Opinion ID: 2068732
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: jury instructions at sentencing hearings

Text: The defendant argues that the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury at the first stage of the sentencing hearing that the only alternative to death was natural life imprisonment. We find no merit to the defendant's claim. This court has held that at the first stage of the sentencing hearing a trial judge need not inform the jury of the particulars of the sentencing alternative that would be imposed should the defendant be found ineligible for death. ( People v. Albanese (1984), 102 Ill.2d 54, 81, 79 Ill.Dec. 608, 464 N.E.2d 206.) This is because, at the first phase of the sentencing hearing, the jury is concerned solely with the threshold question of whether the defendant is even eligible for death. Only at the second phase of the hearing do actual sentencing determinations arise. It is noted that the natural life instruction proffered at the second stage of the sentencing hearing in the instant case is in accord with the language set forth by this court in People v. Gacho (1988), 122 Ill.2d 221, 262, 119 Ill.Dec. 287, 522 N.E.2d 1146. The defendant additionally argues that the instructions given in this case did not inform the jury that it could consider mercy and compassion at the second stage of the death penalty hearing. This argument is spurious since the instructions given allowed the jury to consider all reasons why the defendant should not be sentenced to death, including feelings of mercy.