Opinion ID: 2509517
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Defendant's federal constitutional claims

Text: Defendant asserts that admitting evidence of his mental illness as an aggravating consideration violated his rights under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Defendant, however, did not raise these contentions in the trial court. Seeking to avoid the conclusion that his constitutional claims have been forfeited (see People v. Williams (1997) 16 Cal.4th 153, 250, 66 Cal.Rptr.2d 123, 940 P.2d 710), defendant cites People v. Yeoman, supra, 31 Cal.4th 93, 2 Cal.Rptr.3d 186, 72 P.3d 1166, which said: [N]o useful purpose is served by declining to consider on appeal a claim that merely restates, under alternative legal principles, a claim otherwise identical to one that was properly preserved.... ( Id. at p. 117, 2 Cal.Rptr.3d 186, 72 P.3d 1166.) But here defendant's constitutional claim is not identical to his properly preserved claim based on California decisions and statutes. His state law claim is based on decisions interpreting section 190.3 and asserting that factors (d) and (k) can only be mitigating. There are, however, no federal decisions preventing the jury from treating factor (d) or factor (k) evidence as aggravating. (See Tuilaepa v. California (1994) 512 U.S. 967, 976-979, 114 S.Ct. 2630, 129 L.Ed.2d 750.)