Court Opinion

ID: 9736251
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:48:47.26017+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:05.318940
License: Public Domain

Wilkins, J.
(concurring). I alone among my colleagues believe that this court, in its discretion, should not pass on the constitutionality of the capital punishment statute in this proceeding. However, because all my colleagues have expressed their views on the constitutionality of the statute, I think it appropriate that I also do so in this matter of great public importance. Thus, I join in the opinion of the court.
I would have preferred to decide this constitutional question in an actual case in which the question had to be answered. Such a case would have been one in which, after conviction of murder in the first degree, the jury unanimously recommended the imposition of the death penalty and, on appeal, apart from the possible unconstitutionality of the capital punishment statute, the conviction would have been affirmed after consideration of all other grounds of the appeal, including the exercise of our special power and duty under G. L. c. 278, § 33E, to review the record to see that justice was done and that there was no reason for reducing the verdict.1
The district attorney for the Suffolk district has no such dilemma that he needs an answer to the question. He is but one of the district attorneys in the Commonwealth. Others have not seen fit to participate in the case, although they had an opportunity to do so. Indeed, a trial has already been held in Norfolk County under the new statute. The Attorney General, the chief law enforcement officer in the Commonwealth, argues that we should not, by answering *674the constitutional question, in effect give an “advisory” opinion.2
If the statute’s procedures were followed and this court ultimately were to declare the statute unconstitutional, there would be no disruption of the system. The sentence of death would be vacated, and the defendant resentenced to life imprisonment. This is exactly what happened in numerous cases following the Supreme Court’s decision in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972). See Commonwealth v. Curry, 368 Mass. 195, 204 (1975); Commonwealth v. Stone, 366 Mass. 506, 518 (1974), and cases cited.
The court’s approach to these questions presents a constitutional confrontation between its views and those of the Legislature. I would have preferred not to identify such a conflict unless and until the circumstances of a particular case made it unavoidable.3

 Our consideration might also have resulted in a determination that, even assuming the death penalty statute were constitutional, under the terms of the statute (G. L. c. 279, § 56 [c]) the sentence of death nevertheless should not have been imposed.

 The Attorney General has not, however, exercised whatever authority he might have to control the maintenance of this proceeding by the plaintiff. See G. L. c. 12, § 27 (“but the attorney general, when present, shall have the control of such case,” i.e., “cases, criminal or civil, in which the commonwealth is a party or interested”). See also Commonwealth v. Kozlowsky, 238 Mass. 379, 389-390 (1921).
The Justices of this court have a constitutional duty to give advisory opinions on important questions of law on solemn occasions on the request of the House, the Senate, the Governor, or the Executive Council. Part II, c. 3, art. 2, of the Constitution of the Commonwealth, as amended by art. 85 of the Amendments. Neither branch of the Legislature asked for an advisory opinion from the Justices concerning the new death penalty statute. The judgment of each branch of the Legislature not to seek such an opinion suggests their preference that the death penalty statute be tested in a real, and not a hypothetical, proceeding.

 Unlike the practice under the former procedure in which the penalty of death would be imposed unless the jury unanimously recommended against it (Commonwealth v. Stewart, 359 Mass. 671, 676 [1971], judgment vacated, 408 U.S. 845 [1972]), the new capital punishment statute calls for a sentence of death only if all twelve jurors recommend it. G. L. c. 279 § 55. It is a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States to exclude potential jurors “simply because they [voice] general objections to the death penalty or [express] conscientious or religious scruples against its infliction.” Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 522 (1968). One may speculate that, if the statute were allowed to operate, a case involving the imposition of the death penalty might not reach this court for some time.