Opinion ID: 2051869
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Trial Court Should Have Requested the Defendant's Standby Counsel to Present and Argue Mitigating Evidence to the Sentencing Jury

Text: The defendant's preference for the death penalty is not a relevant concern in deciding whether he should be put to death for the brutal murders he committed. Even though the defendant waived the right to counsel at his sentencing proceeding, the trial court should have requested the defendant's standby counsel to present and argue the mitigating evidence to the jury when it became apparent that the defendant would not do so. The proper and orderly consideration of mitigating evidence is crucial to the death penalty proceeding because it allows the jury to make an individualized assessment of the propriety of the death penalty in each case. Besides, it ensures that the death penalty will not be imposed in cases where circumstances indicate that a less severe penalty is warranted. ( Cf. Lockett v. Ohio (1978), 438 U.S. 586, 57 L.Ed.2d 973, 98 S.Ct. 2954; Roberts v. Louisiana (1977), 431 U.S. 633, 52 L.Ed.2d 637, 97 S.Ct. 1993.) The Illinois death penalty statute accordingly requires that [t]he court shall consider or shall instruct the jury to consider any    mitigating factors which are relevant to the imposition of the death penalty. (Emphasis added.) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 38, par. 9-1(c).) This cannot occur when the defendant prevents the sentencing body from receiving evidence relevant to the issue. In such cases there are no safeguards to prevent arbitrary application of the death penalty. When a defendant in a capital case assumes his own defense in his sentencing hearing so that he can seek the death penalty, he also deprives this court of its crucial role in promoting the evenhanded, rational, and consistent imposition of death sentences under law. ( Jurek v. Texas (1976), 428 U.S. 262, 276, 49 L.Ed.2d 929, 941, 96 S.Ct. 2950, 2958.) Section 9-1(i) of the Criminal Code of 1961 provides that [t]he conviction and sentence of death shall be subject to automatic review by the Supreme Court. (Emphasis added.) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 38, par. 9-1(i).) In People v. Brownell (1980), 79 Ill.2d 508, 541, this court held that the automatic-appeal provision was sufficient to prevent the arbitrary imposition of the death penalty. The refusal by the defendant to make any record in the sentencing hearing that can provide a basis for his automatic appeal denies this court any meaningful role in the State's decision to impose the death penalty and turns our reviewing role into a sham. In requiring an automatic appeal of a death sentence, the legislature undoubtedly decided that this procedure was essential to the fairness and rationality of the death sentencing process, and it cannot be waived. In order to give effect to this decision we should not allow capital defendants to represent themselves in their sentencing hearing when they elect to seek their own execution. In this case the defendant was twice allowed to address the jury in the sentencing hearing, first as a sworn witness and then in his closing statement. Each time he emphasized that he had been in prison before and did not wish to return. He noted that he had brutally caused the death of two young ladies. He told the jury, I do want the death penalty; and I will go to any lengths to have it served upon me; and he urged the jury, to [B]ring back the death penalty. Make me feel very good. In addressing the jury in his closing statement the prosecutor only reinforced the defendant's plea. In asking for the death penalty the defendant appropriated to himself a judgment that only society can properly make. When the defendant refused to present or argue any mitigating factors to the jury, the trial court should have ordered the defendant's standby counsel to do so. The majority claims that this procedure would have violated the defendant's right to represent himself in criminal proceedings which is protected by the sixth amendment. ( Faretta v. California (1975), 422 U.S. 806, 45 L.Ed.2d 562, 95 S.Ct. 2525.) However, the right to self-representation recognized in Faretta is not unlimited. Surely we may deny a capital defendant the opportunity to argue himself the merits of his case before this court. ( Cf. Jones v. Barnes (1983), 463 U.S. 745, 77 L.Ed.2d 987, 103 S.Ct. 3308 (A criminal defendant has no constitutional right to compel his appointed counsel to argue nonfrivolous issues which counsel has decided to waive in the exercise of his professional judgment).) Moreover, the trial judge may terminate self-representation by a defendant who deliberately engages in serious and obstructionist misconduct    [and] a State may  even over objection by the accused  appoint a `standby counsel' to aid the accused if and when the accused requests help, and to be available to represent the accused in the event that termination of the defendant's self-representation is necessary. ( Faretta v. California (1975), 422 U.S. 806, 834-35 n. 46, 45 L.Ed.2d 562, 581 n. 46, 95 S.Ct. 2525, 2541 n. 46.) In any event, nothing in Faretta or any other United States Supreme Court case suggests that the defendant may use his right of self-representation to make a mockery of his death penalty hearing by refusing to argue whether special circumstances exist which prohibit imposition of the death penalty in a civilized society. In People v. Burson (1957), 11 Ill.2d 360, this court explicitly recognized that under limited circumstances the State does have the power to compel the defendant to accept counsel for his defense: [T]he defendant, upon the waiver of counsel, had the right to defend himself, subject to the constant duty of the court to protect the judicial process from deterioration occasioned by improper or inadequate conduct of the defense. In such situation the court possesses broad discretion in relation to the appointment of counsel for advisory or other limited purposes, or to supersede the defendant in the conduct of the defense. Continuous supervision of the trial is required in order to maintain proper judicial decorum, to the end that defendant may receive a fair trial. (Emphasis added.) (11 Ill.2d 360, 373.) In the present case the trial court should have exercised this power. The majority offers no explanation for its holding that the defendant's right to represent himself is greater than society's interest in ensuring that the death penalty is only imposed rationally and consistent with our values and traditions. Indeed, the predominant weight of authority from other States is to the contrary. E.g., People v. Chadd (1981), 28 Cal.3d 739, 751, 621 P.2d 837, 844, 170 Cal. Rptr. 798, 805 (Nothing in Faretta, either expressly or impliedly, deprives the state of the right to conclude that the danger of erroneously imposing a death sentence outweighs the minor infringement of the right of self-representation resulting when defendant's right to plead guilty in capital cases is subjected to the requirement of his counsel's consent). In Commonwealth v. McKenna (1978), 476 Pa. 428, 383 A.2d 174, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that defendants sentenced to death could not waive the automatic-appeal provision in the Pennsylvania death penalty statute: [W]hile a defendant may normally make an informed and voluntary waiver of rights personal to himself, his freedom to do so must give way where a substantial public policy is involved;   .    It is evident from the record that Gerard McKenna personally prefers death to spending the remainder of his life in prison. While this may be a genuine conviction on his part, the waiver concept was never intended as a means of allowing a criminal defendant to choose his own sentence. Especially is this so where, as here, to do so would result in state aided suicide. The waiver rule cannot be exalted to a position so lofty as to require this court to blind itself to the real issue  the propriety of allowing the state to conduct an illegal execution of a citizen. 476 Pa. 428, 440-41, 383 A.2d 174, 181. This court implicitly adopted the same position when we denied the defendant's motion in this case to discharge his appointed counsel and to dismiss his appeal, and I believe that the conclusion it reaches in this case is inconsistent with that position. (Accord, People v. Stanworth (1969), 71 Cal.2d 820, 834, 80 Cal. Rptr. 49, 58-59, 457 P.2d 889, 898-99 (`Although a defendant may waive rights which exist for his own benefit, he may not waive those which belong to the public generally,' quoting People v. Werwee (1952), 112 Cal. App.2d 494, 500, 246 P.2d 704, 708).) Is it not anomalous for this court to approve of the defendant's appearance before the sentencing court without the advice of counsel, when it required the defendant, over his objection, to have counsel in his appeal to this court? The courts of this State should not permit a defendant in a capital case to represent himself when his only purpose is to seek his own conviction and a sentence of death, and his conduct, if permitted to represent himself, should not be regarded as a waiver of rights. I believe the majority erred in holding that the defendant in this case could waive proper process in the sentencing hearing. See The Death Row Right to Die: Suicide or Intimate Decision? 54 S. Cal. L. Rev. 575, 628 n. 334 (1981). In State v. Shank (La. 1982), 410 So.2d 232, the Louisiana Supreme Court held that under circumstances similar to this case trial counsel should be appointed over the defendant's objections and that this procedure would not violate the defendant's right to self-representation: A defendant has a federal constitutional right of self-representation and may proceed to defend himself without counsel when he voluntarily and intelligently elects to do so. Faretta v. California (1975), 422 U.S. 806, 45 L.Ed.2d 562, 95 S.Ct. 2525. In the present case, however, unlike Faretta, the defendant has no complaint about the competence, diligence or workload of his two court appointed attorneys. Instead, his motivation for electing to represent himself is that he wishes to be found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to death. In effect, he requests that he be allowed to defend himself because he fears that the lawyers appointed to represent him will be effective advocates and obtain an acquittal or a sentence of less than death   . When an accused manages his own defense, he relinquishes many of the traditional benefits associated with the right to counsel. For this reason, in order to represent himself, the accused must `knowingly and intelligently' forego those relinquished benefits. Faretta v. California, supra ; Johnson v. Zerbst (1938), 304 U.S. 458, 82 L.Ed. 1461, 58 S.Ct. 1019   . [A] defendant's election to represent himself for the purpose of acquiescing in his conviction of a capital offense and in his death sentence cannot be sanctioned as an intelligent choice. (410 So.2d 232, 233.) This position comports with the procedures established by the Illinois death penalty statute; the majority's failure to adopt it renders the application of the death penalty in this case arbitrary, irrational and in violation of the eighth amendment to the United States Constitution.