Court Opinion

ID: 9790979
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:02:32.477654+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:32.992720
License: Public Domain

WALTERS, Justice (specially concurring). I concur in all portions of the majority opinion except Point III B. I believe the Court of Appeals was correct in State v. Gallegos, and that the 1982 addition to the Use Note referred to by the majority was improvidently approved. The jury’s obligation to render a true verdict should be fulfilled without concern for the consequences of the verdict. Either UJI Crim. 50.06 ought to be given, as promulgated, in all cases without elaboration, or not in any. As amended, the Use Note for UJI Crim. 50.06 still forbids a jury to know that death may be the penalty for one accused and convicted in a capital murder case, thus properly anesthetizing any feelings of sympathy or of guilty conscience that might influence its deliberations if it were aware that death would result from a verdict of guilty; but it permits advising a jury when death will not be sought as the penalty, thereby tacitly encouraging a guilty verdict because the conscience-cleansing instruction informs the jury that, even if it finds defendant guilty, it will not have had a role in putting defendant to death. Such subtle pressures on a jury’s verdict are improper and should not be condoned.