Court Opinion

ID: 9844819
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:09:39.588952+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:43.964931
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, Justice,
concurring, concurring in the result, and dissenting.
I concur fully in parts I, II, III, IV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, and XVI(B) of the Court’s opinion.
I concur in all of part V, except the portion dealing with Instruction No. 49 (Criminal Negligence). In my view, this instruction raises serious questions concerning whether the jury believed it could use criminal negligence to substitute for specific intent. Because I cannot conclude this error was harmless, I would reverse and remand for a new trial on this ground.
I dissent from part X, because of the trial court’s comment offsetting the association with Boyce against the mitigation of “years of being largely self-sufficient and employed.” While I am willing to let the trial court determine what are mitigating circumstances pursuant to I.C. § 19-2515(c), in applying this offset, the trial court, .in effect, treats the association with Boyce as an aggravating circumstance, rather than a background fact. The weighing by the trial court is supposed to be of “the mitigating circumstances presented.” I would vacate the sentence for this reason and remand for resentencing.
I concur in the result of part XI. In my view, the portion of State v. Leavitt, 116 Idaho 285, 294, 775 P.2d 599, 608 (1989) concerning the trial court’s misperception of alternatives is dicta. The dispositive part of Leavitt is the portion holding that the trial court did not adequately weigh mitigating and aggravating factors.
I dissent from part XVI(A), because of the trial court’s comment quoted in the Court’s opinion. Allowing the death penalty to be imposed on the basis of this rationale, violates the requirements of I.C. § 19-2515, which were designed to structure the exercise of discretion by the trial courts in death penalty cases to eliminate arbitrariness and capriciousness.
I concur in the result of part XVI(C). The approach I take in determining whether the death sentence imposed in this case is excessive or disproportionate is outlined in my concurring and dissenting opinion in State v. Card, 121 Idaho 425, 448-459, 825 P.2d 1081, 1114-1125 (1992). Appended to my opinion in the present ease is an updated summary of the cases I have considered.
The cases I find most similar to this one so far as the crime is concerned are:
1. State v. Searcy (determinate life sentence imposed)
2. State v. Paz (death penalty imposed)
3. State v. Card (death penalty imposed)
4. State v. Orr (life with fifteen years fixed imposed)
Based on a comparison of Searcy and Orr, I have a serious question whether the death sentence imposed in this case is excessive or disproportionate. When I balance this against the imposition of the death penalty in Card, however, I am inclined to find the death sentence imposed on Pratt not to be excessive or disproportionate.
The only case I find similar to this, one so far as the circumstances of the defendant are concerned is State v. Windsor (death sen*575tence vacated on appeal as disproportionate), Therefore, I find the death sentence imposed on Pratt to be excessive and disproportionate.
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