Court Opinion

ID: 9594249
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:28:28.561556+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:59:31.296570
License: Public Domain

Justice LOHR
dissenting:
The majority concedes that the district court considered legally impermissible evidence and therefore erred in finding that one of the two aggravating factors it relied upon in arriving at a sentence of death — that the defendant committed the crime in an especially heinous, cruel, or depraveS manner— had been established. Nevertheless, the majority concludes that the error was harmless because the court would have sentenced the defendant to death even in the absence of that aggravating factor. I disagree, first because I do not believe harmless error analysis is permissible under the Colorado statutes in resolving the death penalty issue in this case, and second because even if harmless error analysis were permissible, the record falls far short of demonstrating beyond a reasonable doubt that the district court would have sentenced the defendant to death in the absence of that aggravating factor. The record also reflects other errors, detailed in the course of this dissent, that reinforce the conclusion that the death sentence does not satisfy the high standard of reliability necessary to the constitutional sufficiency of such a sentence. I therefore respectfully dissent.
I
The Colorado death penalty statute, § 16-11-103, 8A C.R.S. (1986 & 1987 Supp.),1 establishes a four-step process for deliberation by a district court when it determines whether a defendant who has pleaded guilty to a class 1 felony should be sentenced to life imprisonment or to death.2 First, the court must find whether the prosecution has proved the existence of at least one statutory aggravating factor beyond a reasonable doubt. § 16-ll-103(2)(a)(I), (3), (6); People v. Tenneson, 788 P.2d 786, 791 (Colo.1990). Second, if the court finds that at least one statutory aggravating factor exists, then the court must consider whether any mitigating factors exist. § 16 — 11—103(2)(a)(II), (3), (5). Third, the court must determine whether the prosecution has convinced it beyond a reasonable doubt that mitigating factors do not outweigh the statutory aggravating factor or factors previously found to exist. Tenneson, 788 P.2d at 795. Fourth, if the court finds beyond a reasonable doubt that mitigating factors do not outweigh the proven statutory aggravating factors, then the court must decide whether the prosecution has convinced it beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant should be sentenced to death. Id. at 796.
II
At step one in its process of deliberation, the district court found that the prosecution had established beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of two statutory aggravating factors. First, it found that the prosecution had established beyond a reasonable doubt that White “was previously convicted in this state of a class 1 ... felony involving violence as specified in section 16-11-309.” § 16 — 11— 103(6)(b). The court based this finding on certified state documents indicating that White had previously been convicted twice in Colorado of first-degree murder. Second, it found beyond a reasonable doubt that White killed in a pitiless and conscienceless manner that was unnecessarily torturous to his victim, Paul Yosika, and that therefore the prosecutor had established beyond a reasonable doubt that White “committed the offense in an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved *464manner.” § 16-11-103(6)© (hereinafter “the especially heinous killing aggravator”).3 The court based this finding on detailed findings that it made concerning events that led to the crime, the manner of killing, and the manner of disposal of the body.
At step two in its process of deliberation, the district court found numerous mitigating factors. See maj. op. at 437. Among others, these factors include that White’s capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct was significantly impaired, that White was a cocaine and alcohol addict at the time of the crime, that White believed that the killing was morally justified, that White twice stated that he feels bad about the killing, that White is compassionate concerning the living conditions imposed upon the mentally ill and other disadvantaged inmates in prison, that White does not want to die, that White has reestablished ties with the Christian church, and that White has a good relationship with his parents. See § 16 — 11—103(5)(b), (i), (j), (i).
The district court stated in its sentencing order that at step three its task was to determine whether it was “convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that ... sufficient mitigating factors do not outweigh proven statutory aggravating factors.” The court then concluded that it was “convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that all mitigating factors of record do not, beyond a reasonable doubt, outweigh proven statutory aggravating factors.”
At step four, after acknowledging certain salient mitigating factors, the district court concluded:
The intensity of defendant’s violence has resulted in two prior first-degree murder convictions for the murder of two persons. In the -present case, defendant’s violence was inflicted in a pitiless and torturous manner upon a helpless friend. The Court concludes beyond a reasonable doubt that the sentence of death is appropriate. Accordingly, the sentence of death shall be and the same is hereby imposed.
Ill
The majority holds that at step one the district court considered impermissible evidence of post-death abuse of the victim’s body and therefore erred in finding that the prosecution established beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of the especially heinous killing aggravator. Maj. op. at 448. I agree with this holding. However, following People v. Davis, 794 P.2d 159, 177-79 (Colo.1990), the majority explains that the federal constitution does not necessarily require the reversal of a death sentence if a state appellate court finds that the sentencing body considered impermissible evidence in the course of concluding that the prosecution established the existence of a statutory aggravating factor. Maj. op. at 448; Davis, 794 P.2d at 177. Instead, under Davis, an appellate court has three other alternatives. Davis, 794 P.2d at 179. First, it may reweigh the aggravators and mitigators and determine whether a sentence of death is appropriate. Second, it may apply a form of harmless error analysis in which the issue is whether the sentencing body would have imposed the death sentence even if the sentencing body had not considered the invalid aggravator. Third, if the sentencing body labored under an unconstitutionally broad interpretation of an aggravator, then the appellate court may apply a second form of harmless error analysis in which the issue is whether beyond a reasonable doubt the sentencing body would have imposed the death sentence if it had deliberated under a constitutionally permissible interpretation of the aggravator. Id.
*465The majority relies on the second of these three alternatives, finding beyond a reasonable doubt that the district court would have imposed the death sentence even if it had not considered the especially heinous killing ag-gravator. Maj. op. at 452. I disagree with the majority’s resolution of this issue because, unlike the federal constitution, Colorado statutes do not permit this form of harmless error analysis in death penalty cases. See infra part IV A. More important, perhaps, is that even if harmless error analysis were permissible, the record falls far short of demonstrating beyond a reasonable doubt that the district court would have sentenced the defendant to death in the absence of considering the especially heinous killing ag-gravator. See infra part IV B. Nor does the record demonstrate that the district court would have found the existence of the especially heinous killing aggravator, and imposed the death sentence, if it had not considered evidence of post-death abuse of the body, or if it had not improperly excluded evidence offered by the defendant to disprove the existence of the especially heinous killing aggravator. See infra part IV C.
IV
A
In noncapital cases, sentencing is the province of the trial court, not of an appellate tribunal. People v. Fuller, 791 P.2d 702, 708 (Colo.1990). The premise for this assignment of function is that “the trial court is a better arbiter of the facts than the appellate court because of its greater familiarity with the defendant and the facts of the ease.” People v. Watkins, 684 P.2d 234, 239 (Colo.1984); cf. United States v. Cruz, 581 F.2d 535, 541 (5th Cir.1978) (“The trial judge has observed the appearance and demeanor of the witnesses and heard their voices; he has breathed in the atmosphere of the courtroom and observed the multitudinous details that do not appear on the record. We see but the insentient notations on a typed manuscript.”) (overruled on an unrelated ground by United States v. Causey, 834 F.2d 1179, 1184 (5th Cir.1987) (en banc)).4 Nevertheless, even in a noncapital ease, an appellate court must vacate a sentence if it is not within the range required by law or if it was based on inappropriate considerations. See Fuller, 791 P.2d at 708. In capital eases sentencing is also the province of the judge or jury, each of which has observed the presentation of the evidence and therefore is better able than an appellate court to determine the facts relevant to sentencing. § 16-ll-103(l)(a). In addition, it seems all the more appropriate in a capital case that an appellate court recognize that the images it forms of a defendant and witnesses are the same types of images that are formed when reading a novel or a play and that such images are untrustworthy substitutes for direct perceptions regardless of the power of the appellate court’s imagination or the depth of its moral conviction. Cf. Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 264, 269, 90 S.Ct. 1011, 1018, 1021, 25 L.Ed.2d 287 (1970) (a preliminary fact finding hearing based solely on written submissions is insufficient for procedural due process when an incorrect result might deprive an eligible welfare recipient of “the very means by which to live” while he awaits a full evidentiary hearing). Similarly, a district court’s written findings can but imperfectly impart the difficult thought processes that have caused the judge to make the statutorily required determinations in a capital sentencing proceeding. Cf. Davis, 794 P.2d at 231 (Kirshbaum, J., dissenting) (finding untenable the view that this court can accurately psychoanalyze the state of mind of the sentencing body). Capital sentencing is therefore uniquely the province of the trier of fact, who is required in Colorado by statute to weigh in the balance the character of the defendant and to make the difficult moral judgment of whether a death sentence is warranted. § 16-11-103(2), (3), 8A C.R.S. (1986). Perhaps for these reasons, Colorado’s death penalty statute, § 16 — 11— 103, 8A C.R.S. (1986), in my opinion, does not contemplate this court weighing “redefined aggravating factors and mitigating factors for the first time on appeal.” People v. *466Rodriguez, 794 P.2d 965, 1000 (Colo.1990) (Lohr, J., dissenting); see id. at 1005 (Kirsh-baum, J., dissenting) (“any appellate reweighing of evidence is beyond the appellate authority of this court, especially in capital cases, where the General Assembly has carefully allocated to the factfinder the sole authority to impose a sentence of death”). Nor does section 16-11-103 authorize this court to speculate about what the sentencing body would have decided if the form of its deliberation had not been contrary to the law. Cf. Charles Alan Wright, The Doubtful Omniscience of Appellate Courts, 41 Minn.L.Rev. 751, 751 (1957) (admonishing appellate courts for attempting to obtain “complete control of litigation” by “the transmutation of specific circumstances into questions of law”). In short, Colorado statutes and sound judicial policy do not permit the kind of appellate reweighing of mitigating and aggravating factors that is essential to the harmless error analysis relied upon by the majority. Rodriguez, 794 P.2d at 1000 (Lohr, J., dissenting); Davis, 794 P.2d at 225 (Lohr, J., dissenting); id. at 230-31 (Kirshbaum, J., dissenting).
B
Even if harmless error analysis were permissible, consideration of the district court’s reasoning at steps three and four leads me to the conclusion that the death sentence cannot stand in this case. First, the district court’s account of its reasoning at step three consists entirely of the following:
The Court has considered not only the mitigating factors listed above but all mitigation of record and has weighed these factors against only the proven statutory aggravating factors [i.e., the especially heinous killing aggravator and the fact that White was twice previously convicted in Colorado of class 1 felonies involving violence] and no others.
The Court, having considered the matter as required by law, is convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that all mitigating factors of record do not, beyond a reasonable doubt, outweigh proven statutory aggravating factors.
The district court provides no account of how it weighed the two aggravating factors against the mitigating factors that it found, nor in particular does it suggest that either aggravating factor is by itself sufficient to outweigh all of the mitigating factors. The only thing that I can conclude from this beyond a reasonable doubt is that there is no principled way to determine what the district court would have done at step three if it had not weighed the especially heinous killing aggravator. Cf. Davis, P.2d at 222 (Quinn, C.J., dissenting) (a conclusion about what the sentencing body would have done if it had considered an aggravating factor difi ferently is nothing but a guess); Tenneson, 788 P.2d at 791-92 (there is a special need for reliability and certainty in capital sentencing decisions because the death penalty is uniquely severe and final).
Second, speculation in fact about what the district court would have done at step three is made more difficult because the court appeared twice to confuse, or gt least to treat carelessly, the legal standard to be applied at step three when weighing mitigating and aggravating factors. See maj. op. at 437-442 (finding it necessary to presume that the district court applied the correct legal standard). That is, in its written sentencing order and in its oral summary thereof, the court summarized its conclusion at step three by characterizing the issue as whether, beyond a reasonable doubt, the mitigating factors outweighed the aggravating factors, instead of whether, beyond a reasonable doubt, the mitigating factors did not outweigh the aggravating factors.5 Although subtle in terms of language, the difference between these formulations is conceptually important because under the proper standard if there is reasonable doubt about whether the mitigating factors outweigh the aggravating factors, then the court must impose life imprisonment, whereas under the improper standard, *467if there is reasonable doubt about whether the mitigating factors outweigh the aggravating factors, then the court may still impose the death sentence.
My doubts multiply when I consider step four of the process. After referring to some of the mitigating factors, the district court summarized its conclusion at step four as follows:
The intensity of defendant’s violence has resulted in two prior first-degree murder convictions for the murder of two persons. In the present case, defendant’s violence was inflicted in a pitiless and torturous manner upon a helpless friend. The Court concludes beyond a reasonable doubt that the sentence of death is appropriate.
According to the district court, there are thus two factors from which it concluded at step four that the death sentence is appropriate, specifically, that White killed his friend in a pitiless and torturous, i.e., especially heinous, cruel, or depraved, manner and that White was previously convicted twice of first-degree murder. The district court does not attempt to explain the relative weight of these two factors, and in the absence of any explanation the court’s language suggests to me as much as it does anything else that the court thought that they were roughly of equal importance. Based on this review of step four alone, I am unable to say with the majority that beyond a reasonable doubt the district court would have imposed the death sentence absent consideration of the especially heinous killing aggravator. When I reflect on this conclusion together with those additional uncertainties that I previously identified as pertaining to step three of the process, see supra pp. 466^467, this is especially true.6
C
The majority relies upon the second of the three alternative forms of appellate review described in Davis, 794 P.2d at 179. See supra p. 464. Another approach that suggests itself would be to rely on the third of these three alternatives, and accordingly to ask whether the district court would have found at step one the existence of the especially heinous killing aggravator, and that the death sentence was appropriate at steps three and four, if it had not considered as relevant the post-death abuse of the body. Before addressing this alternative approach, I reiterate my view that Colorado statutes do not permit any of the three forms of appellate review described in Davis, 794 P.2d at 179. See supra part IV A. Even if such review were permissible, however, not only is it unclear from the record whether the district court would have found the existence of the especially heinous killing aggravator if it had not relied at step one on evidence of post-death abuse of the body, but the district court erred as a matter of constitutional law by excluding evidence offered by the defendant to disprove the existence of that aggra-vator. The effect that this exclusion of evidence had upon the district court’s reasoning *468is uncertain not only at step one, but at steps three and four as well.
The court summarized its conclusion at step one as follows:
Defendant, subsequent to this murder, demonstrated a complete indifference to the humaneness and to the sanctity of life of his former friend by brutally striking, in a rage, the face of Paul Vosika’s corpse. The method used to kill Paul Vosika, along with the acts of striking and then dismembering the body, reflect beyond a reasonable doubt conscientiousless [sic] and pitilessness that can only be explained beyond a reasonable doubt by White’s satisfaction in the act of killing in a manner “unnecessarily torturous” to Vosika.
(Emphasis added.) It is therefore doubtful whether the court would have found the especially heinous killing aggravator to have been established had it not considered the post-death abuse of the body. Furthermore, the post-death abuse of the body was well established at the sentencing hearing on the basis of physical evidence, whereas evidence in the record of the specific manner that Vosika was killed consists entirely of White’s contradictory statements,7 and it appeared that White had a motive to exaggerate the cruelty of his killing.8 It is thus not unreasonable to believe that the physical evidence of the post-death abuse of the body was an essential part of the basis for the district court’s findings at step one. Cf. the dissenting opinion of Justice Mullarkey at 459-461, *469further detailing the district court’s emphasis of this evidence in arriving at the sentence of death.
Also of importance, the district court improperly excluded evidence that, based on the offer of proof made by defense counsel, cast doubt on the specific version of the killing accepted by the court as reliable beyond a reasonable doubt. That is, the trial court found beyond a reasonable doubt that White murdered Paul Vosika in the garage of White’s apartment at 119 Bonnymede in Pueblo and that “the best estimate as to the date of Paul Vosika’s murder [was] August 17, 1987.” Defense counsel sought at the sentencing hearing to present testimony from, among others, three persons named Jim Crane, Mike Steele, and Francis Steele. Defense counsel stated in his offer of proof that Jim Crane, who was White’s landlord at 119 Bonnymede, would testify that White moved out of 119 Bonnymede in early October of 1987; defense counsel also stated that Mike and Francis Steele would testify that White and Paul Vosika came to their house in Rye, Colorado, in late October or early November of 1987. This testimony was offered to show that Vosika was not killed before late October and that because Vosika was seen alive after White moved out of 119 Bonnymede, White’s confession to Spinuzzi, see supra note 7, of the manner in which White killed Vosika in his garage at 119 Bonnymede was not credible. The court excluded testimony from these witnesses on the ground that their testimony was relevant only to the issue of guilt and not to the issue of sentencing and that the issue of guilt had already been decided at the providency hearing.
The federal constitution requires that capital sentencing statutes permit the sentencing body to consider any relevant mitigating evidence regarding the circumstances of the offense. Boyde v. California, 494 U.S. 370, 377-78, 110 S.Ct. 1190, 1196-97, 108 L.Ed.2d 316 (1990); Penry v. Lynaugh, 492 U.S. 302, 315-19, 109 S.Ct. 2934, 2944-47, 106 L.Ed.2d 256 (1989). In addition, section 16 — 11— 103(l)(b), 8A C.R.S. (1986), provides:
All admissible evidence presented by ... the defendant that the court deems relevant to the nature of the crime, ... including any evidence presented in the guilt phase of the trial, and any matters relating to any of the aggravating or mitigating factors ... may be presented.
Id. (emphasis added).
Evidence of the circumstances surrounding the death of Paul Vosika relates directly to the existence of the especially heinous killing aggravator. Based upon the offer of proof made by defense counsel, the excluded testimony would have cast doubt on the credibility of the version of the murder found by the district court to be “very credible,” and upon which the court relied when it made specific findings concerning the manner in which Paul Vosika was killed. The court therefore misconceived the relevance of the proffered testimony as relating only to the issue of guilt and not also to a central issue at step one in its sentencing deliberations, specifically, whether the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that White murdered Vosi-ka in a conscienceless or pitiless manner that was unnecessarily torturous to Paul Vosika. Unlike the majority, see maj. op. at 455, I would therefore hold that the district court erred under both the state and federal constitutions, as well as section 16 — 11—103(l)(b), 8A C.R.S. (1986), when it excluded evidence relevant to disproving the existence of a statutory aggravating factor.9
*470In short, based upon the district court’s summary of its reasoning at step one of the deliberative process, and the lack of relevant physical evidence, it is doubtful whether the court would have found the especially heinous killing aggravator had been established if it had not considered the post-death abuse of the body. Moreover, the court unconstitutionally excluded evidence casting doubt upon the existence of that aggravator. Finally, had the scope of that aggravator been narrowed by elimination of consideration of the post-death abuse of the body, the effect this would have had upon the district court’s weighing of aggravators and mitigators at step three and its ultimate determination of the appropriateness of the death penalty at step four is purely conjectural. As a result, I cannot say beyond a reasonable doubt that the district court would have found the existence of the especially heinous killing aggra-vator, and imposed the death sentence, if it had not relied upon evidence of the post-death abuse of the body, or if it had not improperly excluded relevant evidence.
V
Section 16 — 11—103(8)(b), 8A C.R.S. (1986), provides:
If any death sentence is imposed upon a defendant pursuant to the provisions of this section and the imposition of such death sentence upon such defendant is held invalid or unconstitutional, said defendant shall be returned to the trial court and shall then be sentenced to life imprisonment.
The district court erred under the state and federal constitutions, as well as section 16-11 — 103(l)(b), 8A C.R.S. (1986), when it excluded relevant evidence, and it erred under section 16-11-103(6), 8A C.R.S. (1986 & 1987 Supp.), when it considered post-death abuse of the body as a ground for finding the existence of the especially heinous killing ag-gravator. Colorado’s death penalty statutes do not permit us to consider whether these errors were harmless, and even if they did, I am not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the district court would have imposed the death sentence if it had not committed these errors. I would therefore reverse the judgment of the district court and order that the case be remanded to that court with directions that the defendant be sentenced to life imprisonment.

. Because the victim, Paul Vosika, was murdered sometime between August of 1987 and March of 1988, the applicable death penalty statute for this case is § 16-11-103 as amended by an Act approved April 30, 1987, ch. 120, sec. 1, 1987 Colo.Sess.Laws 625. This 1987 Act amended § 16-11-103 by inserting into § 16-11-103(6)(g) the words "or attempted to commit.” The application or interpretation of § 16 — 11—103(6)(g) is not an issue in this case, and thus for all practical purposes the applicable death penalty statute in this case is § 16-11-103, 8A C.R.S. (1986).

. When a defendant’s guilt is found by a jury, the trial jury, and not the court, determines the appropriate sentence during the penalty phase of the trial by following the same four-step process. See § 16 — 11—103(l)(a).

. In People v. Davis, 794 P.2d 159 (Colo.1990), we held that the language in § 16 — 11—103(6)(j) that an aggravator exists if the offense was committed in "an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner,” is unconstitutionally vague, but that if this language is more narrowly interpreted to mean that the offense was committed in a " 'conscienceless or pitiless’ manner which was 'unnecessarily torturous to the victim,' ” then this language expresses a constitutionally permissible aggravator. Davis, 794 P.2d at 176-77. It is in light of Davis that the district court considered whether the murder was committed in a conscienceless or pitiless and unnecessarily torturous manner when it decided that the prosecution had established the existence of the especially heinous killing aggravator.

. Appellate courts in Colorado do not have the authority to engage in fact finding. E.g., People in re D.G.P., 194 Colo. 238, 242, 570 P.2d 1293, 1295 (1977); Godfrey v. People, 168 Colo. 299, 301, 451 P.2d 291, 292 (1969).

. As previously indicated, the court wrote: "The Court, having considered the matter as required by law, is convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that all mitigating factors of record do not, beyond a reasonable doubt, outweigh proven statutory aggravating factors.” From the bench, the court explained: "I'm convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that all mitigating factors of record do not beyond a reasonable doubt outweigh proven aggravating factors.”

. In an address delivered at the University of Chicago Law School on October 3, 1961, then Associate Justice Roger J. Traynor of the California Supreme Court described generally the difficulty in determining harmless error:
It is more difficult by far to determine whether error is prejudicial than to determine whether evidence is substantial. Once in a while there are fortunately signs to go by. Thus comments or written opinions by a trial judge may reveal the influence of error upon him. Likewise, grossly excessive or inadequate damages may suggest the influence of error upon a jury; conversely, a jury's answer to a special interrogatory may reveal that an error was harmless.
For the most part, however, even with the whole record at hand, an appellate judge has no record of whatever influence error may have exercised on the mental processes of the trier of fact, and he cannot pry open a mind, let alone visualize its past operations. He has nevertheless a responsibility to bring intuition and reasoning to bear on the elusive problem of influence. Were he to shirk doing so, simply affirming any result that he can approve as a reasonable one, he would in effect constitute himself the trier of fact and irrationally attribute to the legitimate trier of fact his own freedom from the influence of the now known error. In thus making his own trial run of the record, instead of undertaking the complex evaluation of what influence error wielded in the original trial run, he might discount error automatically as harmless that on searching reflection he would have adjudged prejudicial.
Roger J. Traynor, La Rude Vita, La Dolce Giusti-zia; or Hard Cases Can Make Good Law, 29 U.Chi.L.Rev. 223, 227-28 (1962) (footnote omitted).

. Shortly after the victim's body was discovered and identified, White stated that a person named Bill Young was implicated in the killing. Approximately eighteen months later, White told a correctional officer named Frank Perko that White alone was responsible for the killing and that the killing took place in Cheyenne, Wyoming. A month later White told Roger Gomez of the Pueblo County Sheriff's Department a similar story. A month later White told Richard Avery, who was then an undersheriff investigating the case, that White and Bill Young committed the murder in the garage of White's apartment at 119 Bonnymede in Pueblo. A month later White told Tony Spinuzzi of the Pueblo County Sheriff's Department that White alone committed the murder in White's garage at 119 Bonnymede. Thereafter, White wrote to the district attorney and told him that the murder really took place behind White's girlfriend's house. At the sentencing hearing, White intimated that the killing took place in Wyoming.
Richard Avery testified at the sentencing hearing that he knew of no physical evidence that connected White to the murder. Roger Gomez was asked directly at the sentencing hearing if he had a clear picture of how or where Paul Vosika died, and he answered "I believe Mr. White, the many times I've spoken to him, that he in fact did kill Paul Vosika. Where he did or where he didn’t ... I can't indicate one way or the other on that.”
It is also somewhat puzzling that although the district court singled out as “very credible” White's interview with Spinuzzi in which White says he killed Vosika in the garage of White’s apartment at 119 Bonnymede in Pueblo, when the court concluded in its written order that the existence of the especially heinous killing aggra-vator had been established, the only quotation from White included as support for that conclusion was White's statement to Gomez that White took satisfaction in taunting Vosika before White shot Vosika near a trucking company in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Furthermore, during the Spi-nuzzi interview, Spinuzzi told White: "You are the most manipulating person I ever met in my life.... You tell so many lies you don’t know when the truth is coming out,” and "on a zero to ten scale” of credibility "[your credibility is] minus forty.”

. During his interview with Avery, White said that he had lied to Gomez in part because "I want to stick with the death penalty. I wanted [to] make it look like I didn't have no conscience], you know.” Approximately one month later White told Spinuzzi that White wanted to go to death row because "I can't live a [Christian life being anywhere else. Death row, you[']r[e] alone you can stay upon there and get your mind right, piece [sic] of mind. In here no matter where you[']r[e] at in the hole, you have to go to war with people." Then, in letter to his parents, White wrote:
You probably heard that they were going for the death penalty. I think that[']s good. Not dying, but if the only way to expose the corruption here is to take that route then it is worth it.... When I confessed I had two motives. One was to get somewhere to do my time without having to kill or be killed and I could have some incentive. If I couldn't have that I wanted to make sure I got the death penalty because I know that[']s the only possible way to get the truth out. You know some of the things that go on here I can prove how outrage[ou]s it is. I’m not crying about being in prison. I deserve to be here and I can handle it better than most but ■ I can’t handle the corruption and felonies I see committed against myself and other inmates .... I also wrote some mock confessions to make it sound like I was very unsensitive [sic] so that if they went for the death penalty I would get it.

. Boyde, 494 U.S. at 381-82, 110 S.Ct. at 1198-99, and Penry, 492 U.S. at 315-19, 109 S.Ct. at 2944-47, discuss evidence of mitigating circumstances. The evidence at issue here relates to the existence of a statutory aggravating factor. Nevertheless, it is clear that evidence that casts doubt upon the existence of a statutory aggravating factor at step one of the Colorado process is one form of mitigating evidence, and its exclusion is therefore prohibited by the federal constitution just as though it were evidence tending to establish an independent mitigating factor at step two. In addition, the state constitution is no less protective of the rights of criminal defendants in capital cases than is the federal constitution. E.g., Tenneson, 788 P.2d at 799 ("Both the United States and Colorado constitutions require that a defendant be permitted to submit evidence regarding any aspect of the defendant's character and any circumstances of the offense as a basis for mitigation.")