Court Opinion

ID: 9576596
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:26:11.344534+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:10:13.267277
License: Public Domain

KENNARD, J., Concurring and Dissenting.
The Eighth Amendment to the federal Constitution does not bar consideration of a victim’s personal characteristics to determine penalty in a capital case, but evidence and argument on this subject must be authorized by statute. Penal Code section 190.3 (hereafter section 190.3), a part of our voter-enacted death penalty law, lists those matters that the trier of penalty “shall consider” in deciding whether to return a verdict of death. In People v. Edwards (1991) 54 Cal.3d 787 [1 Cal.Rptr.2d 696, 819 P.2d 436], this court purported to hold that the section 190.3 factor for “circumstances of the crime” generally encompasses the victim’s personal characteristics and the emotional impact of the capital *258crimes on the victim’s family. Because the facts of the case did not present the issue, I did not join that part of the majority opinion. (Id. at pp. 849-850 (conc. opn. of Kennard, J.).)
This case does present an issue regarding the propriety of a prosecutor’s comments during penalty phase argument about a murder victim’s personal characteristics that were unknown to the defendant. Although the comments were an insignificant part of the prosecutor’s overall argument, the propriety of the comments should be addressed and determined.
The majority concludes that the prosecutor committed no misconduct during argument to the jury at the penalty phase by referring to details of murder victim Sam Allessi’s personal life and to the physical and emotional suffering of robbery victim Trudy Allessi. As I shall explain, the prosecutor remained within statutory bounds when he referred to Trudy Allessi’s suffering and to facts about Sam Allessi that were revealed during proof of the events constituting defendant’s heinous crimes, but the prosecutor exceeded those statutory bounds when he referred to facts about Sam Allessi that defendant could not have known and that were not properly adduced in proof of guilt. The impropriety does not require reversal of the judgment of death, however, because there is no reasonable possibility that the prosecutor’s brief and mild comments influenced the penalty verdict. Thus, I concur in the affirmance of the judgment imposing the penalty of death.
I
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment, imposes limits on the scope of evidence and jury argument in death penalty cases. The Eighth Amendment does not, however, bar evidence of or argument on the personal characteristics of the victim of the capital crime, whether or not those characteristics were known to the defendant at the time of the crime. Nor does it bar evidence or argument concerning the emotional impact of the crimes on members of the victim’s family. The United States Supreme Court has held that these matters demonstrate “the specific harm” caused by the defendant’s capital crimes, and that this in turn is a legitimate sentencing consideration under the Eighth Amendment. (Payne v. Tennessee (1991) 501 U.S. _ [115 L.Ed. 720, 736, 111 S.Ct. 2597, 2609] (hereafter Payne).)
California’s death penalty law, however, limits the scope of evidence and jury argument in a manner independent of the limits imposed by the Eighth Amendment to the federal Constitution. Under our state law, the prosecutor’s case in aggravation is confined to the factors listed in Penal Code section 190.3. (People v. Boyd (1985) 38 Cal.3d 762, 775 [215 Cal.Rptr. 1, 700 P.2d *259782].) This provision does not expressly list the specific harm caused by the crime, the victim’s personal characteristics, or the emotional impact of the capital crimes on the victim’s family. Under our state law, therefore, the jury may consider these matters in making its penalty determination only if they fall within the ambit of one of the listed factors.
The issue presented is one of statutory construction: Does the term “circumstances of the crime” as used in factor (a) of section 190.3 include personal characteristics of the victim that were not known or reasonably apparent to the defendant at the time of the capital offense and that were not properly adduced in proof of guilt? In construing a statute, a court’s objective is to ascertain and effectuate legislative intent. (People v. Woodhead (1987) 43 Cal.3d 1002, 1007 [239 Cal.Rptr. 656, 741 P.2d 154].) To determine that intent, a court begins with the words of the statute (Reiter v. Sonotone Corp. (1979) 442 U.S. 330, 337 [60 L.Ed.2d 931, 936, 99 S.Ct. 2326]), giving them their “usual, ordinary, and common sense meaning” (In re Rojas (1979) 23 Cal.3d 152, 155 [151 Cal.Rptr. 649, 588 P.2d 789]; see also Kimmel v. Goland (1990) 51 Cal.3d 202, 208-209 [271 Cal.Rptr. 191, 793 P.2d 524]; City of Santa Cruz v. Municipal Court (1989) 49 Cal.3d 74, 90 [260 Cal.Rptr. 520, 776 P.2d 222]).
The first step, therefore, is to decide whether the usual and ordinary meaning of “circumstances of the crime” includes within it the personal characteristics of the victim. In performing this task, it is helpful to review certain decisions of the United States Supreme Court. Although the high court’s understanding of the phrase “circumstances of the crime” does not provide an authoritative construction of our state statute, it is persuasive on what the words are commonly understood to mean in the context of a capital sentencing scheme.
In Booth v. Maryland (1987) 482 U.S. 496 [96 L.Ed.2d 440, 107 S.Ct. 2529], the defendant was sentenced to death for murdering an elderly couple. At the penalty phase the prosecution had introduced a “victim impact statement” that included evidence of the victims’ personal characteristics and the emotional impact of the crimes on the victims’ family. The United States Supreme Court granted review to determine whether the Eighth Amendment to the federal Constitution prohibited a capital sentencing jury from considering such evidence. The court began its analysis by noting that the penalty decision in a capital case required an individualized determination “based on ‘the character of the individual and the circumstances of the crime.' ” (Id. at p. 502 [96 L.Ed.2d at p. 448], italics added.) The state argued that “the emotional trauma suffered by the family and the personal characteristics of the victims . . . should be considered a ‘circumstance’ of the crime . . . .” (Id. at p. 503 [96 L.Ed.2d at p. 448].) The high court rejected this argument, *260holding that in a particular case this evidence might be “wholly unrelated to the blameworthiness of a particular defendant” and “could divert the jury’s attention away from the defendant’s background and record, and the circumstances of the crime." (Id. at pp. 504-505 [96 L.Ed.2d at pp. 449-450], italics added.) In a footnote, the court stated: “Our disapproval of victim impact statements at the sentencing phase of a capital case does not mean, however, that this type of information will never be relevant in any context. Similar types of information may well be admissible because they relate directly to the circumstances of the crime.” (Id. at p. 507, fn. 10 [96 L.Ed.2d at p. 451].)
Thus, a majority of the United States Supreme Court considered it self-evident that the words “circumstances of the crime” generally did not include evidence relating to the personal characteristics of a murder victim and the emotional impact of the crimes on the victim’s family, although such evidence might be so included in a particular case.
In South Carolina v. Gathers (1989) 490 U.S. 805 [104 L.Ed.2d 876, 109 S.Ct. 2207], the defendant killed the victim in a public park and scattered his belongings on the ground. During argument at the penalty phase, the prosecutor read a religious tract that had been found near the victim’s body, using the tract to illustrate the victim’s personal characteristics. The high court noted that its decision in Booth v. Maryland, supra, 482 U.S. 496, had left open the possibility that “the kind of information contained in victim impact statements could be admissible if it ‘relate[d] directly to the circumstances of the crime.’ ” (South Carolina v. Gathers, supra, 490 U.S. at p. 811 [104 L.Ed.2d at p. 883].) But the court concluded that the contents of the tract “cannot be said to relate directly to the circumstances of the crime” because there was no evidence the defendant had read it and it was “extremely unlikely” he had done so. (Id. at pp. 811-812 [104 L.Ed.2d at p. 883].) A majority of the high court thus held again that the term “circumstances of the crime” did not include personal characteristics of the victim that were unknown to the defendant at the time of the crime.
The United States Supreme Court overruled these two decisions in Payne, supra, 501 U.S__[115 L.Ed.2d 720, 111 S.Ct. 2597]. But the court did not retract its earlier conclusions about what did and did not constitute “circumstances of the crime.” Instead, the court rejected the more fundamental premises of its earlier decisions about what the Eighth Amendment permitted as penalty considerations in a capital case. The court concluded that the “harm caused by the crime” was a constitutionally valid sentencing consideration even when the harm resulted from circumstances unknown to the defendant at the time of the crime. The court concluded that victim impact evidence was “simply another form or method of informing the sentencing authority about the specific harm caused by the crime in question,” and *261therefore the Eighth Amendment did not bar its use. (Id. at p. _ [115 L.Ed.2d at pp. 735-736, 111 S.Ct. at pp. 2608-2609].)
In the course of its analysis, the high court said that the prosecution had a legitimate interest in presenting evidence about the victim’s personal characteristics to counteract similar evidence about the defendant. To illustrate the potential unfairness that would result if evidence about the victim were barred, the court noted that the defendant in the case it was reviewing had presented evidence about himself: “The capital sentencing jury heard testimony from Payne’s girlfriend that they met at church, that he was affectionate, caring, kind to her children, that he was not an abuser of drugs or alcohol, and that it was inconsistent with his character to have committed the murders. Payne’s parents testified that he was a good son, and a clinical psychologist testified that Payne was an extremely polite prisoner and suffered from a low IQ.” (Payne, supra, 501 U.S____[115 L.Ed.2d 720, 735-736, 111 S.Ct. 2597, 2608-2609].) The court observed: “None of this testimony was related to the circumstances of Payne’s brutal crimes.” (Id. at p. _ [115 L.Ed.2d 736, 111 S.Ct. at p. 2609].)
Nothing in Payne, supra, 501 U.S__[115 L.Ed.2d 720, 111 S.Ct. 2597], suggests that the plain meaning of “circumstances of the crime,” as used in a capital sentencing scheme, generally encompasses evidence of either the victim’s personal characteristics or the emotional impact of the crimes on the victim’s family. To the contrary, the United States Supreme Court studiously avoided taking issue with this aspect of the decisions it overruled, and its statement that the defendant’s personal characteristics were not related to the circumstances of the crime clearly implies that the victim’s personal characteristics were also unrelated. Rather than including victim impact as a “circumstance of the crime,” the high court in Payne expanded from two to three the number of considerations permissible for capital sentencing under the Eighth Amendment. Previously a death sentence might be based only on the defendant’s character and background and the circumstances of the crime, but after Payne it might be based also on the specific harm caused by the crime.
In People v. Edwards, supra, 54 Cal.3d 787, the majority did not consider this compelling evidence that the phrase “circumstances of the crime” as used in a capital sentencing scheme does not encompass personal characteristics of the victim that were unknown to the defendant. Instead, the majority relied primarily on a dictionary definition of the word “circumstance” as meaning “ ‘[t]hat which surrounds materially, morally, or logically.’ ” (Id. at p. 833, quoting 3 Oxford English Dict. (2d ed. 1989) p. 240, “circumstance,” first definition.) The majority concluded that the specific harm caused by the crime surrounds it “materially, morally, or logically,” and therefore is a *262“circumstance of the crime” within the meaning of that phrase in section 190.3.
Other accepted definitions are somewhat narrower than the one on which the majority relied. For example, a legal dictionary defines “circumstances” as “[ajttendant or accompanying facts, events, or conditions.” (Black’s Law Dict. (6th ed. 1990) p. 243.) A federal court has defined “circumstances” as “ ‘facts or things standing around or about some central fact.’ ” (State of Maryland v. United States (4th Cir. 1947) 165 F.2d 869, 871 [1 A.L.R.2d 213].) And a state court has defined “circumstances of the offense” as “ ‘the minor or attendant facts or conditions which have legitimate bearing on the major fact charged.’ ” (Commonwealth v. Carr (Ct.App. 1950) 312 Ky. 393, 395 [227 S.W.2d 904, 905].)
But courts must construe statutory language in context, not in isolation; they must harmonize related provisions and avoid any interpretation that makes some words unnecessary or redundant. (Dyna-Med, Inc. v. Fair Employment & Housing Com. (1987) 43 Cal.3d 1379, 1387 [241 Cal.Rptr. 67, 743 P.2d 1323].) When a statute contains a list or catalog of items, a court determines the meaning of each by reference to the others, giving preference to an interpretation that makes the items similar in nature and scope.1 (See People v. Rogers (1971) 5 Cal.3d 129, 142 [95 Cal.Rptr. 601, 486 P.2d 129]; Armenta v. Churchill (1954) 42 Cal.2d 448, 454 [267 P.2d 303]; People v. Thomas (1945) 25 Cal.2d 880, 899-900 [156 P.2d 7]; Treasure I. C. Co. v. St. Bd. of Equal. (1941) 19 Cal.2d 181, 188 [120 P.2d 1].) Thus, a court will adopt a restrictive meaning of a listed item if acceptance of a more expansive meaning would make other items in the list unnecessary or redundant or would otherwise make the item markedly dissimilar to the other items in the list. (See Harris v. Capital Growth Investors XIV (1991) 52 Cal.3d 1142, 1159-1160 [278 Cal.Rptr. 614, 805 P.2d 873]; Peralta Community College Dist. v. Fair Employment & Housing Com. (1990) 52 Cal.3d 40, 50 [276 Cal.Rptr. 114, 801 P.2d 357]; Dyna-Med, Inc. v. Fair Employment & Housing Com., supra, 43 Cal.3d at pp. 1390-1391.)
Section 190.3 contains a statutory list of factors relevant to the penalty decision in a capital case. Under the principle of construction mentioned *263above, each factor should “take color” from the others (Armenia v. Churchill, supra, 42 Cal.2d 448, 454), and the scope of each should be “enlarged or restricted to accord with those terms” (People v. Rogers, supra, 5 Cal.3d 129, 142). Thus, the factor for the “circumstances of the crime” should be given a narrow meaning if a broader meaning would make other items superfluous.
The majority’s construction of “circumstances of the crime” makes this factor so broad that it encompasses all of the other factors listed in section 190.3.2 To say that the “circumstances of the crime” includes everything that surrounds the crime “materially, morally, or logically,” is to say that this one factor includes everything that is morally or logically relevant to an assessment of the crime, or, in other words, every fact or circumstance having any legitimate relevance to the penalty determination. This expansive definition makes all the other factors listed in section 190.3 unnecessary, because all are included within the “circumstances of the crime” as defined by the majority. For this reason, the construction adopted by the majority is improbable and should be disfavored.
Is there a reasonable construction of “circumstance of the crime” that avoids or at least minimizes overlap with other listed factors? The statutory list includes matters, such as whether the defendant acted under duress and whether the victim participated in the defendant’s homicidal act, that would seem to fall under even the narrowest definition of “circumstances of the crime.” Yet there is a definition of the statutory factor that substantially *264reduces the overlap with other factors and thus, in my view, most accurately reflects legislative intent.
As used in section 190.3, “circumstances of the crime” should be understood to mean those facts or circumstances either known to the defendant when he or she committed the capital crime or properly adduced in proof of the charges adjudicated at the guilt phase. This definition appears most consistent with the rule of construction that listed items should be given related meaning and with the United States Supreme Court’s understanding of the term as reflected in its opinions. (See also, e.g., Franklin v. Lynaugh (1988) 487 U.S. 164, 174 (lead opn. of White, J.), 188 (conc. opn. of O’Connor, J.) [101 L.Ed.2d 155, 166, 175, 108 S.Ct. 2320] [holding that residual doubt about a capital defendant’s guilt is not a “circumstance of the crime”].) I would adopt this construction.
II
In this case, the prosecutor stated in argument to the jury at the penalty phase that robbery victim Trudy Allessi was so traumatized by the crimes, and in such pain, that she was unable to come to the assistance of her fatally wounded husband, murder victim Sam Allessi, and that she would live with this for the rest of her life. These statements were proper. Our cases establish that the suffering of an immediate victim of a crime, as shown by evidence properly received to prove guilt, is a proper subject of argument as a “circumstance of the crime.” (People v. Haskett (1982) 30 Cal.3d 841, 864 [180 Cal.Rptr. 640, 640 P.2d 776].)
During the penalty phase argument, the prosecutor also mentioned that Sam Allessi died on the sidewalk next to the store he had owned for 40 years and that he had been married to Trudy Allessi for 50 years. Evidence that Sam Allessi owned the store was properly received at the guilt phase to explain his presence at the scene and his possession of the cash taken by defendant in the robbery; therefore, the prosecutor’s reference to Sam All-essi’s ownership of the store was proper.3 But it was improper for the prosecutor to refer to the durations of the Allessis’ marriage and of Sam *265Allessi’s ownership of the store, facts which reflected favorably on Sam Allessi’s character. These facts had no relevance in proof of defendant’s guilt of the charged crimes, and the prosecution presented no evidence showing that they were known or reasonably apparent to defendant when he committed the crimes. They were not “circumstances of the crime,” nor were they within any of the other factors listed in section 190.3.
Defendant was not prejudiced by the improper remarks, however. They were an insignificant part of the prosecutor’s overall argument, which remained correctly focused on the statutory factors. Therefore, I concur in the affirmance of the judgment of death.
HI
Section 190.3 lists the subject matters a jury “shall consider” in a capital case when deciding whether the defendant should be sentenced to death. To determine the meaning of the language used in that statutory list, this court should be guided by neutral principles of statutory construction. The majority has failed to persuade me that a victim’s personal characteristics, when unknown to the defendant and irrelevant to proof of guilt, fall within the statutory factor for “circumstances of the crime.”
When a jury is determining the penalty for a capital crime, should it take into account the personal characteristics of the victim? This is a difficult and controversial question, as shown by the various opinions on this subject by a closely divided United States Supreme Court. What the trier of penalty ought to consider, however, is not the issue before this court. Rather, we must decide whether the electorate, when it voted our current death penalty statutes into law, intended to authorize consideration of these matters. Analysis of the relevant statutory language enacted by the voters, using accepted principles of statutory construction, leads me to conclude that under our state law the jury in a capital case may, and indeed must, consider the victim’s personal characteristics that were known to the defendant at the time of the capital crimes or were disclosed by evidence properly received during the guilt phase. But the presently existing statutory authorization goes no further.
Appellant’s petition for a rehearing was denied February 19, 1992. Mosk, J., and Kennard, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.

The principle of construction that items grouped in a list should be given related meaning is known to legal scholars under the Latin names ejusdem generis and noscitur a sociis. (See generally, 2A Sutherland, Statutory Construction (Sands 4th ed. 1984 rev.) §§ 47.16-47.22, pp. 161-193.) As the United States Supreme Court has remarked, however, “ ‘One hardly need rely on such Latin phrases ... to reach this obvious conclusion.’ ” (Third National Bank v. Impac Limited, Inc. (1977) 432 U.S. 312, 322, fn. 16 [53 L.Ed.2d 368, 376, 97 S.Ct. 2307], quoting United States v. Feola (1975) 420 U.S. 671, 708 [43 L.Ed.2d 541, 566, 95 S.Ct. 1255] (dis. opn. of Stewart, J.).)

These are the section 190.3 penalty factors:
“(a) The circumstances of the crime of which the defendant was convicted in the present proceeding and the existence of any special circumstances found to be true pursuant to Section 190.1.
“(b) The presence or absence of criminal activity by the defendant which involved the use or attempted use of force or violence or the express or implied threat to use force or violence.
“(c) The presence or absence of any prior felony conviction.
“(d) Whether or not the offense was committed while the defendant was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance.
“(e) Whether or not the victim was a participant in the defendant’s homicidal conduct or consented to the homicidal act.
“(f) Whether or not the offense was committed under circumstances which the defendant reasonably believed to be a moral justification or extenuation for his [or her] conduct.
“(g) Whether or not defendant acted under extreme duress or under the substantial domination of another person.
“(h) Whether or not at the time of the offense the capacity of the defendant to appreciate the criminality of his [or her] conduct or to conform his [or her] conduct the requirements of law was impaired as a result of mental disease or defect, or the affects [r/c] of intoxication.
“(i) The age of the defendant at the time of the crime.
“(j) Whether or not the defendant was an accomplice to the offense and his [or her] participation in the commission of the offense was relatively minor.
“(k) Any other circumstance which extenuated the gravity of the crime even though it is not a legal excuse for the crime.”

This conclusion is consistent with a hypothetical that Justice Souter has provided to illustrate how in a given case victim impact evidence could be admitted to establish the circumstances of the crime: A minister has been robbed and killed by a stranger while walking from his car to his church office. The minister’s wife and daughter are present in the car and witness the stabbing. To explain the victim’s presence at the scene of the murder, the prosecutor introduces evidence that the victim was a minister, a personal characteristic. The victim’s widow and daughter testify as eyewitnesses of the murder, and this testimony inevitably reveals to some extent how they were emotionally affected by the crime. (Payne, supra, 501 U.S. _, _ [115 L.Ed.2d 720, 745-746, 111 S.Ct. 2597, 2616-2617] (conc. opn. of Souter, J.).)