Opinion ID: 2161601
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 48

Heading: Was Death Penalty Improperly Imposed

Text: Grandison argues that because the death penalty can only be imposed upon a person convicted of first degree murder as a principal in the first degree, and because he was not a principal in the first degree but only an accessory to the murders of Piechowicz and Kennedy, the death penalty was improperly imposed. There is no merit to this argument. Art. 27, § 413(e)(1) provides that the terms defendant and person, except as those terms appear in subsection (d)(7), include only a principal in the first degree. Subsection (d)(7) of section 413 provides as an aggravating circumstance, The defendant engaged or employed another person to commit the murder and the murder was committed pursuant to an agreement or contract for remuneration or the promise of remuneration. Thus the legislature has by these provisions made a defendant in Grandison's position subject to the death penalty despite his being an accessory. The sentences of death were not inappropriate.