Opinion ID: 2121771
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: claims for which the defendant presents new evidence

Text: We consider next other claims in support of which the defendant has submitted new evidence. The defendant argues, in claim I of his supplemental post-conviction petition, that the trial court erred in denying his motion to quash the search warrant issued in this case and to suppress the evidence seized in the search. The warrant was issued on March 16, 1981, three days after officers allegedly were contacted by an informant, Doris Ferguson. According to the complaint for the warrant, Ferguson told the investigating officer, Foley, that Pamela Thompkins had asked her for advice about removing bloodstains from the basement floor and that Pamela had gone on to relate the details of the offenses. In an affidavit, Ferguson now denies both that she ever spoke to the police about this case and that Pamela Thompkins ever spoke to her about it. Ferguson had made similar denials in a statement given in 1983 to the defendant's counsel on direct appeal and counsel's investigator, and a copy of the statement she made on that occasion is attached to the affidavit. The defendant maintains that the new evidence presented here establishes that the search warrant was invalid and should not have been issued. The defendant also contends that the period between the time of the offenses and the time Ferguson allegedly spoke with the police was too lengthy to support a finding of probable cause for issuance of the warrant. Doris Ferguson was Pamela Thompkins's mother-in-law; Pamela was married to Ferguson's son, now deceased. In addition, Ferguson has known the defendant since he was a child. Officer Patrick Foley of the Cook County sheriff's police stated in his warrant affidavit that he received a telephone call during the evening of March 13, 1981, from a woman who said that she had information concerning the murders of Gerald Holton and Arthur Sheppard. The caller arrived at Foley's office, in Markham, a half hour later and identified herself as Doris Ferguson. Ferguson told Foley that on the day the victims' bodies were discovered, December 23, 1980, she had a conversation with Pamela WinfreeWinfree was Pamela's maiden name. Pamela wanted to know how to remove bloodstains from the concrete floors of her garage and basement. In response to Ferguson's questions, Pamela then related to her the details of the offenses. Armed with this information, Foley obtained a warrant for the search of Pamela's residence. In the search Foley seized a handgun, six rounds of ammunition, a length of telephone cord, and samples of what appeared to be bloodstains. Since that time, Ferguson has denied ever speaking to Officer Foley, and has denied speaking to Pamela about the offenses. The defendant maintains that this new evidence requires a reexamination of the issuance of the search warrant. In Franks v. Delaware (1978), 438 U.S. 154, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667, the Supreme Court held that a defendant is entitled to a hearing to challenge the veracity of a warrant affidavit if he makes a substantial preliminary showing that the affiant knowingly and intentionally, or with reckless disregard for the truth, included a false statement in the warrant affidavit, and if the statement was necessary to the finding of probable cause. The substantial preliminary showing necessary to trigger a Franks hearing requires more than a defendant's unsubstantiated denial of the allegations in the warrant affidavit, but less than proof by a preponderance of the evidence. ( People v. Lucente (1987), 116 Ill.2d 133, 151-52, 107 Ill.Dec. 214, 506 N.E.2d 1269.) The decision whether to order a Franks hearing must be based upon a careful balancing of the statements in the warrant affidavit versus those in support of the defendant's challenge to the warrant. Lucente, 116 Ill.2d at 152, 107 Ill.Dec. 214, 506 N.E.2d 1269. We do not believe that the material contained in Ferguson's affidavit or accompanying statement is sufficient to warrant an evidentiary hearing on the defendant's claim. We recognize, of course, that Ferguson was Officer Foley's principal source of information. Given Ferguson's categorical denials that she ever spoke to Officer Foley, however, the defendant in essence is asserting that Foley invented his conversation with the informant. Ferguson's denials are entitled to little weight. First, at one point in her statement to defendant's appellate counsel and counsel's investigator, she seemed to allow that she did speak to the police in March 1981: Q. Okay, and you never called them or you never came down in[,] well[,] this would be March of '81? A. Now but you askin[g] me about a search warrant, why would they tell me about it even if I was there, why would they you know say hay [ sic ] Doris I got a search warrant for Pam's house, would they do that? Q. Well, the only reason I was wondering is whether the day that you did go down there, when they had the subpoena they had told you anything at all about the search warrant? A. No they did not. No, they didn't mention a search warrant. Really the police didn't tell me anything about a search warrant. Only thing they asked me about blood, did I ever see him before, that's it. Ferguson's purported conversation with Officer Foley occurred on March 13, 1981. The subpoena referred to in the preceding quotation was issued in May 1982, at the time of the suppression hearing. In addition, we are unable to see how Officer Foley would have been able to come up with the name of a codefendant's former mother-in-law unless she had spoken to him about the case. As we have noted, Foley stated in the complaint for the warrant that he received a telephone call from a woman who said that she had information about the case. Shortly after that, a woman arrived at Foley's office, identified herself as Doris Ferguson, and related to the officer what she had learned from her daughter-in-law, Pamela Thompkins. Ferguson was not a suspect in the case, and, prior to the date of the conversation, she had not been identified as a possible witness. Finally, we note that Officer Foley was able to corroborate certain details related by Ferguson. According to Ferguson, Pamela stated that one of the victims said that his wife had just had a child; Foley learned that Sheppard's wife had given birth on October 25, 1980, less than two months before the murders. Ferguson also related that the van the victims were driving had been abandoned at an unspecified motel after the victims were killed; a van registered to Arthur Sheppard was recovered from a motel parking lot in Hazel Crest during the evening of December 23, 1980. For these reasons, we conclude that the evidence now cited by the defendant does not justify further inquiry into the circumstances of the issuance of the search warrant. The defendant also contends that the lengthy period of time that elapsed between the occurrence of the offenses and the obtaining of the warrant rendered the warrant stale. We rejected the same contention on direct appeal ( Thompkins, 121 Ill.2d at 434-36, 117 Ill.Dec. 927, 521 N.E.2d 38), and we need not reconsider the issue here. The defendant next alleges, in claim III of his supplemental post-conviction petition, various instances of misconduct by the prosecution during trial. The post-conviction judge dismissed this claim in its entirety, but in his order he specifically addressed only parts of this multiple-issue claim. We rejected several of the same contentions on direct appeal; other contentions, though not previously raised, have been waived or lack merit. The defendant first contends that, during the hearing on the defendant's motion to quash his arrest, the State deliberately concealed from defense counsel the whereabouts of witness Doris Ferguson. We have already discussed Ferguson's affidavit and statement, in which she denies ever having spoken to the police about this case. In this claim, the defendant contends that during the suppression hearing the prosecution kept Ferguson in a room elsewhere in the courthouse and misrepresented her location to counsel. Contrary to the defendant's argument, it was actually the attorney for codefendant Pamela Thompkins, and not the prosecutor, who provided incorrect information at the suppression hearing about Ferguson's present location. During the hearing, Pamela's attorney stated that he might wish to call Ferguson as a witness. Pamela's attorney continued, What if Doris Ferguson were to say Pamela Thompkins never told me anything and I never told anything to Foley. Maybe she wouldn't say that, I don't know what she would say. She was here today, but she left. She had to leave. As can be seen, Pamela's attorney, and not the prosecution, provided the information about Ferguson's whereabouts. The defendant contends further that the prosecution intentionally secreted Ferguson at the courthouse during the day of the suppression hearing. The materials cited by the defendant, however, fail to support this charge. In her affidavit, Ferguson states simply: I was not asked to testify at any hearing at the Markham courthouse. Instead, after the police and assistant State's attorneys were finished questioning me at approximately 10:00 a.m., I was left in the interrogation room until the end of the day. I left only when someone started turning the lights off in the courthouse, and I asked one of the bailiffs to let me out. The statement given by Ferguson in June 1983 to defendant's counsel on direct appeal likewise fails to bear out the defendant's charge that the prosecution secreted the witness. In the statement, Ferguson says that she was taken to the Markham courthouse by police officers one morning in May 1982, that she spoke there with the prosecutor, and that she stayed in the building until the end of the day, when the lights were extinguished. Ferguson stated: Someone told them that they had me back there, I got out, I seen everybody was out, I seen Pam and her father walking out and I hollered to them talked to them. In her statement, Ferguson also denied that she was told to wait in the room: Q. Did they, did they keep you, did you try and leave, did they tell you to wait? A. No, they didn't tell me anything they left out of the room. I presume I stayed in there. I was so lucky I bought a paper, I read that thing over. I presume coming to tell me something and talk to me. But they did not, I have not heard from nobody since. These statements do not support the defendant's contention that the prosecution secreted Doris Ferguson at the courthouse. In his next allegation of prosecutorial misconduct, the defendant argues that the State concealed from the defense the fact that prosecution witness Sandra Douglas had previously made statements about this case to law enforcement authorities in Birmingham, Alabama. The defendant also argues that the State improperly failed to take steps to preserve records of the statements. This court considered essentially the same issues on direct appeal. ( Thompkins, 121 Ill.2d at 422-27, 117 Ill.Dec. 927, 521 N.E.2d 38.) The court rejected the defendant's contention that the prosecution's failure to preserve any written statement made by Sandra Douglas in Alabama was a violation of the State's obligation, under Supreme Court Rule 412 (87 Ill.2d R. 412), to provide the defense with discoverable information. As this court's earlier opinion explains, a hearing was conducted prior to trial to determine what information, if any, had been preserved by the Birmingham police. ( Thompkins, 121 Ill.2d at 424-25, 117 Ill.Dec. 927, 521 N.E.2d 38.) The court noted the conflicts in the testimony regarding the number of statements made by Douglas, the circumstances under which the statements were given, and the form of the record, if any, that was preserved. It concluded, however, that the evidence showed clearly that the prosecution had acted diligently in attempting to obtain and preserve whatever record the Birmingham police might have made of any statements by Sandra Douglas. In the proceedings below, the post-conviction judge extended process to defense counsel to permit the defense to determine whether any further evidence could now be discovered in Birmingham. These efforts were fruitless. In addition, defense counsel learned that the duty rosters and telephone logs that could have identified any Birmingham officers with whom Douglas had spoken have since been destroyed. A review of the department's computerized index of the names of defendants, victims, and drivers failed to disclose any references to Douglas, who did not fall within any of those categories. An examination of incident reports made during the relevant time, March 1981, did not reveal any references to Douglas. The evidence presented by the defendant in the present proceeding does not warrant our revisiting this question. The defendant's allegations that the prosecution initially concealed Douglas' statements assume that statements were in fact made and memorialized. The defendant's further charges that the State improperly refused to produce Douglas for a year prior to trial and provided misleading information about her then-current location are matters that could have been raised on direct appeal and thus are not proper subjects of the instant post-conviction proceeding. We next consider the related argument, raised in claim IV of the defendant's supplemental post-conviction petition, that counsel was unable to effectively cross-examine Sandra Douglas because counsel did not have access either to records of Douglas' Alabama statements or to the Birmingham police officers who had taken the statements. At trial, the defendant sought to exclude Douglas' testimony on these grounds, but the judge denied the defendant's motion. In this court's earlier decision, it noted the trial judge's ruling on the defendant's motion. ( Thompkins, 121 Ill.2d at 425, 117 Ill.Dec. 927, 521 N.E.2d 38.) The defendant's concern that the absence of the Alabama material limited his ability to cross-examine the witness could have been raised at that time, on direct appeal. The defendant presses the further allegation that the trial judge erred in denying a request for a continuance so that a police officer, Sergeant Knight, could be brought from Birmingham to testify. Knight told counsel that he had spoken to Douglas on the telephone and had received information from her concerning the offenses involved here, and counsel wanted to present Knight as a defense witness at trial. The denial of the defendant's request for a continuance is an issue that the defendant could have raised on direct appeal. In any event, we note that the judge, at the pretrial hearing at which this was discussed, suggested that, although he would not delay the beginning of the trial, another accommodation could perhaps be worked out to permit the witness to testify. Defense counsel, however, did not later pursue the matter. In claim V of his supplemental post-conviction petition, the defendant argues that the trial judge incorrectly denied his motion to suppress an oral statement he gave to police investigators. The defendant argues that admission of the statement violated his fifth amendment right to counsel, his sixth amendment right to counsel, and his fifth amendment right to remain silent. This court on direct appeal rejected all three grounds relied on by the defendant ( Thompkins, 121 Ill.2d at 430-34, 117 Ill.Dec. 927, 521 N.E.2d 38), and the post-conviction judge dismissed this claim as barred by res judicata. The defendant maintains, however, that the affidavit he submitted in the post-conviction proceedings supplies fresh evidence that warrants renewed consideration of these questions. As we explain below, the new material cited by the defendant in support of this claim is unavailing. The defendant contends, in an affidavit he submitted with his post-conviction petition, that the police refused his request to call an attorney, George Howard, and that the officers caused him to enter an interrogation room by saying that his attorney was there waiting for him. These statements are inconsistent, however, with the defendant's own testimony at the suppression hearing. At the hearing, the defendant did not testify that the police refused to permit him to call an attorney. Rather, the defendant stated that he was allowed to telephone his wife, that he then asked her to call attorney Howard, and that he later spoke with Howard when the attorney called the police station. In addition, the defendant did not say that he was lured into the interrogation room. Instead, he said simply that officers came to talk to him while he was already in the room. On direct appeal, this court considered at length the defendant's challenges to his statement. The post-conviction judge correctly determined that further consideration of this claim was barred by res judicata. We turn next to the allegation raised by defendant in the addendum to his supplemental post-conviction petition. In claim XXXIV, the defendant argues that defense counsel improperly denied the defendant his right to testify in his own behalf at trial. The post-conviction judge found this claim to be without merit, concluding that the defendant had acquiesced in this decision to avoid exposing himself to cross-examination. The defendant maintains that before trial he told defense counsel of his desire to testify in his own behalf. In his affidavit, the defendant states that at one meeting counsel said that he would prepare the defendant and his wife to testify, but counsel never did. The affidavit states further that the defendant was always under the impression that he would testify at trial and that the defendant first realized that he would not be called to the witness stand when he heard counsel announce that the defense was resting its case. We recognize, of course, that the decision whether to take the witness stand and testify in one's own behalf at trial ultimately belongs to the defendant. ( Jones v. Barnes (1983), 463 U.S. 745, 751, 103 S.Ct. 3308, 3312, 77 L.Ed.2d 987, 983; People v. Ramey (1992), 152 Ill.2d 41, 54, 178 Ill.Dec. 19, 604 N.E.2d 275; People v. Brown (1973), 54 Ill.2d 21, 23-24, 294 N.E.2d 285.) The allegations in the defendant's post-conviction pleadings and affidavit, however, show only that the defendant told counsel some time before trial that he wished to take the witness stand in his own behalf. Nothing in the present record demonstrates that the defendant later reaffirmed that intention, and the defendant was silent when counsel rested the case without having called the defendant to the stand. On this record it appears that the defendant acquiesced in counsel's view that the defendant should not testify. As Justice Schaefer explained in Brown, another case involving a post-conviction petitioner's claim that trial counsel ignored his stated desire to testify: By hypothesis, in every case in which the issue is raised, the lawyer's advice will in retrospect appear to the defendant to have been bad advice, and he will stand to gain if he can succeed in establishing that he did not testify because his lawyer refused to permit him to do so. Neither in the post-conviction petition in this case, with its reference to conversations which took place between the defendant and his attorney well in advance of the beginning of the trial, nor in the supporting affidavit, is there any statement that the defendant, when the time came for him to testify, told his lawyer that he wanted to do so despite advice to the contrary. In the absence of a contemporaneous assertion by the defendant of his right to testify, the trial judge properly denied an evidentiary hearing. ( Brown, 54 Ill.2d at 24[, 294 N.E.2d 285].) Brown's reasoning is equally applicable here. We thus conclude that the post-conviction judge correctly rejected this claim. The defendant contends, in claim XIV of his supplemental post-conviction petition, that he did not make a valid waiver of his right to a jury for purposes of the sentencing hearing. The defendant argues that the waiver was deficient because he did not realize either that the jury's verdict would have to be unanimous or that the favorable vote of a single juror would preclude imposition of the death penalty. Assuming the truth of the statements made by the defendant in his affidavit, we do not believe that the waiver was invalid. Before accepting the defendant's waiver, the trial judge reviewed with the defendant the nature of the sentencing hearing and the procedures that would be followed at that stage of the proceedings. In addition, in waiving the right, the defendant acknowledged that he was making the decision after considerable discussion with defense counsel. We have previously declined to rule that a defendant's waiver of jury at a capital sentencing hearing is invalid if the judge fails to inform the defendant either that the jury's verdict must be unanimous ( People v. Henderson (1990), 142 Ill.2d 258, 335, 154 Ill.Dec. 785, 568 N.E.2d 1234; People v. Evans (1988), 125 Ill.2d 50, 89-90, 125 Ill.Dec. 790, 530 N.E.2d 1360) or that the vote of a single juror will be sufficient to preclude imposition of the penalty ( People v. Erickson (1987), 117 Ill.2d 271, 295-96, 111 Ill.Dec. 924, 513 N.E.2d 367; People v. Madej (1985), 106 Ill.2d 201, 220-21, 88 Ill.Dec. 77, 478 N.E.2d 392). Accordingly, we must reject the defendant's challenge here. We reject the defendant's related contention that counsel was ineffective for failing to inform him of those requirements. Notably, the defendant has not alleged that he would not have waived a jury if he had been aware of the requirements. See People v. Ruiz (1989), 132 Ill.2d 1, 21, 138 Ill.Dec. 201, 547 N.E.2d 170. Finally, the defendant cites the affidavit of his counsel on direct appeal, who states that the defendant's trial attorney did not believe that the trial judge would impose the death penaltyapparently counsel's reason for recommending that the defendant waive a jury. Contrary to the defendant's suggestion, however, we do not believe that the reason cited by trial counsel is an invalid consideration. See People v. Maxwell (1992), 148 Ill.2d 116, 143-44, 170 Ill.Dec. 280, 592 N.E.2d 960. In claim XVII, the defendant contends that the trial court erred in admitting, over a defense objection, a written statement purportedly made by Pamela Thompkins. The defendant argues first that admission of the statement was barred by Bruton v. United States (1968), 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476. Without reaching the merits of this contention, we note that defendant could have raised the same objection on direct appeal but did not. Trial counsel presented at the sentencing hearing essentially the same argument that the defendant makes now in the present proceeding. Thus, the argument was available to defendant at the time of the direct appeal, and we see no reason to consider the question at this late date. The defendant argues further, however, that Pamela Thompkins later recanted her 1981 statement, and that the recantation renders her original statement unreliable. As we have stated, Pamela's recantation consists of a brief note, or letter, she wrote on January 26, 1983. The next day, however, Pamela testified, by way of stipulation, in a manner inconsistent with the recantation. As we concluded earlier, Pamela's recantation is entitled to little weight. For similar reasons, we must reject the defendant's additional contention that Pamela's original statement was demonstrably false and that the authorities coerced it from her. The defendant argues, in claim XIX of his supplemental post-conviction petition, that the trial judge relied on a false nonstatutory aggravating circumstance in deciding to impose the death penalty in the present case. This issue involves the evidence of the defendant's convictions for the attempted murder and aggravated battery of Michael Weaver in 1971. The defendant asserts that the prosecution falsely suggested to the court that the defendant had murdered Weaver; the defendant further maintains that the trial judge relied on that misconception in sentencing the defendant to death. The post-conviction judge found this claim to be meritless. This court, in its earlier opinion, rejected the defendant's challenges to the timing of this testimony and the sequence of the State's proof. ( Thompkins, 121 Ill.2d at 448-50, 453, 117 Ill.Dec. 927, 521 N.E.2d 38.) As we explain below, the defendant's new allegations and new evidence fare no better. At the defendant's sentencing hearing, the State presented the testimony of Robert Beranek, one of the assistant State's Attorneys who had prosecuted the defendant in the Weaver case. According to Beranek, the defendant and other members of a street gang suspected that Weaver was informing the police about the gang's activities. One night the defendant and several other persons escorted Weaver to a certain location. There the defendant kissed Weaver on both cheeks and then shot him three or four times, leaving him for dead. Weaver survived, however, and testified at the defendant's subsequent trial, in which the defendant was convicted of attempted murder and aggravated battery; the defendant received an indeterminate sentence of 15 to 20 years' imprisonment for the offenses. At the sentencing hearing conducted in the present case, the State asked Beranek if he knew Weaver's present whereabouts, and the witness stated that Weaver was deceased. Later, in argument at the sentencing hearing, the prosecutor referred to the Weaver offenses, and the trial judge mentioned them in explaining his decision to sentence the defendant to death. The defendant contends that the State inaccurately suggested that the defendant was guilty of murdering Weaver and that the trial judge apparently believed that to be true. With his post-conviction petition the defendant submitted copies of Weaver's death certificate and autopsy report, showing that Weaver died of natural causesbronchial pneumoniain Detroit in September 1972. The defendant argues that this evidence is new evidence, removing the present claim from the bar of res judicata and entitling him to an evidentiary hearing on its merits. We do not agree. We find no validity to the defendant's twin assertions that the prosecutor improperly suggested that the defendant was responsible for Weaver's death or that the trial judge incorrectly believed that to be the case. In argument at the sentencing hearing, the prosecutor simply described the factual background of the earlier offenses: Willie Thompkin[s] took an active part in the questioning of the unfortunate young man, who has since died, and then as Mr. Beranek described it, Mr. Thompkins kissed the young man once on each cheek, stepped back and fired several times into his body at virtually point blank range, then leaving him for dead. In discussing the defendant's criminal history, the trial judge stated: He was sentenced in 1971 by the Honorable Richard Fitzgerald to serve fifteen to twenty years on a charge of attempt murder. Paroled in 1975. The record here disclosed to state the factual situation briefly, that the decedent in the 1971 case was kissed on both side of the cheek I believe, and assassinated, or shot. That's the primary and essential element of significant history. As the preceding quotations demonstrate, the prosecutor did not suggest that the defendant was responsible for Weaver's death, and the trial judge properly characterized the defendant's former offense as attempted murder rather than murder. Although the trial judge at one point stated that the defendant had assassinated Weaver, the judge quickly corrected himself. For these reasons, we must reject the defendant's arguments that the State presented false evidence regarding the defendant's earlier offenses and that the trial judge mistakenly relied on that evidence in deciding to impose the death penalty. Because no mistake of that nature occurred in the underlying proceedings, we do not believe that an evidentiary hearing on this issue is made necessary by the new evidence offered by the defendant Weaver's death certificate and the autopsy report, showing Weaver's death from natural causes in Michigan in 1972. Moreover, in light of our conclusion that the State did not present inaccurate information regarding the defendant's prior convictions, we must reject the defendant's related contentions that counsel was ineffective in failing to respond to this testimony, and that the prosecution was guilty of misconduct in its manner of presenting testimony about Weaver's death. The defendant next argues, in claim XX of the petition, that the prosecution did not present sufficient proof of his intent to kill the victims in this case, Holton and Sheppard. The defendant's eligibility for the death penalty was premised on the multiple murderer aggravating circumstance contained in section 9-1(b)(3) of the Criminal Code of 1961 (Ill.Rev.Stat.1979, ch. 38, par. 9-1(b)(3)). That provision requires that each of the murders have been performed with intent or premeditation. This court rejected a similar contention in the defendant's direct appeal, and, in light of our earlier disposition, we agree with the post-conviction judge that consideration of the same issue here is barred by res judicata. Discussing this question on direct appeal, this court stated: Even though defendant may have not been the actual shooter, the evidence shows, at the very least, that he planned and actively participated in the armed robbery, murder, and the subsequent concealment thereof. Although there may be no direct evidence establishing that it was in fact the defendant who shot the victims, we believe the proof adduced at trial is sufficient to sustain defendant's conviction and sentence under the principle of accountability. Thompkins, 121 Ill.2d at 452[, 117 Ill.Dec. 927, 521 N.E.2d 38]. This court also rejected the further contention raised here that the jury's verdict at trial might have rested simply on the finding that the defendant was guilty of felony murder, and that such a finding would have been inconsistent with the sentencing judge's later determination, made under section 9-1(b)(3), that the murders were committed with intent or premeditation. The jury at the defendant's trial received instructions on alternative theories of murder, including felony murder, and used a general verdict form to record its finding of guilt. On direct appeal this court rejected the defendant's contention that the trial judge's eligibility determination was not supported by the jury's general verdict. After citing the general rule that when `an indictment contains several counts arising out of a single transaction, and a general verdict is returned the effect is that the defendant is guilty as charged in each count' ( Thompkins, 121 Ill.2d at 455-56, 117 Ill.Dec. 927, 521 N.E.2d 38, quoting People v. Lymore (1962), 25 Ill.2d 305, 308, 185 N.E.2d 158), this court stated: Applying the above rule, we conclude that the jury's return of general verdicts raises a presumption that it found defendant guilty of intentionally murdering Holton and Sheppard. Furthermore, the return of general verdicts does not preclude the imposition of the death penalty. [Citation.] Thompkins, 121 Ill.2d at 456[, 117 Ill.Dec. 927, 521 N.E.2d 38]. The defendant urges, however, that newly available evidence warrants our reexamination of this issue. The defendant submits that testimony presented at the separate trial of codefendant Ronnie Moore, conducted in 1986, establishes that the defendant was not the primary actor in the present offenses, and that Moore's role was more significant than was indicated by the evidence presented at the defendant's trial. The defendant included the transcript of Moore's trial and sentencing hearing as an exhibit to the present post-conviction petition. We do not agree with the defendant that the evidence introduced at Moore's trial requires that we modify this court's previous determinations. Although the testimony presented at Moore's trial provides a more complete picture of Moore's participation in these offenses, that evidence does not detract from the earlier depiction at the defendant's trial of the defendant's own involvement in the crimes. Accordingly, we do not believe that the newly available evidence cited by the defendantthe transcript of Moore's trial warrants the holding of an evidentiary hearing on this claim. The defendant also argues, in claim XXI of the petition, that the death sentence imposed against him is disproportionately harsh in comparison with the sentence of natural life imprisonment received by Moore for the same offenses. In support of this claim, the defendant again cites the record of Moore's trial. In 1986, in a bench proceeding before a different judge, Moore was convicted of the murders of Holton and Sheppard. The State sought the death penalty, but the court sentenced Moore to a term of natural life imprisonment instead. The judge explained that he was imposing the less severe sanction because he had found Moore guilty of the murders on an accountability theory and because Moore's only prior offense was a conviction in 1972 for robbery. The defendant contends here that his own sentence of death is unconstitutionally disproportionate to Moore's sentence of natural life imprisonment. The post-conviction judge concluded that this argument was without merit. We agree. Contrary to the defendant's view, the evidence presented at the defendant's and Moore's separate trials does not demonstrate either that Moore was the more culpable offender or that he possessed less rehabilitative potential. According to the testimony, the defendant exercised the dominant role in planning the offenses, and he was an active participant in the crimes. The defendant initially instructed Pamela Thompkins to arrange a drug deal with Gerald Holton. The defendant later tried to enlist Keith Culbreath's assistance in the plan. It was the defendant who broke up the staged drug transaction by appearing suddenly and announcing that he was a police officer. Pamela Thompkins later heard the defendant order the two victims to lie on the floor, and the defendant stood guard over the victims after he directed Sandra Douglas to accompany Ronnie Moore to buy grain alcohol. Pamela also saw blood on the defendant's clothing. Following the commission of the murders, it was the defendant who called Sandra Douglas and ordered her to clean up the crime scene, and he called again later to instruct her to retrieve a gun he had left there. We have already rejected, as unreliable, Pamela's recantation of her testimony at the defendant's trial. The evidence also shows that the defendant had a more serious criminal history and less rehabilitative potential. The defendant had been convicted in 1971 of attempted murder and aggravated battery and sentenced to 15 to 20 years' imprisonment; in contrast, Moore's only prior offense was a 1972 conviction for robbery, for which he received an indeterminate sentence of five years to five years and a day. Compared with Moore, the defendant was the more culpable offender and, as measured by his criminal record, had less rehabilitative potential. For these reasons, we conclude that the defendant's death sentence is not unconstitutionally disproportionate to Moore's sentence of natural life imprisonment. See People v. Strickland (1992), 154 Ill.2d 489, 535-38, 182 Ill.Dec. 551, 609 N.E.2d 1366; People v. Flores (1992), 153 Ill.2d 264, 293-97, 180 Ill.Dec. 1, 606 N.E.2d 1078.