Court Opinion

ID: 9878973
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-27 17:51:05.074086+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:48.797089
License: Public Domain

LUMPKIN, VICE PRESIDING JUDGE:
SPECIALLY CONCUR
¶ 1 I concur in the Court’s decision but write separately to address the anomaly in our jurisprudence, While I compliment my colleague for adhering to proper legal rules of statutory and constitutional construction I would go further and address the errant methodology utilized by the Court in both Hain v. State, 1993 OK CR 22, 852 P.2d 744, and Salazar v. State, 1993 OK CR 21, 852 P.2d 729.
*906¶2 I still believe that this Court acted both extrajudicially and unconstitutionally in Hain and Salazar. In making its illadvised “death is different analysis” in those cases, this Court overthrew “nearly nine decades of jurisprudence holding the proper punishment to be that which is on the books at the time the crime was committed.” Salazar, 1993 OK CR 21, ¶ 1, 852 P.2d at 741 (Lump-kin, P.J., concurring in part/dissenting in part). “The role of an appellate judge is to apply the law consistently and to ensure the rules of law are set forth to enable trial practitioners and trial judges to rely on those principles of law in the trial of cases.” Hain, 1993 OK CR 22, ¶ 9, 852 P.2d at 755 (Lumpkin, P.J., concurring in pari/dissenting in part). The majority’s attempt to explain why Hain and Salazar do not apply in the present case exemplifies the anomaly in the law which this Court created in those cases when it directed trial courts to instruct concerning the sentence of life without the possibility of parole in cases where the offense occurred before enactment of that sentencing option. Hain, 1993 OK CR 22, ¶¶ 7-13, 852 P.2d at 755-56 (Lumpkin, P.J., concurring in part/dissenting in part); Salazar, 1993 OK CR 21, ¶ 4, 852 P.2d at 742 (Lump-kin, P.J., concurring in pari/dissenting in part). The proper punishment to be applied is the one in effect at the time the crime was committed. Hain, 1993 OK CR 22, ¶ 12, 852 P.2d at 755 (Lumpkin, P.J., concurring in part/dissenting in part).