Court Opinion

ID: 9844459
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:03:07.780842+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:35.524844
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
dissenting.
I
We recently said in State v. Martin, 119 Idaho 577, 808 P.2d 1322 (1991), that “I.C.R. 35 allows the trial court to correct an illegal sentence at any time, on the motion of either the defendant or the state.” Martin, 119 Idaho at 579, 808 P.2d at 1324. However, while the majority does concede that this Court does have the ultimate authority to promulgate rules of criminal procedure, it avoids its undesired result of applying our Rule 35 in Beam’s case by pretending that the I.C. § 19-2719(3) forty-two day time limit applies here because that statute creates “substantive rights.”
According to the majority, “[s]ubstantive law prescribes norms for societal conduct and punishments for violations thereof____ In contrast, practice and procedure pertain to the essentially mechanical operations of the courts by which substantive law, rights, and remedies are effectuated.” Op. at 893, quoting State v. Currington, 108 Idaho 539, 540, 700 P.2d 942, 943 (1985), quoting State v. Smith, 84 Wash.2d 498, 527 P.2d 674, 676-77 (1974). Notably absent from the majority’s opinion is the text of I.C. § 19-2719(3). The reason for its absence is apparent upon close review:
19-2719. Special appellate and post-conviction procedure for capital cases—Automatic stay.—The following special procedures shall be interpreted to accomplish the purpose of eliminating unnecessary delay in carrying out a valid death sentence.
*865(3) Within forty-two (42) days of the filing of the judgment imposing the punishment of death, and before the death warrant is filed, the defendant must file any legal or factual challenge to the sentence or conviction that is known or reasonably should have been known.
(Emphasis added.)
The perspicacious reader will have by now noted that the statute purports to establish procedures by which a capital sentence is reviewed. Nowhere in the statute is stated an intent to create any special substantive rights and, in fact, it does not create any such rights. It establishes procedures and only procedures. By no reach of the imagination does I.C. § 19-2719(3) pertain to anything besides the mechanical operations of the court; any representation to the contrary patently is a misrepresentation. Because the Court does have the inherent power to make the rules governing procedure, as the legislature has recognized in I.C. § 1-212, I.C. § 19-2719(3) is void to the extent it conflicts with I.C.R. 35.1 “[Wjhere conflict exists between statutory criminal procedure and the Idaho Criminal Rules in matters of procedure, the rules will prevail.” State v. Currington, 108 Idaho at 541, 700 P.2d at 944.
II
The substance of Beam’s claim is not contained anywhere in I.C. § 19-2719, but rather in I.C. § 19-2515(c), which provides:
(c) Where a person is convicted of an offense which may be punishable by death, a sentence of death shall not be imposed unless the court finds at least one (1) statutory aggravating circumstance. Where the court finds an aggravating circumstance the court shall sentence the defendant to death unless the court finds that mitigating circumstances which may be presented outweigh the gravity of any aggravating circumstance found and make the imposition of death unjust, (emphasis added)
This Court has interpreted that statute as follows:
[Tjhe trial court may sentence the defendant to death, only if the trial court finds that all the mitigating circumstances do not outweigh the gravity of each of the aggravating circumstances found and make the imposition of death unjust.
State v. Charboneau, 116 Idaho 129, 153, 774 P.2d 299, 333 (1989).
The record here shows that the sentencing court judge found that “because of the gravity of the offense and the strong factors against any possibility of rehabilitation, any one of the aggravating circumstances outweighs the mitigating circumstances.” (Emphasis added.) That weighing process does not comply with our teachings in Charboneau. The judge did not weigh all the mitigating factors against each of the aggravating factors; he weighed the mitigating factors against each aggravating factor plus “the gravity of the offense and the strong factors against any possibility of rehabilitation.” The court must weigh each of the aggravating circumstances and nothing else against all of the mitigating circumstances. Charboneau, 116 Idaho at 153, 774 P.2d at 333.
Additionally, the “gravity of the offense” is totally irrelevant in this context. The fact that first degree murder is the gravest offense is itself the reason the death penalty may be considered. Accordingly, the gravity of the offense cannot serve as an independent reason for imposing the death penalty. To justify the imposition of the death penalty there must be aggravating circumstances in addition to the gravity of the offense.
Ill
Beam’s sentence is clearly illegal under Charboneau and he properly and timely *866raised the issue in the I.C.R. 35 motion. I respectfully decline the honor of being party to the majority’s creation of a “death penalty exception” to I.C.R. 35, thus allowing a human being to be executed pursuant to a clearly illegal sentence.

. Further, the majority totally fails to discuss the portion of the forty-two day rule which limits its reach to those issues which are known or reasonably should be known. The district court made no finding as to whether the issue raised by Beam was known or should have been known by him. Even assuming arguendo that the statute is valid, it is impossible to conceive how the majority can dismiss the case as being untimely absent such a finding.