Court Opinion

ID: 9582119
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:22:48.947487+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:28.264126
License: Public Domain

HUNTLEY, Justice,
dissenting.
I would reverse and remand for the conduct of a constitutionally proper sentencing procedure.
The sentencing procedure utilized violates both the United States Constitution and the Idaho Constitution in failing to involve the jury in the sentencing process.
The Idaho Constitution, as first approved on July 3, 1890, and as it reads today, provides in Art. 1, § 7:
“Right to trial by jury. — The right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate .... ”
That right of trial by jury as it existed at the time our constitution was adopted provided for jury participation in the capital sentencing process. Section 17 of the Criminal Practice Act of 1864 provided in pertinent part:
“[A]nd the jury before whom any person indicted for murder shall be tried, shall, if they find such person guilty thereof, designate by their verdict, whether it be murder of the first or second degree; but, if such person shall be convicted on confession in open court, the court shall proceed, by examination of witnesses, to determine the degree of the crime, and give sentence accordingly. Every person convicted of murder of the first degree, shall suffer death; and every person convicted of murder in the second degree, shall suffer imprisonment in the territorial prison for a term not less than ten years, and which may be extended to life.”
In other words, the jury, by determining whether the party was guilty of either first or second degree murder, determined whether or not the death penalty would be imposed.
In Blue Note, Inc. v. Hopper, 85 Idaho 152, 157, 377 P.2d 373, (1962), we stated:
“The provisions of the constitution pertaining to the right to trial by jury are . construed to apply as it existed at the date of the adoption of the constitution.”
Accord: Anderson v. Whipple, 71 Idaho 112, 227 P.2d 351 (1951); Christensen v. Hollingsworth, 6 Idaho 87, 53 P. 211 (1898); Cornish v. Smith, 97 Idaho 89, 540 P.2d 274 (1975).
A detailed analysis of the reasons jury participation is mandated under both the Idaho and United States Constitutions is set forth in the separate dissenting opinions of Justice Bistline and myself in State v. Creech, 105 Idaho-, 670 P.2d 463 (1983), which dissents I hereby adopt as though fully set forth herein.