Court Opinion

ID: 9573192
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:49:24.909576+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:37:53.055296
License: Public Domain

Rose, J.,
concurring:
The sentences imposed on the other participants in these murders should not have been received in evidence, nor should have evidence of Flanagan and Moore’s prior involvement with a coven or Satan worship. These errors should not have been made, but I doubt that they influenced the result in any substantial way. *251Accordingly, I would affirm Flanagan’s and Moore’s death sentences.
When Moore and Flanagan went to trial the second time, the cases of the four other men involved in this dastardly crime had been concluded in district court. Akers, who drove the vehicle to the victim’s house, had entered a guilty plea to voluntary manslaughter pursuant to a plea bargain and received a sentence of five years, with the sentence suspended. He was placed on probation. Walsh pleaded guilty to two counts of first degree murder and was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences with possibility of parole. McDowell, the person who brought the .22 pistol to the crime scene and gave it to Flanagan, pleaded guilty to two counts of first degree murder and received four consecutive sentences of life with the possibility of parole. Luckett went to trial, and the jury found him guilty of two counts of first degree murder. He was the person who entered the house with Moore and Flanagan and shot at the grandfather with the .22 pistol. He received a penalty of four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.1
In closing argument, the prosecutor argued to the jury that when the penalties imposed on the other defendants were considered, equity and proportionality demanded that Moore and Flanagan be given the death penalty. In introducing the subject, the prosecutor stated:
There is yet another reason to impose the death penalty. Fairness. Equity. I want you to think for a moment about the entire case, about all of the defendants and what has happened to them. Punishment should fit the crime.
In this case, let’s change it a little bit. The degree of punishment should be directed and influenced by the degree of involvement. The worse you are, the worse you ought to get. The better you are, the better you ought to get. Whatever those degrees are, juries like this, judges like that, need to find the most equitable solution so that everyone gets treated relatively fairly within the confines of their own case.
The prosecutor then recited the general involvement and penalty that had been assessed against each of the other four co-defendants. Then he turned his attention to the penalty that should be assessed against Moore and Flanagan:
*252That leaves us with these two. And when you get to life without the possibility four consecutive [the sentence entered against Luckett], that is as high as you can go. You can go no higher in terms of life sentences. There is one more upgrade, the death penalty.
Now, Johnny Ray Luckett took a shot at the grandfather and missed. These two people, we have already heard how devastating their actions are. They are killers. They are murderers, and as such, in terms of this equity argument that I am making now, they deserve no less than the death penalty. It is absolutely the only fair thing.
The penalty phase of a capital murder trial is conducted to assess the appropriate penalty that should be imposed on an individual found guilty of first degree murder. Consideration is given to the facts of the offense which usually have been presented in the guilt phase, the character and record of the defendant, and any mitigating or aggravating circumstances peculiar to this defendant. It is a procedure conducted to tailor an individual penalty to the specific defendant and has little, if anything, to do with the penalty assessed against a co-defendant.
The United States Supreme Court recognized that in a capital case the penalty is to be designed for a specific defendant.
We recognize that, in noncapital cases, the established practice of individualized sentences rests not on constitutional commands, but on public policy enacted into statutes. The considerations that account for the wide acceptance of individualization of sentences in noncapital cases surely cannot be thought less important in capital cases. Given that the imposition of death by public authority is so profoundly different from all other penalties, we cannot avoid the conclusion that an individualized decision is essential in capital cases. The need for treating each defendant in a capital case with that degree of respect due the uniqueness of the individual is far more important than in noncapital cases. A variety of flexible techniques — probation, parole, work furloughs, to name a few — and various post-conviction remedies may be available to modify an initial sentence of confinement in noncapital cases. The nonavailability of corrective or modifying mechanisms with respect to an executed capital sentence underscores the need for individualized consideration as a constitutional requirement in imposing the death sentence.
Lockett v. Ohio, 439 U.S. 586, 604-605 (1978) (fn. omitted, emphasis added).
A majority of the courts that have considered the issue have *253determined that the sentence imposed on a co-defendant is not admissible at the murder penalty hearing of a defendant. People v. Belmontes, 755 P.2d 310 (Cal. 1988); Coulter v. State, 438 So.2d 336 (Ala.Crim.App. 1982); State v. Williams, 292 S.E.2d 243 (N.C. 1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1056 (1983); Brodgon v. Butler, 824 F.2d 338 (5th Cir. 1987).2 The Coulter case well states the reasoning expressed in the cases espoused by the majority view:
[A]n alleged accomplice’s sentence is a product of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances applicable to the alleged accomplice. In the sentencing phase of the trial, the fact that an alleged accomplice did not receive the death penalty is no more relevant as a mitigating factor for the defendant than the fact that an alleged accomplice did receive the death penalty would be as an aggravating circumstance against him. Simply put, an alleged accomplice’s sentence has no bearing on the defendant’s character or record and it is not a circumstance of the offense (italics omitted).
Coulter, supra, at 345-346.
The sentence a co-defendant receives at a murder penalty hearing may have little relation to his culpability or involvement in the crime. The prosecutor may offer an attractive deal to one of several defendants to secure critically necessary testimony even if the defendant was completely involved in the criminal activity (as may have happened in this case with Akers). And a jury might assess the least penalty because of a defendant’s age or low IQ. On the other hand, a jury might impose the greatest penalty on a defendant whose involvement in the murder was marginal simply because of that defendant’s substantial prior criminal record. There are many reasons why a specific penalty is assessed against a defendant that has nothing to do with that defendant’s involvement in the specific crime. To me, this renders the penalty assessed against other defendants of only marginal relevance and it inserts a secondary issue into the penalty hearing that detracts from the task at hand — determining the individualized penalty for this defendant.
The establishment of a rule of law is often a two-edged sword; it may help you in one case but work to your disadvantage in another. Informing the jury of the penalties assessed against the other defendants may well have helped the prosecutor in this case, but it will certainly work to the State’s disadvantage in others. Every case cited in this concurring opinion deals with a defendant’s attempt to introduce the penalty assessed against *254other defendants. I do not believe the rule established by the majority is the better one or the one that will best serve prosecutors in the future.
I also concur with the opinions expressed by Justice Springer in concluding that the evidence of Satan worship and participation in a coven was far more prejudicial than probative. Neither Flanagan nor Moore was actively practicing Satanism or white magic at the time of the killings and the murders were not in any way related to a cult or ritualistic event. Evidence of a prior passing interest in Satanism coupled with the prosecutor’s assertion that these defendants should be given the death penalty because they were “anti-Christ” injected prejudicial facts that should not have been in this trial.
In reviewing the penalty hearing, I come to the conclusion that the erroneous receipt of evidence and information would have had no substantial effect on Flanagan’s or Moore’s sentences. The evidence against them was overwhelming and showed that these were heinous murders for profit committed against benevolent grandparents. Even without the evidence I find objectionable, I feel confident that they would have received the death penalty. However, we should not sanction the receipt of evidence at trial that I believe to be clearly inadmissible.
Accordingly, I would affirm the first degree murder convictions and death sentences.

The State planned to introduce into evidence a large poster containing a list of all those involved in this crime and the sentences each had received to date. The defense objected and the court told the State to remove the sentences from the list because such demonstrative evidence may unduly influence the jury. However, the court permitted the State to make reference in final argument to the sentences received by all those involved.

One jurisdiction has reached the contrary result. Brookings v. State, 495 So.2d 135 (Fla. 1986).