Opinion ID: 470387
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the mandatory death penalty

Text: 12 We now turn to consideration of the State of Nevada's cross-appeal of the district court's holding that the statute under which Shuman was sentenced is constitutionally infirm because of its mandatory nature. The applicable statute in effect at the time of Shuman's 1976 conviction, Nev.Rev.Stat. Sec. 200.030 (1973), provided in pertinent part: 13 1. Capital murder is murder which is perpetrated by: 14 .... 15 b. A person who is under sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole. 16 .... 17 5. Every person convicted of capital murder shall be punished by death. 3 18 The Nevada Supreme Court in Shuman v. State, 94 Nev. 265, 578 P.2d 1183 (1978), upheld the constitutionality of this mandatory death penalty provision even though it had earlier declared the mandatory death penalty provision of another subsection of Nev.Rev.Stat. Sec. 200.030 to be in violation of the eighth and fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution. 4 The Nevada Supreme Court noted that although the constitutionality of mandatory death sentences had been generally rejected by the Supreme Court, the Court had specifically excepted from its holding and expressed no opinion on the application of a mandatory death sentence to a conviction of murder by a person serving a life sentence. Shuman v. State, 94 Nev. at 270-71, 578 P.2d at 1186-87. 19 The Nevada Supreme Court was quite correct that we are here dealing with the exact circumstance for which the Supreme Court specifically reserved judgment. The district court had, and this court has, the advantage of some additional decisions of the Supreme Court that shed light on the issue that were not available to the Nevada Supreme Court at the time of its decision. The district court, in a carefully reasoned decision, concluded that the recent opinion of the Supreme Court in Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 102 S.Ct. 869, 71 L.Ed.2d 1 (1982), made apparent its disdain for the mandatory death penalty in general and that the reasons there expressed would apply as well in the circumstances of a murder committed by a person serving a life sentence. 20 A review of the evolving position of the United States Supreme Court with regard to the death penalty is instructive in making the determination in this case. In Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (1972), the Supreme Court rendered a 5-to-4 decision that, in effect, invalidated the death penalty statutes in all jurisdictions in the United States. In that case, there were nine separate opinions, with each justice expressing his specific reasons for concurring with or dissenting from a brief per curiam opinion. For the majority, Justices Brennen and Marshall concluded that the eighth amendment prohibited the death penalty in all circumstances id. at 305, 370-71, 92 S.Ct. at 2760, 2793-94. Justices Douglas, Stewart, and White each had a somewhat different rationale, but basically objected to the arbitrary and discriminatory manner in which it was administered because of the wide discretion left to juries to impose or not to impose a death sentence. Justice Douglas left open the possibility that mandatory death penalties could be constitutional. Id. at 256-57, 309-10, 313-14, 92 S.Ct. at 2735-36, 2762-63, 2764-65. 21 The response from state legislatures took two approaches. Some limited the discretion of juries by prescribing guidelines that the jury or sentencing judge must consider in determining whether to fix the sentence at death or life imprisonment. The other approach was to provide for mandatory death sentences for certain narrowly-defined crimes. 22 In 1976, the Court considered five death penalty cases in which it upheld the guideline approach and rejected the mandatory death sentence approach. The guideline approach was upheld in Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976); Proffitt v. Florida, 428 U.S. 242, 96 S.Ct. 2960, 49 L.Ed.2d 913 (1976); and Jurek v. Texas, 428 U.S. 262, 96 S.Ct. 2950, 49 L.Ed.2d 929 (1976). The mandatory sentencing approach was rejected in Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S. 280, 96 S.Ct. 2978, 49 L.Ed.2d 944 (1976) and Roberts (Stanislaus) v. Louisiana, 428 U.S. 325, 96 S.Ct. 3001, 49 L.Ed.2d 974 (1976), each decided in a 5-to-4 decision. Again, Justices Brennen and Marshall concluded that the death penalty was unconstitutional per se. A three-judge plurality, composed of Justices Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, concluded that the mandatory application of the penalty, without consideration of the individual offense and the character and record of the offender, rendered the statutes violative of the eighth and fourteenth amendments. Justices Burger, White, Blackmun, and Rehnquist dissented. 23 The plurality opinion in Woodson pointed out that, at the time the eighth amendment was adopted, the states uniformly followed the common law practice of mandatory death sentences for certain specific crimes, but that the harshness of the application of these penalties had resulted in reforms allowing more flexibility in providing for the discretion of the jury to impose or not to impose the death penalty. Woodson, 428 U.S. at 289-98, 96 S.Ct. at 2984-88. The opinion concluded that, because of the vast qualitative difference between a sentence of death and one of imprisonment, there is greater need for reliability before imposing a death sentence and that in capital cases the fundamental respect for humanity underlying the Eighth Amendment ... requires consideration of the character and record of the individual offender and the circumstances of the particular offense as a constitutionally indispensable part of the process of inflicting the penalty of death. Woodson, 428 U.S. at 304, 96 S.Ct. at 2991 (citations omitted). The same plurality reemphasized this rationale in Roberts (Stanislaus), decided the same day. 428 U.S. at 333-36, 96 S.Ct. at 3006-3007. 24 In a subsequent opinion Roberts (Harry) v. Louisiana, 431 U.S. 633, 97 S.Ct. 1993, 52 L.Ed.2d 637 (1977), the same five-judge majority struck down the mandatory death penalty and confirmed the rationale expressed in the Woodson and Roberts (Stanislaus) decisions. Id. at 636-37, 97 S.Ct. at 1995-96. The same four justices dissented. In each of these cases, the controlling opinions had specifically indicated that no opinion was being expressed on the constitutionality of a mandatory sentence for a murder committed by a person serving a life sentence. Woodson, 428 U.S. at 287, n. 7 and 292-3 n. 25, 96 S.Ct. at 2983 n. 7 and 2985 n. 25; Roberts (Stanislaus), 428 U.S. at 334 n. 9, 96 S.Ct. at 3006 n. 9; Roberts (Harry), 428 U.S. at 637 n. 5, 97 S.Ct. at 1995 n. 5. 25 In Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978), Chief Justice Burger sought to extract the governing principles enumerated by the Court's various opinions for the guidance of the lower courts, stating: 26 In the last decade, many of the States have been obliged to revise their death penalty statutes in response to the various opinions supporting the judgments in Furman and Gregg and its companion cases. The signals from this Court have not, however, always been easy to decipher. The States now deserve the clearest guidance that the Court can provide; we have an obligation to reconcile previously differing views in order to provide that guidance. 27 Id. at 602, 98 S.Ct. at 2963. The Court struck down a death penalty statute limiting the mitigating circumstances the sentencing judge could consider. Three justices concurred with the Chief Justice in the opinion (Justices Stewart, Powell, and Stevens). Justices White and Blackmun concurred in the judgment on a narrower ground; Justice Marshall again stressed his view that the death penalty was unconstitutional per se; Justice Rehnquist dissented; and Justice Brennen did not participate in the decision. The opinion of the Chief Justice stated: 28 We are now faced with those questions and we conclude that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments require that the sentencer, in all but the rarest kind of capital case, 11 not be precluded from considering, as a mitigating factor, any aspect of a defendant's character or record and any of the circumstances of the offense that the defendant proffers as a basis for a sentence less than death. 12 29 Id. at 604, 98 S.Ct. at 2964 (emphasis in original). As can be seen from note 11 in the above quotation, the Court still reserved any expression of opinion on the question at issue in this case. 30 A more recent pronouncement of the Court bearing on the issue is Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 102 S.Ct. 869, 71 L.Ed.2d 1 (1982). In a 5-to-4 decision, the Court vacated a death sentence where the trial judge had believed he was constrained from considering the age and turbulent family background of the defendant and remanded for the state courts to consider all relevant mitigating evidence and weigh it against the evidence of the aggravating circumstances. Id. at 113-17, 102 S.Ct. at 876-78. The opinion of Justice Powell, in which Justices Brennen, Marshall, Stevens, and O'Connor concurred, relied on the standard stated in Lockett. The dissent written by Justice Burger and concurred in by Justices White, Blackmun, and Rehnquist, agreed that Lockett provided the appropriate standard but disagreed with its application in that case. Id. at 121-26, 102 S.Ct. at 880-83. 31 It is apparent that the standard set forth in Lockett is to be applied in death penalty cases. Justice Powell's opinion quoted the passage from Lockett previously quoted herein, but modified it in a way that is significant in this case. The opinion states: 32 In Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586 [98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973] (1978), CHIEF JUSTICE BURGER, writing for the plurality, stated the rule that we apply today: 33 [W]e conclude that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments require that the sentencer ... not be precluded from considering, as a mitigating factor, any aspect of a defendant's character or record and any of the circumstances of the offense that the defendant proffers as a basis for a sentence less than death. Id. at 604 [98 S.Ct. at 2964] (emphasis in original). 34 Eddings, 455 U.S. at 110, 102 S.Ct. at 874 (footnote omitted). We note that the rule applied by Justice Powell eliminates the phrase, in all but the rarest kind of capital case, and also eliminates any reference to footnote 11 of the Lockett opinion that reserves judgment on the situation of a murder committed by a person under a life sentence. The specific elimination of the phrase from the quotation gives some indication that the Court intended to eliminate the reservation concerning the person serving a life sentence as set forth in footnote 11 of the Lockett decision. 35 However, because that situation was not discussed in Eddings and the facts of the case did not present that situation, we will proceed to discuss the application of the Lockett standard to that area reserved by the footnotes in Woodson, Roberts (Stanislaus), Roberts (Harry), and Lockett. 5 There appear to be two reasons why the opinions reserved judgment in this area. The first is that the character or record of a prisoner serving a life sentence is adequately evident from the fact he has been given a life sentence. This was the rationale stated in Woodson. 6 Under this rationale, it is unnecessary to consider mitigating circumstances because Shuman's bad character and record are adequately established from the fact he is serving a life sentence. With the evolvement of the Supreme Court's view, as expressed in Lockett and Eddings, it seems readily apparent that this earlier rationale could not be applied consistent with those opinions. 36 The difficulties are evident in the application of the relevant Nevada statutes. At the time Shuman was convicted of the second murder in 1973, a person could have been serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for numerous offenses. At the time of his 1958 conviction, the applicable Nevada statute authorized a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the following offenses: 37 All murder which shall be perpetrated by means of poison, or lying in wait, torture, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate and premeditated killing, or which shall be committed in the perpetration, or attempt to perpetrate, any arson, rape, robbery or burglary, or which shall be committed by a convict in the state prison serving a sentence of life imprisonment.... 38 Nev.Rev.Stat. Sec. 200.030(1) (1957). Thus, a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole could have resulted from conduct such as a killing by an accomplice in an attempted burglary or it could have resulted from conduct as aggravated as a torture murder. Furthermore, the consideration of other relevant circumstances would be eliminated, such as the age and the mental or emotional state of the defendant, the provocation for the killing, the pressure from other inmates, and the record of the defendant in prison since the first offense. 39 It would appear that this reason for the reservation was dropped by the Court in Lockett because a different reason was there advanced. The expressed possible reason was the need to deter certain kinds of homicide. 7 However, the deterrent effect of capital punishment to the person serving a life sentence still exists under statutes that give individualized consideration to the nature of the offense and the circumstances of the offender, such as the statute in Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976), and in the current Nevada statute, Nev.Rev.Stat. Secs. 200.030-35. 8 The argument that the death penalty is a necessary deterrent to a person serving a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole because another such sentence would constitute no deterrent, is more logically concerned with the question of whether there should be a death penalty at all, rather than whether the penalty should be mandatory. See People v. Smith, 63 N.Y.2d 41, 479 N.Y.S.2d 706, 724, 468 N.E.2d 879, 897 (N.Y.1984), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 1226, 84 L.Ed.2d 364 (1985). As the district court aptly noted, the availability of the death penalty for the prisoner serving a life term without the possibility of parole is a sufficient deterrent, while making mandatory such a sentence under those circumstances only serves to give the imposition of the death sentence the air of arbitrariness and caprice. 40 We agree with analysis of the well-reasoned opinion of the Court of Appeals of New York in concluding under similar, though distinguishable circumstances, that a mandatory death statute simply cannot be reconciled with the scrupulous care the legal system demands to insure that the death penalty fits the individual and the crime. Smith, 468 N.E.2d at 897, 479 N.Y.S.2d at 724. Though the Supreme Court had earlier reserved its opinion concerning a person convicted of murder who was serving a life sentence, the reasons expressed in the opinions generally rejecting the mandatory death statutes are applicable as well in that circumstance. We suggest that this is the reason why that reservation was not restated in Eddings.