Court Opinion

ID: 9724955
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 11:23:02.479053+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:08.409023
License: Public Domain

SULLIVAN, Justice,
concurring.
Today’s appellant is the eighth individual whose death sentence we have reviewed under circumstances where the trial court imposed the sentence notwithstanding a unanimous jury recommendation against death.1 Reflecting perhaps the difference in opinion between judge and jury at the trial level in these cases, this court has almost always found itself divided on whether the death sentence was appropriate.2 Several times we have attempted to articulate a standard for jury overrides but never without drawing dissents.3 While I myself find the approach articulated by Chief Justice Shepard in Martinez Chavez, 539 N.E.2d at 5, to be closest to my view of how these situations should be handled, I join today’s opinion both because I do not find it varies too much from the Martinez Chavez standard and because of the advantageousness of our court finally reaching consensus in this important area.

. See Schiro v. State, 669 N.E.2d 1357 (Ind.1996) (overruling Schiro v. State, 451 N.E.2d 1047 (Ind.1983)); Roark v. State, 644 N.E.2d 565 (Ind.1994); Kennedy v. State, 620 N.E.2d 17 (Ind.1993); Jackson v. State, 597 N.E.2d 950 (Ind.1992); Minnick v. State, 544 N.E.2d 471 (Ind.1989); Martinez Chavez v. State, 534 N.E.2d 731 (Ind.1989), reh’g denied, 539 N.E.2d 4; Thompson v. State, 492 N.E.2d 264 (Ind.1986).

. See Schiro, 669 N.E.2d 1357 (rev’g sentence by 4-1 vote) (overruling 451 N.E.2d 1047 (aff'g sentence by 3-2 vote)); Roark, 644 N.E.2d 565 (rev'g sentence by 3-2 vote); Kennedy, 620 N.E.2d 17 (rev’g sentence by 3-2 vote); Jackson, 597 N.E.2d 950 (rev’g sentence by 3-2 vote); Minnick, 544 N.E.2d 471 (aff'g sentence by 3-2 vote; DeBruler, J., dissenting, in which Dickson, X, concurred, on grounds other than jury override); Martinez Chavez, 534 N.E.2d 731 (rev'g sentence by 4-1 vote); Thompson, 492 N.E.2d 264 (rev'g sentence by 3-2 vote on grounds other than jury override).

.Compare Roark, 644 N.E.2d at 569 with 644 N.E.2d at 573 (Givan, J., dissenting); Martinez Chavez, 539 N.E.2d at 5 and 534 N.E.2d at 733 with 534 N.E.2d at 740 (Pivamik, J., dissenting); Schiro, 451 N.E.2d at 1053 with 451 N.E.2d at 1070 (Prentice, J., dissenting).