Court Opinion

ID: 9712818
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:00:39.694789+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:14.598406
License: Public Domain

*451Wilkins, J.,
concurring (with whom Hennessey and Kaplan, JJ., join). I agree that there should be further briefing on the question of the extent of the Commonwealth’s interest in the imposition of the death penalty in rape-murder cases. I believe, however, that the case should be considered first under the State and Federal constitutional provisions dealing directly with the subject (art. 26 of the Declaration of Rights of the Massachusetts Constitution and the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States) before resort is had to the less specific due process provisions of those Constitutions.
The Chief Justice’s opinion refrains from predicting the United States Supreme Court’s conclusion concerning the constitutionality under the Eighth Amendment of a mandatory death penalty (“cruel and unusual punishments”) and does not discuss the defendant’s challenge to the death penalty under art. 26 of the Declaration of Rights (“cruel or unusual punishments”). No doubt these questions will have to be considered by this court subsequently in this case.
Particular attention should be paid to art. 26. I attribute no special significance to the difference in its wording from that of the Eighth Amendment. However, I believe that art. 26 requires, at the very least, that the Commonwealth not take a person’s life unless that action serves a substantial purpose which cannot otherwise be achieved.
Certainly at the time of its adoption, art. 26 was not intended to prohibit capital punishment. Capital punishment was common both before and after its adoption. However, art. 26, like the Eighth Amendment, “must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.” Trop v. Dulles, 356 U. S. 86, 101 (1958). In this respect the appropriate standards applicable in the Commonwealth may be higher under art. . 26 than the standards applicable under the Eighth Amendment.
*452Contrary to the indication in the main opinion, we should also further consider whether the present Massachusetts statute concerning murder is unconstitutional, even as to a murder committed during a rape or attempted rape, because it may allow jury discretion which is impermissible within the holdings of Furman v. Georgia, 408 U. S. 238 (1972). In my view, the statutory provision that “[t]he degree of murder shall be found by the jury” requires further serious consideration as to whether a jury may in its arbitrary discretion return a verdict of murder in the second degree. G. L. c. 265, § 1. See Commonwealth v. Gardner, 11 Gray 438 (1858); Commonwealth v. Desmarteau, 16 Gray 1 (1860); Green v. Commonwealth, 12 Allen 155 (1866); Commonwealth v. Chase, 350 Mass. 738 (1966). If we reach that conclusion, we should then proceed to an examination of the statute in light of the Furman case.
I have joined in the result of the Chief Justice’s opinion because, although it is based on a different constitutional premise, it calls for the presentation of subsequent arguments on issues which are similar to those I believe art. 26 raises.