Court Opinion

ID: 9628439
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:20:30.143398+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:06:05.995946
License: Public Domain

FELDMAN, Vice Chief Justice,
concurring.
There is no doubt that Walton was a participant in the kidnapping and robbery that eventually led to the victim’s murder. Hence, there is no doubt that Walton is guilty of (felony) first degree murder. At the outset, the only issue of consequence in this case was whether Walton’s punishment should be life imprisonment or death. The death penalty could be imposed only if Walton was the actual killer or acted, at the least, with reckless indifference to human life. Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 137, 107 S.Ct. 1676, 1678, 95 L.Ed.2d 127 (1987); Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782, 102 S.Ct. 3368, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1982).
Following the aggravation/mitigation hearing, the trial judge sentenced Walton to death, finding that he had fired the fatal shot. This finding is the issue on appeal. *593In his con-Walton denies firing the shot, fession to the police, he accuses Hoover of the actual killing. Hoover, of course, accuses Walton. This is the so-called “mirror image accusation” — each of two very culpable defendants points the finger at the other, seeking some measure of leniency for himself. Hoover’s girlfriend, given a very generous plea bargain, unsurprisingly supports Hoover. A witness, Bilodeau, relating one of Walton’s admissions, supported Walton in his statement to the police, but more or less supported Hoover in his trial testimony. It is fair to say that given their records, their characters, and the circumstances in which each of these individuals found him or herself, not one of them is especially worthy of belief.
Nor does the physical evidence help us decide who actually shot the victim. Walton owned the murder weapon, but the police found it and the victim’s car in Hoover’s possession when they apprehended Hoover and his girlfriend in California sometime after the crime in question.
Evidently the jury also found the question of who actually shot the victim difficult. From the question they asked the court, let alone the statement contained in the foreman’s affidavit offered at the mitigation hearing, it is obvious that the jury was unable to decide whether Walton was the actual killer. Under the facts of this case, if Walton was the killer, he was certainly guilty of premeditated murder, but it appears the jury was unable to agree on such a finding.
Thus, this case illustrates a serious problem. The majority quite correctly holds that the United States Supreme Court has instructed us that Enmund findings relate only to eighth amendment issues, may be made at any stage of the proceedings, and not necessarily by the jury. Cabana v. Bullock, 474 U.S. 376, 106 S.Ct. 689, 88 L.Ed.2d 704 (1986). Moreover, the Court has not required us to adopt any particular procedure and has left each state free to adopt its own procedure in making the En-mund findings. Id. at 385, 106 S.Ct. at 697.
Exercising the discretion later granted us in Cabana, in State v. McDaniel, 136 Ariz. 188, 665 P.2d 70 (1983), we held that because there is only one crime of first degree murder, and “where the jury might have found the defendant guilty of [either] first degree murder based on a felony murder theory” or premeditated murder because both theories were submitted to the jury, the trial judge must then make the Enmund findings himself. Id. at 199, 665 P.2d at 81.
In my view, developments since En-mund and McDaniel — particularly Tison with its standard of reckless indifference— and our experience with the McDaniel procedure require a reexamination of the McDaniel procedure. In a system that values trial by jury, it seems anomalous to allow a judge to resolve the only true factual issue in the case and, in doing-so, to reach a result that may be directly contrary to the jury’s finding. Apparently here, the judge’s finding was evidently one that the jury considered but was unable to reach.
If we continue to follow the McDaniel procedure, we may well produce decisions that conflict with the jury trial principles espoused by the United States Supreme Court in McMillan v. Pennsylvania, 477 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 2411, 91 L.Ed.2d 67 (1986), and by this court in State v. Hurley, 154 Ariz. 124, 741 P.2d 257 (1987), and State v. Powers, 154 Ariz. 291, 742 P.2d 792 (1987); see also Adamson v. Ricketts, 865 F.2d 1011, 1022-1029 (9th Cir.1988) (en banc) (finding unconstitutional Arizona’s death penalty statute because, inter alia, it allows the sentencing judge to find the evidence of the elements of the crime of “capital murder”).
I believe that, at the very least, we must in the future consider requiring the jury to receive a separate verdict form for the premeditated murder theory in cases that have been submitted to the jury on both felony murder and premeditated murder theories. This use of separate verdict forms would give the judge in sentencing and this court in exercising its responsibility to review death penalty cases the valu*594able benefit of an actual jury finding, and we would also avoid many of the questions that afflict courts in reviewing death penalty cases.