross-examination, and had omitted explaining aspects of the evidence against him. To support post-conviction relief Bontempo relied heavily upon Griffin. After reviewing many of the cases cited infra, the New Jersey court summed up by saying that the rationale underlying the decisions cited compels the conclusion that defendant's testimonial behavior before the jury justified the prosecutor's rebuttal. Where, as here, a defendant's unsworn statements take on a testimonial color, the jury might well be misled. The accused thereby gather[s] an advantage that is false, for less than the whole truth may affirmatively mislead. State v. Fioravanti, [46 N.J. 109, 118, 215 A.2d 16, 21 (1965), cert. denied, 384 U.S. 919, 86 S.Ct. 1365, 16 L.Ed.2d 440 (1966)]. Thus, a defendant who undertakes to answer part of the evidence against him [in a testimonial manner] is subject to comment as to factual thrusts he does not meet. Id. at 117, 215 A.2d at 20. Here, the prosecutor's comments constituted proper rebuttal and did not serve to violate defendant's Fifth Amendment rights. [170 N.J. Super. at 244-45, 406 A.2d at 215.] Subsequently, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey granted Bontempo the writ of habeas corpus but the Third Circuit reversed. Bontempo v. Fenton, 692 F.2d 954 (1982), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1055, 103 S.Ct. 1506, 75 L.Ed.2d 935 (1983). The Third Circuit held: The circumstances here were unusual. The jury was told that Bontempo's argument could not be considered as evidence and yet he talked about facts which were not in the record. The prosecutor's comments about those unsworn accounts and about Bontempo's failure to mention other relevant events was fair reply to the unorthodox closing argument. The jury's attention had been focused on the facts mentioned in the closing argument, despite the instruction that they were not evidentiary. The prosecutor was not prohibited from recognizing the reality of the situation and answering Bontempo's narrative. We are not persuaded that in so doing the prosecution did comment on Bontempo's failure to testify. Consequently, Griffin is not applicable. [ Id. at 959.] The problem under consideration has also arisen at trials on guilt or innocence where the accused, appearing pro se, gives unsworn testimony, not subject to cross-examination, in the course of purportedly questioning witnesses or purportedly arguing from the record. For example, in United States ex rel. Miller v. Follette, 278 F. Supp. 1003 (E.D.N.Y. 1968), the petitioner for a writ of habeas corpus complained that at his trial, in which the petitioner had acted as his own attorney, the prosecutor had told the jury in summation that he could not comment upon the accused's failure to take the stand but that the jury should listen closely to the court's charge as to what constituted evidence. Using both a waiver and a harmless error analysis, the petitioned court rejected the contention that petitioner's Fifth Amendment rights as defined in Griffin had been violated. It said: The law is presented with a dilemma. On the one hand, permitting defendant to defend himself without benefit of a lawyer's skills and objectivity may lead him to make statements which can be construed as a total waiver of his privilege against self-incrimination, exposing him to being called by the state. On the other, were defendant allowed to give, what is for all practical purposes, testimony without being subject to some check, the jury might be misled. Faced with such undesirable alternatives, the law seeks a middle ground which accommodates the essence of the opposing interests while furnishing maximum protection to all concerned. Treating the unsworn testimonial statement of the defendant as a partial waiver of the third aspect of the privilege against self-incrimination [i.e., freedom from adverse comment] provides a practical solution. The prosecution can then be permitted to comment that the defendant's statements were not given under oath while he was subject to cross-examination and that they are, therefore, less weighty than sworn testimony. The constitutional privilege of the criminal defendant appearing pro se would appear to be adequately protected were he given a clear and direct warning by the court that such limited comment might follow if he continued to give what amounted to unsworn testimony. [ Id. at 1007.] The Second Circuit affirmed on the harmless error ground, 397 F.2d 363 (1968), and certiorari was denied, 393 U.S. 1039, 89 S.Ct. 660, 21 L.Ed.2d 585 (1969). In that appeal the prisoner, Miller, relied upon an earlier, two-one decision of the Second Circuit in United States v. Curtiss, 330 F.2d 278 (1964). Curtiss held that the unsworn and outside-of-the-record excuses given by a pro se defendant for his income tax deficiencies did not constitute a waiver of Fifth Amendment protection and that the prosecutor had violated that protection by arguing that government witnesses had been sworn `but the defendant stood down here and he asked a lot of questions.' Id. at 281 (emphasis omitted). Dissenting in Curtiss, Judge Medina observed: We have come to a pretty pass if, acting as his own lawyer, a defendant in a criminal case can go ahead and say as a lawyer the things he could have testified to in his own defense, and then accuse the prosecutor of violating his Fifth Amendment rights when the prosecutor tells the jury not to believe him, but rather to render their verdict on the testimony given under oath by the witnesses who did testify. [ Id. at 287.] When Miller v. Follette reached the Second Circuit that court emphasized that Miller himself had referred to his failure to take the stand so that, [u]nder those circumstances, to regard the prosecutor's restrained remark as an error of constitutional proportions would glorify technicality. 397 F.2d at 367. Absent Miller's own reference, the Second Circuit recognized that it would be faced with the question of whether Curtiss should be reconsidered. Id. [9] Curtiss represents what is definitely the minority position. Most courts which have considered the question hold that the Fifth Amendment does not prohibit comment by a prosecutor on unsworn statements of fact made by a pro se defendant. See United States v. Lacob, 416 F.2d 756 (7th Cir.1969), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 1059, 90 S.Ct. 755, 24 L.Ed.2d 754 (1970); Redfield v. United States, 315 F.2d 76 (9th Cir.1963); Smith v. United States, 234 F.2d 385 (5th Cir.1956); State v. Schultz, 46 N.J. 254, 216 A.2d 372, cert. denied, 384 U.S. 918, 86 S.Ct. 1367, 16 L.Ed.2d 439 (1966); [10] State v. Polk, 5 Or. App. 605, 485 P.2d 1241 (1971); State v. Johnson, 121 Wis.2d 237, 358 N.W.2d 824 (1984) (no violation by comment that pro se defendant's opening statement was not followed up with proof). And see Note, Criminal Law  Privilege Against Self-Incrimination  Comment on Failure of Accused Appearing Pro Se to Testify, 38 Temple L.Q. 102 (1964). We hold that the State's argument did not violate Booth's Fifth Amendment rights. The third aspect presented here of the right to remain silent is Booth's claim that the trial court erred in rejecting his proposed instruction No. 17. It read in relevant part: Every citizen charged with a crime has the right to remain silent at trial, including the sentencing hearing. This is because it is the prosecutor's responsibility at a sentencing to prove the citizen guilty of an aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt.... Mr. Booth did not testify in this phase, as was his right. You shall not draw any inference of guilt from this choice. You shall not allow this choice to prejudice him in any way. If you use his choice not to testify in any manner, you will have violated your oath that you have taken as jurors. The trial judge had advised counsel that the above instruction, as well as two others requested by Booth, would not be given. In charging the jury the trial judge did not comment at all on the effect, if any, upon the jury's deliberations of Booth's having allocuted but not testified. Defense counsel's sole exception to the charge was based on the court's failure to give our requested instructions in full, in the way they are written. Appellant's requested instruction No. 17 in the way [it was] written was properly denied. It presupposed that Booth had remained silent when Booth had in fact allocuted. [11] To give the instruction in the form requested would have been confusing and an incorrect statement of law under the circumstances here. In his allocution Booth denied having murdered Mr. Bronstein. The jury had just found beyond a reasonable doubt that Booth had murdered Mr. Bronstein with premeditation. The jury could properly consider, from the allocution, that Booth had no remorse and thereby reduce the weight to be given to the mitigating factors which the jury had found did exist.