Court Opinion

ID: 9538828
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:42:14.891471+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:58:11.452011
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J., Concurring and Dissenting.
I concur in the judgment in all respects save one: I would vacate the sentence of death.
At the penalty phase, defendant’s jury, like all others, was instructed to weigh the aggravating and mitigating circumstances against each other and thereby determine whether death or life imprisonment without possibility of *502parole was the appropriate penalty. How could the jurors have possibly discharged their obligation when, as here, the prosecutor presented substantial evidence in aggravation but defense counsel did not present any evidence in mitigation? The answer is obvious: they could not.
Therefore, I would set aside the death sentence as unreliable under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article I, section 17 of the California Constitution. (See In re Ross (1995) 10 Cal.4th 184, 216, fn. 1 [40 Cal.Rptr.2d 544, 892 P.2d 1287] (dis. opn. of Mosk, J.) [implying that any sentence of death should be set aside as unreliable under the Eighth Amendment and article I, section 17 if defense counsel introduced no available mitigating evidence]; People v. Stansbury (1995) 9 Cal.4th 824, 835 [38 Cal.Rptr.2d 394, 889 P.2d 588] (cone, and dis. opn. of Mosk, J.), reiterating People v. Stansbury (1993) 4 Cal.4th 1017, 1073-1075 [17 Cal.Rptr.2d 174, 846 P.2d 756] (cone, and dis. opn. of Mosk, J.) [same], revd. sub nom. Stansbury v. California (1994) 511 U.S. 318 [128 L.Ed.2d 293, 114 S.Ct. 1526]; People v. Diaz (1992) 3 Cal.4th 495, 577 [11 Cal.Rptr.2d 353, 834 P.2d 1171] (cone, and dis. opn. of Mosk, J.) [same]; see also People v. Howard (1992) 1 Cal.4th 1132, 1197 [5 Cal.Rptr.2d 268, 824 P.2d 1315] (cone, and dis. opn. of Mosk, J.) [finding a verdict of death unreliable under the Eighth Amendment and article I, section 17 when available mitigating evidence was not introduced]; People v. Sanders (1990) 51 Cal.3d 471, 531-533 [273 Cal.Rptr. 537, 797 P.2d 561] (dis. opn. of Mosk, J.) [same]; People v. Lang (1989) 49 Cal.3d 991, 1059-1062 [264 Cal.Rptr. 386, 782 P.2d 627] (cone, and dis. opn. of Mosk, J.) [same]; People v. Williams (1988) 44 Cal.3d 1127, 1158-1161 [245 Cal.Rptr. 635, 751 P.2d 901] (cone, and dis. opn. of Mosk, J.) [to similar effect under the Eighth Amendment]; People v. Deere (1985) 41 Cal.3d 353, 360-368 [222 Cal.Rptr. 13, 710 P.2d 925] [same].)
Appellant’s petition for a rehearing was denied February 21, 1996, and the opinion was modified to read as printed above.