Opinion ID: 1354475
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Executive Clemency

Text: Gallego contends that the jury was given a misleading instruction concerning executive clemency that offends due process. Defendant argues that the instruction invites speculation, diminishes the jurors' individual and collective sense of responsibility and, most important, misleads in not informing the jury that clemency is available to a defendant sentenced to a term of life without the possibility of parole. We do not agree. The identical instruction at issue here was given in Rogers v. State, 101 Nev. 457, 705 P.2d 664 (1985), and we there determined that the instruction did not contravene constitutional standards. Constraints applicable to clemency instructions by reason or our holding in Petrocelli v. State, 101 Nev. 46, 692 P.2d 503 (1985), are of prospective effect and thus do not apply here. The trial court did not err on this issue. B.