Court Opinion

ID: 9792923
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:39:23.230712+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:01:49.303433
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J., Concurring and Dissenting.
I concur in the judgment as to guilt, death eligibility, and noncapital sentence. After review, no error or other defect is evident requiring reversal or vacation on any of these issues.
I dissent, however, from the judgment as to the sentence of death. I would set aside that penalty as unreliable under the Eighth Amendment to the *1199United States Constitution and article I, section 17 of the California Constitution because defendant’s counsel introduced none of the available evidence in mitigation.1 It is the duty of the sentencer to weigh aggravating circumstances and mitigating circumstances. How can it do so when it is presented with the former but not with the latter? In such a situation, which obtains here, the scale is automatically, and arbitrarily, skewed in favor of death.
The petitions of both respondent and appellant for a rehearing were denied February 16, 1995, and the opinion was modified to read as printed above. Mosk, J., was of the opinion that the petitions should be granted.

See People v. Stansbury (1993) 4 Cal.4th 1017, 1074 [17 Cal.Rptr.2d 174, 846 P.2d 756] (conc. & dis. opn. of Mosk, J.), reversed on other grounds sub nom. Stansbury v. California (1994) 511 U.S. _ [128 L.Ed.2d 293, 114 S.Ct. 1526]; People v. Diaz (1992) 3 Cal.4th 495, 577 [11 Cal.Rptr.2d 353, 834 P.2d 1171] (conc. & dis. opn. of Mosk, J.); People v. Howard (1992) 1 Cal.4th 1132, 1197 [5 Cal.Rptr.2d 268, 824 P.2d 1315] (conc. & dis. opn. of Mosk, J.); People v. Sanders (1990) 51 Cal.3d 471, 531-533 [273 Cal.Rptr. 537, 797 P.2d 561] (dis. opn. of Mosk, J.); People v. Lang (1989) 49 Cal.3d 991, 1059-1062 [264 Cal.Rptr. 386, 782 P.2d 627] (conc. & dis. opn. of Mosk, J.); see also People v. Williams (1988) 44 Cal.3d 1127, 1158-1061 [245 Cal.Rptr. 635, 751 P.2d 901] (conc. & dis. opn. of Mosk, J.); People v. Deere (1985) 41 Cal.3d 353, 360-368 [222 Cal.Rptr. 13, 710 P.2d 925].