Opinion ID: 1787815
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Statutory Aggravating Circumstance

Text: The majority would affirm the death sentence in this case based on the sole aggravating circumstance that the murder was committed for the purpose of receiving money or any other thing of monetary value by taking [Jordan's] wallet. The majority cites cases from two other states with statutory language identical to ours as supporting its conclusion. Both Pulliam v. State , 236 Ga. 460, 224 S.E.2d 813 (1976), and State v. Woomer, 277 S.C. 170, 284 S.E.2d 357 (1981), (reversed on other grounds) involved the submission of multiple aggravating circumstances. The latter case did not address the issue here presented. The majority next examines statutes with the aggravating circumstance that the murder was committed for pecuniary gain and finds that most have applied the circumstance to murders committed during the course of an armed robbery. Inasmuch as defendant fatally shot Officer Jordan in the course of robbing him, the opinion concludes that the aggravating circumstance submitted in this case was supported by substantial evidence. The defendant's position is that the receiving money aggravating circumstance was meant to apply only to a murder for hire, the murder of an insured by a beneficiary, and the murder of an ancestor by an heir to accelerate the inheritance. Such a holding would follow from a strict construction of the statutory language. As noted by the majority, two states with the more expansive pecuniary gain statutory language have reached this conclusion. See Ashlock v. State, 367 So.2d 560 (Ala.Cr.App. 1978) and State v. Rust, 197 Neb. 528, 250 N.W.2d 867 (1977). See also Boutwell v. State, 659 P.2d 322 (Okla.Cr.App.1983). Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976) and Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420, 100 S.Ct. 1759, 64 L.Ed.2d 398 (1980) would seem to mandate a strict construction of the statutory aggravating circumstances to ensure that the legislature intended to authorize the death sentence under a given set of circumstances. Even if we reject defendant's argument that the receiving money circumstance was not meant to apply to any murder during the course of a robbery, it does not automatically follow that every time a defendant on trial for capital murder has taken money or something of monetary value from his victim the statutory circumstance has been established. In State v. Snow, 383 A.2d 1385, 1388 (Me.1978), the court upheld a pecuniary benefit circumstance when the murder had occurred during a robbery. The court stated: [A] criminal homicide ... committed for pecuniary benefit includes a homicide committed during a robbery, provided there is a concurrence of the mental state required for second degree homicide, death producing conduct sufficient to constitute legal cause, and the specific intent to obtain money thereby.       A homicide in the second degree which is committed for monetary gain therefore requires a showing of specific intent to obtain money by and in conjunction with the conduct and mental state necessary for second degree homicide. This temporal concurrence of mental culpability with conduct producing a prohibited result is a basic premise of Anglo-American criminal law. (Emphasis supplied). And in Peek v. State, 395 So.2d 492, 499 (Fla.1980), the court found that a murder which preceded the theft of the victim's automobile was not committed for pecuniary gain. The court stated: [t]he record does not support the conclusion that Mrs. Carlson was murdered to facilitate the theft, or that appellant had any intention of profiting from his illicit acquisition. Finally, in State v. Oliver, 302 N.C. 28, 274 S.E.2d 183, 204 (1981), the court rejected defendant's claim that the murder of a customer at a gas station-convenience store was not for pecuniary gain because the money had already been obtained from the storekeeper. The court stated: While the argument is plausible we reject it. The hope of pecuniary gain provided the impetus for the murder of both Watts and Hodge. This hope and the murders were inextricably intertwined. (Emphasis supplied). The State's description of the events of May 16, 1981, in its brief and arguments both before this Court and to the jury do not give the impression that Samuel McDonald was intent on robbing someone and was willing to kill, if necessary, to retain the benefits. Rather, the impression is that he decided to take someone's wallet and upon realizing that his victim was a police officer decided, because of a general dislike of authority figures or because of a fear of identification by the police officer, to fire the fatal shot. The reason for the murder does not make it any less brutal; it does, however, remove the single approved basis for inflicting the death penalty in this case. On the sufficiency of evidence supporting the aggravating circumstance, I also concur in the opinion of Houser, Sr. J.