Court Opinion

ID: 9579610
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:56:44.605962+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:35:37.695635
License: Public Domain

ZLAKET, Vice Chief Justice,
dissenting in part, concurring in part.
I am not a fan of footnotes. I find myself in general agreement with the Honorable Burton S. Laub of Pennsylvania, who once observed that “anyone who reads a footnote in a judicial opinion would answer a knock at his hotel door on his wedding night.” Rug-gero J. Aldisert, Opinion Writing 177 (1990). In recent years, however, I have succumbed to the enveloping footnote culture by increasingly relying on the little critters in my writings. The pending matter has persuaded me to resist any such urge in the future.
In my view, the attention paid to the Richmond footnote is quite remarkable. Rather than simply stating the obvious—that it is and was intended to be dicta because holdings do not appear in footnotes—the majority painstakingly attempts to demonstrate why this particular footnote was “incorrect.” It does so, moreover, despite the fact that the (F)(6) aggravating factor is satisfied here by the “especially cruel” finding, making it unnecessary to address the other elements (heinous or depraved) that were focused upon in the Richmond footnote. See State v. West, 176 Ariz. 432, 448, 862 P.2d 192, 208 (1993) (“[A] finding of any one of the three factors will suffice for finding that [the (F)(6) ] aggravating factor exists.”).
Hoping not to sound defensive, I submit that the footnote was, and still is, a correct statement of law. As recently as 1990, the United States Supreme Court observed that there can be “no serious argument that Arizona’s ‘especially heinous, cruel or depraved’ aggravating factor is not facially vague.” Walton v. Arizona, 497 U.S. 639, 654, 110 S.Ct. 3047, 3057, 111 L.Ed.2d 511.(1990). The majority in Walton nevertheless held that our recent judicial construction of the (F)(6) factor satisfies constitutional requirements. Id. But see id. at 693-98, 110 S.Ct. at 3078-81 (Blackmun, J., dissenting); and Lewis v. Jeffers, 497 U.S. 764, 784-98, 110 S.Ct. 3092, 3104-12, 111 L.Ed.2d 606 (1990) (Blackmun, J., dissenting). The pivotal question here seems to be when this constitutional narrowing took place. I respectfully submit that both case law and common sense establish Gretzler’ s five-factor definition of “heinous or depraved” as that defining moment.
In Richmond v. Lewis, 506 U.S. 40, 113 S.Ct. 528, 121 L.Ed.2d 411 (1992), the defendant challenged this court’s independent review of his sentence, in which a majority of the justices voted to uphold the (F)(6) factor but failed to agree on a basis—cruelty, heinousness, or depravity. The issue, as framed by Justice O’Connor, was “whether the Supreme Court of Arizona has cured petitioner’s death sentence of vagueness error.” Id. at 41, 113 S.Ct. at 531 (emphasis added). The mistake that needed to be “cured” oc*338curred “when the sentencing judge gave weight to an unconstitutionally vague aggravating factor.” Id. at 52, 113 S.Ct. at 537 (emphasis added). Thus, we know that the terms “heinous” and “depraved” had not yet been constitutionally narrowed at the time of Richmond’s sentencing in March 1980. The state agreed, but cited Gretzler for the proposition that this court’s more recent reweighing had been properly performed.
Respondents do not argue that the factor had been narrowed adequately prior to petitioner’s resentencing. Thus it would have been error for Judge Roylston to give weight to the (F)(6) factor, if he indeed balanced the aggravating and mitigating factors in resentencing petitioner, and respondents now agree that the judge did engage in this weighing process____ Nor do respondents contend that the (F)(6) factor had no effect on the sentencing judge’s calculus and therefore was harmless.
Rather, they point to State v. Gretzler, supra, which issued subsequent to the re-sentencing but prior to [State v. Richmond, 136 Ariz. 312, 666 P.2d 57 (1983) ] (Richmond II), and which provided an adequate narrowing construction of the “especially heinous, cruel or depraved” factor. See Lewis v. Jeffers, supra, 497 U.S., at 777-778, 110 S.Ct., at 3101 (holding that Gretzler definitions adequately narrowed (F)(6) factor); Walton v. Arizona, supra, 497 U.S., at 652-655, 110 S.Ct., at 3056-3058 (same). Respondents assert that the principal opinion in Richmond II properly applied the Gretzler construction of the (F)(6) factor, while the concurrence ignored the factor, and that both opinions reweighed. Petitioner argues that the principal opinion improperly applied Gret-zler, and that the concurrence did not reweigh.
Richmond v. Lewis, at 47-48, 113 S.Ct. at 534-35.
State v. Gretzler, 135 Ariz. 42, 659 P.2d 1, was decided in January 1983. If, as the majority now asserts, Gretzler merely cataloged prior cases but did not create the now-constitutional standard, one is. left wondering what momentous event occurred between 1980 and 1983 that transformed the facially vague into the constitutionally narrowed. Obviously, there was nothing until Gretzler’s careful enumeration of particular factors to be considered in determining heinousness or depravity. That is what the above language clearly indicates and what the state obviously agreed to in Richmond, despite its current protestations to the contrary.
Moreover, it is what we have said. “Gret-zler is critical to the constitutional application of the ‘cruel, heinous or depraved’ aggravating circumstance____” State v. King, 180 Ariz. 268, 286, 883 P.2d 1024, 1042 (1994) (emphasis added). As observed by this court in State v. Vickers, 159 Ariz. 532, 543 n. 2, 768 P.2d 1177, 1188 n. 2 (1989), albeit in one of those dratted footnotes again:
We have attempted to give a narrowing interpretation to these admittedly broad subjective terms [heinous, cruel or depraved]. See State v. Gretzler, 135 Ariz. 42, 50-53, 659 P.2d 1, 9-12, cert. denied, 461 U.S. 971, 103 S.Ct. 2444, 77 L.Ed.2d 1327 (1983). We believe we have successfully narrowed § 13-703(F)(6), and that we have applied that narrow interpretation consistently.
In State v. Milke, 177 Ariz. 118,125, 865 P.2d 779, 786 (1993), we said:
The Supreme Court has determined that the term “especially heinous, cruel or depraved” is facially vague. Richmond v. Lewis, 506 U.S. 40, 46, 113 S.Ct. 528, 534, 121 L.Ed.2d 411 (1992); Walton v. Arizona, 497 U.S. 639, 654, 110 S.Ct. 3047, 3057, 111 L.Ed.2d 511 (1990). However, the Court has held that this court’s interpretation of that phrase meets constitutional requirements. Most recently in Richmond v. Lewis, 506 U.S. at 50, 113 S.Ct. at 536, the Court cited Gretzler as “the narrowing construction of Arizona’s (F)(6) factor.” (Emphasis added.)
Again, in State v. Barreras, 181 Ariz. 516, 521-22, 892 P.2d 852, 857-58 (1995), we said:
Although the Gretzler factors are not absolutely exclusive, see State v. Milke, 177 Ariz. 118, 126, 865 P.2d 779, 787 (1993), they provide a consistent and rationally reviewable standard for the otherwise vague (F)(6) “especially heinous, cruel or depraved” factor, thus ensuring the con*339tinuing constitutionality of our death penalty statute and facilitating our independent review. See ... Richmond v. Lewis, 506 U.S. 40, 49-51, 113 S.Ct. 528, 536, 121 L.Ed.2d 411 (citing Gretzler as “the narrowing construction of Arizona’s (F)(6) factor”). We therefore urge trial courts to apply the Gretzler standards when considering this aggravating circumstance.
It is true, as Gretzler itself implies, that the five-pronged test was a compilation of factors found in prior cases to constitute heinousness or depravity. 135 Ariz. at 51-53, 659 P.2d at 10-12. This does not mean, however, that the discretion of trial judges had been adequately guided by those earlier decisions, as required by Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420, 100 S.Ct. 1759, 64 L.Ed.2d 398 (1980). At best, those judges were left to follow the Knapp criteria—dictionary definitions of “heinous” and “depraved” that were no more easily understood and applied than the words being defined. See 114 Ariz. 531, 543, 562 P.2d 704, 716 (1977). Alternatively, they could attempt to apply holdings from the conglomeration of random, uncollected, and often inconsistent eases that before Gret-zler constituted our capital sentencing jurisprudence. It is almost inconceivable, however, that any pre-Gretzler trial judge could have predicted which particular factors would eventually be singled out by this court for special treatment, or as being more or less important than others. For example, how could anyone know that senselessness and helplessness alone would not normally lead to a finding of “heinous” or “depraved”? 135 Ariz. at 52-53, 659 P.2d at 11-12.
I respectfully submit that the majority’s analysis of the Richmond footnote misses the mark in other ways as well. First, regardless of whether Godfrey narrowed an unconstitutionally vague aggravating circumstance or analyzed a constitutionally narrowed factor, the underlying rationale is the same—a facially vague factor can only be applied if it has been given an adequate narrowing construction by the state court. Our footnote in Richmond cited Godfrey for this established tenet of capital jurisprudence and nothing more. Indeed, the Supreme Court cited Godfrey for the same basic proposition in Richmond v. Lewis, 506 U.S. at 46, 113 S.Ct. at 534, to wit: “[A] statutory aggravating factor is unconstitutionally vague if it fails to furnish principled guidance for the choice between death and a lesser penalty.” Thus, the majority engages in hair splitting when it challenges Godfrey’s applicability.
Second, it is undeniable that Gretzler has been the standard relied on by this court in reviewing death penalty cases where the (F)(6) factor rests on a finding of heinous or depraved. Even the most cursory review of our post-Gretzler decisions will reflect that we invariably refer to that case in analyzing death sentences. E.g., State v. Murray, 184 Ariz. 9, 37, 906 P.2d 542, 570 (1995); State v. Walden, 183 Ariz. 595, 618-19, 905 P.2d 974, 997-98 (1995).
Incredibly, the majority ignores the Supreme Court’s plain language in Walton, Jef-fers, and Richmond, which clearly indicates that Gretzler narrowed the (F)(6) factor. The majority opinion states:
Nowhere in its decision in Jeffers did the Supreme Court announce that this narrowing had occurred in Gretzler. In fact, Jef-fers cites to Gretzler directly only once:
In light of the Arizona Supreme Court’s narrowing construction of the “especially heinous ... or depraved” aggravating circumstance, see State v. Gretzler, 135 Ariz. at 52-53, 659 P.2d at 11-12 (listing factors), the Arizona Supreme Court could reasonably have concluded that respondent committed the murder in an “especially heinous ... or depraved manner.”
497 U.S. at 784, 110 S.Ct. at 3104. Conspicuously, Gretzler was cited in Jeffers with regard to whether (F)(6) was adequately applied, not whether it was adequately narrowed. Jeffers’ reference to Gretzler is consistent with our interpretation; Gretzler simply “listed factors.”
Ante at 328, 916 P.2d at 1044 (emphasis added). In my view, the majority strains mightily, but unpersuasively, to reach this conclusion. By its plain language, Jeffers refers to Gretzler as “the Arizona Supreme Court’s narrowing construction” of (F)(6). Moreover, as previously quoted, the Supreme Court in Richmond v. Lewis stated again *340that Gretzler “provided an adequate narrowing construction of the ‘especially heinous, cruel or depraved’ factor. See Lewis v. Jef-fers, ... (holding that Gretzler definitions adequately narrowed (F)(6) factor); Walton v. Arizona, ... (same).” at 48, 113 S.Ct. at 535. While the majority chooses to ignore these clear and unequivocal pronouncements, as well as the Court’s parenthetical descriptions of its own holdings, the only conclusion I am able to draw is that Gretzler transformed the “heinous or depraved” standard into a constitutionally sound aggravating factor.
This court’s view of Jeffers is also clearly at odds with what the dissenters in that case thought had been decided. “The majority suggests, however, that the ‘narrowing construction’ was announced by the Arizona Supreme Court in State v. Gretzler, 135 Ariz. 42, 659 P.2d 1, cert. denied, 461 U.S. 971, 103 S.Ct. 2444, 77 L.Ed.2d 1327 (1983).” 497 U.S. at 788, 110 S.Ct. at 3104 (Blackmun, J., dissenting). The dissent disagreed with this suggestion, arguing that Gretzler had narrowed nothing and that (F)(6) was unconstitutionally vague both before and after that decision.
I am also rather surprised that the majority here seeks to bolster its position by relying on a federal district court opinion that is not binding on us and represents only the view of a single judge. Woratzeck v. Lewis, 863 F.Supp. 1079 (D.Ariz.1994) (cited favorably in Gerlaugh v. Lewis, 898 F.Supp. 1388, 1417 (D.Ariz.1995)). More importantly, it ignores the significant number of federal judges who have come to quite an opposite conclusion. In 1988, for example, eleven judges of the Ninth Circuit stated: “Thus, by offering a checklist for courts considering the (F)(6) circumstance, Gretzler appeared to be an attempt to provide a limiting construction to the (F)(6) terms and their varied definitions that would be able to withstand constitutional attack.” Adamson v. Ricketts, 865 F.2d 1011 (9th Cir.1988). The circuit court then proceeded to hold that this attempt was unsuccessful. Id. at 1032; but see Walton v. Arizona, supra (effectively abrogating Adamson). The four-judge minority in Lewis v. Jeffers, supra, felt the same way. The issue, therefore, is hardly one about which there has been agreement from the federal bench.
Finally, the majority finds “untenable the notion that Gretzler ... somehow created a new, constitutional version of (F)(6)” because Gretzler’s own sentence could not have been affirmed. Ante at 327, 916 P.2d at 1043. The argument escapes me. It is well settled that a state appellate court may cure a sentencing court’s application of a vague aggravating factor by applying an adequately narrowed construction. Richmond v. Lewis, 506 U.S. 40, 45-47, 113 S.Ct. 528, 534, 121 L.Ed.2d 411 (citing Lewis v. Jeffers, supra; Walton v. Arizona, supra). Thus, Gretzler did not need to be resentenced because this court, under its duty to independently reweigh, articulated and then applied a constitutionally narrowed (F)(6) standard.
I concur in the remainder of today’s opinion and in the final outcome.