Opinion ID: 2344370
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidence of the underlying crimes.

Text: Defendant's second evidentiary challenge addresses the proofs of the crimes themselves tendered by the prosecution during the penalty phase trial. In defendant's view, the fact that he pled guilty to all of the crimes for which he stood charged removed any need for the introduction of any of the substantive proofs concerning those crimes. Thus, defendant concludes, the introduction of proofs concerning the crimes to which he pled guilty was inflammatory and prejudicial. The State replies that, in the context of the aggravating factors  that is, that the death penalty was appropriate because the murders occurred either during the commission of the crimes of robbery and burglary of both Richard and Shirley Hazard or the murder of Richard Hazard, or because the murders occurred in order to avoid detection of or apprehension for the crimes defendant committed  the admission in evidence of the facts of the underlying crimes was proper. Defendant's unqualified and unrestricted admission of guilt for the murders of Richard and Shirley Hazard did not, standing alone, provide him the procedural advantage of barring proofs of those crimes as part of the State's case for the imposition of the death penalty. The standard for admissibility of these facts remained whether the facts were relevant and whether their probative value was substantially outweighed by their undue prejudicial effect. The facts of defendant's underlying crimes of robbery, burglary, murder, and hindering apprehension all are directly relevant to his penalty phase trial because each has a tendency in reason to prove the presence of aggravating factors and the absence of mitigating factors. In that context, the probative value of those facts was not substantially outweighed by their undue prejudicial effect. Therefore, the trial court properly admitted proofs of defendant's underlying crimes as part of his penalty phase proceeding.