Court Opinion

ID: 9740123
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:28:36.650412+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:16.365503
License: Public Domain

DeBRULER, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
Article VII of the Indiana Constitution and I.C. 35-50-2-9(h) govern the Indiana death sentencing hearing by imposing on this Court the distinct duty to review a sentence of death and determine whether it is appropriate to the offender and his crime. Van Cleave v. State (1987), Ind., 517 N.E.2d 356; Vandiver v. State (1985), Ind., 480 N.E.2d 910. This review includes an examination of the interpretation and application of the criteria set forth in the death sentence statute as revealed by the entire record of trial court proceedings, to include the manner in which the judge evaluated possible mitigating factors pointed out in argument and the manner in which the judge assessed the relative weight of such factors. Thompson v. State (1986), Ind., 492 N.E.2d 264; Van Cleave v. State (1987), Ind., 517 N.E.2d 356.
In summation before the judge, defense counsel argued that appellant's "ability to conform his conduct to the law [sic]} impaired as the result of intoxication or any intoxicant," was a mitigating factor. For the purpose of the sentence, the judge considered the presentence report which recorded at least seven juvenile dispositions and adult convictions involving the use and abuse of drugs and alcohol. The probation officer who prepared the presentence re*547port indicated heavy drug use in his comments upon the evaluation sheet in the report and, when testifying at the sentencing hearing before the judge, mentioned appellant's use of drugs and alcohol. The judge and jury heard appellant's accomplice testify at trial that in the hours before the killing the two smoked several marijuana cigarettes and drank whiskey. The record, including probation reports, chronicles a pattern of his use and abuse of drugs and alcohol from the age of fourteen until he killed at the age of eighteen. His father was an abusive alcoholic prone to physical violence towards others. The court considered appellant's past record of arrests and convictions for drug and alcohol abuse for the purpose of determining whether the mitigator of "no significant history of prior criminal conduct" was present, 1.C. 35-50-2-9(c)(1), but gave no mitigating force to the arrests and convictions as evidence of appellant's impaired capacity to "appreciate the criminality of his conduct" or to "conform his conduct to the requirements of the law," 1.0. 35-50-2-9(c)(6), (8), concluding only that appellant's age and relative inexperience were entitled to mitigating weight. Based upon this record, I find a substantial possibility that appellant suffered an impaired capacity when he killed, which stemmed from his lengthy and constant use of drugs and alcohol as he was growing and developing. Therefore, I also find that there is a substantial risk that the death sentence will be wrongly carried out here. I would therefore concur in affirming the conviction, but remand for a new sentencing hearing before the court.