Opinion ID: 1181055
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Admissibility of Codefendants' Plea Dispositions as Mitigating Evidence

Text: (45a) Defendant argues that the trial court erred in excluding evidence of the pleas and negotiated dispositions of his accomplices at the penalty phase. [22] We disagree. Evidence of Bolanos's and Vasquez's negotiated plea dispositions  separate and apart from evidence of their complicity and degree of involvement in the instant offenses  bore no relevance to the jury's properly guided function at the penalty phase. `[I]n capital cases the fundamental respect for humanity underlying the Eighth Amendment... requires consideration of the character and record of the individual offender and the circumstances of the particular offense as a constitutionally indispensable part of the process of inflicting the penalty of death (italics added).' ( Lockett v. Ohio, supra, 438 U.S. at p. 604 [57 L.Ed.2d at p. 989.], quoting Woodson, supra, 428 U.S. 280.) The United States Supreme Court in Lockett stated: We recognize that, in noncapital cases, the established practice of individualized sentences rests not on constitutional commands, but on public policy enacted into statutes. The considerations that account for the wide acceptance of individualization of sentences in noncapital cases surely cannot be thought less important in capital cases. Given that the imposition of death by public authority is so profoundly different from all other penalties, we cannot avoid the conclusion that an individualized decision is essential in capital cases. The need for treating each defendant in a capital case with that degree of respect due the uniqueness of the individual is far more important than in noncapital cases. A variety of flexible techniques  probation, parole, work furloughs, to name a few  and various post-conviction remedies may be available to modify an initial sentence of confinement in noncapital cases. The nonavailability of corrective or modifying mechanisms with respect to an executed capital sentence underscores the need for individualized consideration as a constitutional requirement in imposing the death sentence [fn. omitted, italics added]. ( Lockett v. Ohio, supra, 438 U.S. at pp. 604-605 [57 L.Ed.2d at p. 990], italics added; see People v. Allen, supra, 42 Cal.3d at pp. 1286-1287.) (46) In Coulter v. State (Ala. Crim. App. 1982) 438 So.2d 336, 345-346, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, [a]pplying the principles of Lockett, in light of Eddings [ Eddings v. Oklahoma (1982) 455 U.S. 104 [71 L.Ed.2d 1, 102 S.Ct. 869]] and Enmund [ Enmund v. Florida (1982) 458 U.S. 782 [73 L.Ed.2d 1140, 102 S.Ct. 3368]] ..., reasoned that an alleged accomplice's sentence is a product of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances applicable to the alleged accomplice. In the sentencing phase of the trial, the fact that an alleged accomplice did not receive the death penalty is no more relevant as a mitigating factor for the defendant than the fact that an alleged accomplice did receive the death penalty would be as an aggravating circumstance against him. Simply put, an alleged accomplice's sentence has no bearing on the defendant's character or record and it is not a circumstance of the offense (italics added). (See also Brogie v. State (Okla. Crim. 1985) 695 P.2d 538, 546-547 [relying on Coulter ].) In State v. Williams (1982) 305 N.C. 656 [292 S.E.2d 243], certiorari denied 459 U.S. 1056 [74 L.Ed.2d 622, 103 S.Ct. 474], defendant argued that the trial court had erred in refusing to submit to the jury as a circumstance in mitigation evidence that his two accomplices had negotiated plea bargains with maximum ten-year prison terms. In rejecting the contention, the North Carolina Supreme Court wrote: The fact that the defendant's accomplices received a lesser sentence is not an extenuating circumstance. It does not reduce the moral culpability of the killing nor make it less deserving of the penalty of death than other first-degree murders. [Citation.] The accomplices' punishment is not an aspect of the defendant's character or record nor a mitigating circumstance of the particular offense. (See Lockett v. Ohio [, supra, ] 438 U.S. 586.) It bears no relevance to these factors, and thus there was no error in the judge's refusal to submit it to the jury. ( Id., at pp. 261-262.) The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has likewise rejected the identical contention, concluding that nothing in the United States Supreme Court's recent decision in Skipper v. South Carolina (1986) 476 U.S. 1 [90 L.Ed.2d 1, 106 S.Ct. 1669], or Hitchcock v. Dugger (1987) 481 U.S. 393 [95 L.Ed.2d 347, 107 S.Ct. 1821], lends any support to the argument that a codefendant's sentence disposition is relevant to a capital defendant's character, record, or the circumstances of his offense, as relevancy is defined in Lockett, supra, 438 U.S. 586. ( Brodgon v. Butler (5th Cir.1987) 824 F.2d 338, 343; Brogdon v. Blackburn (5th Cir.1986) 790 F.2d 1164, 1169.) Although we recognize that several Florida decisions have reached a contrary conclusion (see, e.g., Brookings v. State (Fla. 1986) 495 So.2d 135, 143; Messer v. State (Fla. 1976) 330 So.2d 137, 141-142), we find the rationale of Coulter v. State, supra, 438 So.2d 336, State v. Williams supra, 292 S.E.2d 243, and the Brogdon decisions persuasive and conclude that their holdings should be applied here. (45b) At the guilt phase, defendant's jury was fully apprised of the roles and degree of participation Bolanos and Vasquez each had in the burglary and murder. The jury's verdicts and special findings, supported by the weight of evidence, establish that defendant was found beyond a reasonable doubt to have personally, intentionally killed McConnell prior to Vasquez's entry into the victim's house. Bolanos never entered the house. As a factual matter, defendant's accomplices clearly did not share his level of involvement and participation in the murder. On these facts, the holdings of Woodson, supra, 428 U.S. 280, Lockett, supra, 438 U.S. 586, Eddings, supra, 455 U.S. 104, and Enmund, supra, 458 U.S. 782 compel the conclusion that Bolanos's and Vasquez's individually negotiated dispositions were not constitutionally relevant to defendant's penalty determination. (See People v. Allen, supra, 42 Cal.3d at p. 1287; People v. Brown, supra, 40 Cal.3d at p. 540.)