Opinion ID: 1516216
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Reference to Fourth Aggravating Circumstance

Text: Appellant next argues that the prosecutor committed misconduct by suggesting that the jury should invoke the death penalty in this case to protect society. The Commonwealth retorts that the passage appellant quotes is taken out of context. The Commonwealth argues that the prosecutor's remarks were related to the proffered fourth aggravating circumstance that the murder was committed in connection with a drug felony. We agree. Just before the passage appellant quotes, the prosecutor argued: The fourth aggravating circumstance in this, ladies and gentlemen, probably makes it the most heinous because it is indicative of everything and it characterizes this entire case, that this whole thing took place because this guy wanted a place to deal his drugs. N.T. 7/17/1995 at 83. Appellant, however, only singled out the underlined section of the prosecutor's subsequent argument: And I want you to listen to the definition of that aggravating circumstance because the whole case is shrouded, shrouded in that decay, that cancer that is decaying this city and that part of that state and what's pervaded every aspect of this case and gave complete motive to this man to blow away William Lloyd. And that's what the legislature said that is so heinous that when a man does that in and of itself is just cause to pursue the ultimate penalty of death. Id. at 83-84. When evaluating the prosecutor's statement in the context of his argument on the fourth aggravator, it is evident that the prosecutor merely emphasized that William Lloyd was senselessly killed over a drug dispute, a common enough circumstance that the General Assembly specifically created an aggravator for it in capital cases. Moreover, the prosecutor's reference to the drug crime that is decaying Philadelphia was an isolated reference to the purpose of the aggravator, not a pervasive image repeated throughout the prosecutor's argument.