Court Opinion

ID: 9547177
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:42:48.110988+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:17:25.218688
License: Public Domain

Springer, J.,
dissenting:
I dissent to the penalty judgment because I believe the trial court erred in overruling Lisle’s objection to the prosecution’s comment on Lisle’s failure to produce psychiatric testimony in support of his case on mitigating circumstances.
A prosecutor generally may not comment on a defendant’s failure to call a witness because such comments tend to shift impermissibly the burden of proof to the defense. Whitney v. State, 112 Nev. 499, 502, 915 P.2d 881, 882 (1996). This shifting of the burden of proof “is improper because ‘[i]t suggests to the jury that it was the defendant’s burden to produce proof by explaining the absence of witnesses or evidence. This implication is clearly inaccurate.’ ” Ross v. State, 106 Nev. 924, 927, 803 P.2d 1105-06 (1990) (quoting Barron v. State, 105 Nev. 767, *708778, 783 P.2d 444, 451 (1989)). The jury in this case may very well have inferred from the challenged comment that a psychiatrist was needed to substantiate the defendant’s claims and that because the defendant did not call a psychiatrist to the stand he had not met his burden.1
The majority cites People v. Kelly, 800 P.2d 516, 538 (Cal., 1990), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 842 (1991) (Prosecutor sought to disassociate defendant’s recent violent behavior from psychological and social problems he had faced his entire life.). In Kelly, the prosecutor argued that evidence introduced during the penalty phase did not demonstrate that the defendant’s social and psychological problems caused him to commit murder.2 This is distinguishable from the prosecution’s comment in the present case on the defendant’s failure to call certain witnesses. There is a significant difference between arguing that the evidence does not support the defense’s claims and arguing that the defense has failed to call a particular witness or class of witnesses. The former merely questions whether evidence presented substantiates a defendant’s claim; the latter implies that the defendant must call certain witnesses in order to substantiate his or her claimed position relative to mitigating circumstances.
During the penalty phase, a defendant has the burden of substantiating mitigating factors but is not required to present certain kinds of witnesses in support of that position. A prosecutor’s comment on the defendant’s failure to call a witness is not permitted if, as here, it suggests to a jury that the defendant does *709have a burden of presenting certain witnesses. The prosecutor’s comment that the defendant did not call a psychiatrist as a witness did just that. It went beyond merely pointing out that Lisle did not substantiate his claim of abuse as a mitigating factor.
I would reverse the penalty judgment and remand to the trial court for a new penalty hearing.

During the penalty phase, the defendant does have the burden of presenting mitigating evidence. Sonner v. State, 112 Nev. 1328, 930 P.2d 707 (1996). This, however, does not license a prosecutor to comment in a manner that would not be permitted in the guilt phase of a trial. A prosecutor is free to comment that evidence introduced by a defendant does not substantiate mitigating factors just as a prosecutor is allowed to comment that evidence does not support an affirmative defense; the prosecutor may not, however, imply that the defendant is required to call, as a necessary part of the defendant’s case, a certain witness or type of witness.

The majority incorrectly writes that the prosecutor “commented that the defendant did not present evidence of his longstanding psychological and social pathologies or that such pathologies caused his violent nature.” The Kelly defendant presented much evidence of his social and psychological problems, including learning disabilities, brain atrophy, and a “schyzoty-pal” personality. See Kelly, 800 P.2d at 523. Challenged comments made by the prosecutor did not allege that this evidence had not been presented; instead, they suggested that these problems were not the cause of the defendant’s recent violent behavior.
Similarly, the prosecutor did not comment on a failure to demonstrate that the defendant’s problems caused his violent nature. To the contrary, the prosecution wished to disassociate the defendant’s recent violent behavior from the problems he faced his entire life. To do this, the prosecutor tried to show that the defendant did not have a violent nature.