Court Opinion

ID: 9697210
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:08:41.645485+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:29.964467
License: Public Domain

LARSEN, Justice,
concurring.
I join the majority’s opinion and affirmance of Raymond Whitney’s convictions and judgments of sentence, including his well deserved sentence of death on the conviction for murder of the first degree.
Words are wholly inadequate to fully convey the terror that must have been felt by appellant’s victims on October 10, 1981, or to describe the depravity of this murderer’s mind as reflected in his deeds. In my opinion, the prosecu*252tor’s dramatic attempts to convey those feelings to the jury in arguing in favor of the death penalty in this case amounted to fair commentary and legitimate argument under the Sentencing Code and our cases interpreting the Code.
Raymond Whitney deliberately, wilfully and with premeditated malice subjected his victims on October 10, 1981 to unfathomable horrors which were proven beyond a reasonable doubt at a fair trial, and he would now have this Court vacate his sentence of death because the prosecutor accurately, albeit dramatically, conveyed to the jury the stark terror of his actions. The prosecutor’s closing comments were indeed “chilling”, as appellant states, but how could they be otherwise? The actual events which led the jury to administer this society’s ultimate punishment were far more “chilling” than anything the prosecutor could have said.
Our Sentencing Code specifically provides that counsel may “present argument for or against the sentence of death.” 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9711(a)(3). As the majority makes clear and, as the Sentencing Code suggests, “the ‘sentencing phase’ of the trial has a different purpose than the ‘guilt phase’ and different principles may be applicable. ... Likewise, the presumption of innocence which accompanies the accused throughout proceedings to determine his guilt has no direct application to the sentencing determination. ... We again observe that the balance of principles which results in certain rules being appropriate at the ‘guilt phase’ of a trial, may be struck differently at a hearing to determine appropriate penalty.” Commonwealth v. Travaglia, 502 Pa. 474, 499, 501-02, 467 A.2d 288 (1983). Accordingly, we have permitted more oratorical license and impassioned argument during the sentencing stage of the proceedings for both prosecuting and defending counsel than is usually permitted at the guilt phase of the trial.1 See, e.g., Com*253monwealth v. Travaglia, supra; Commonwealth v. Zettlemoyer, 500 Pa. 16, 454 A.2d 937 (1982), cert. denied, 461 U.S. 970, 103 S.Ct. 2444, 77 L.Ed.2d 1327 (1983) reh. denied, 463 U.S. 1236, 104 S.Ct. 31, 77 L.Ed.2d 1452 (1983); Commonwealth v. Pursell, 508 Pa. 212, 495 A.2d 183 (1985).
In the instant case, I believe the prosecutor’s dramatic closing comments, while inappropriate had they been uttered at the guilt phase of trial, were legitimate arguments to make at the sentencing hearing — in fact, his comments fit the crime “like a glove”. Society is under attack by persons like Raymond Whitney. Evil is personified in such persons and in Raymond Whitney’s deeds. Raymond Whitney has acted in a manner beneath the dignity of animals who kill only when necessary for survival. And regarding the prosecutor’s analogies to various infamous real and fictional characters, I do not believe the prosecutor was attempting to place Raymond Whitney alongside these evil figures in history or notoriety. The prosecutor’s references conveyed the extreme degree of maliciousness exhibited by Raymond Whitney on October 10,1981, which maliciousness does constitute an attack on society. If one commits acts of evil, then that person will not be heard to complain when that evil is described — the very nature of the matter requires the use of evil terms.
Our standard of review in cases involving the death penalty is set by the Sentencing Code, 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9711(h). In addition to our “authority to correct errors at trial,” § 9711(h)(2), we are required to review the sentencing procedures and directed to “affirm the sentence of death unless” we determine that:
(i) the sentence of death was the product of passion, prejudice or any other arbitrary factor;
(ii) the evidence fails to support the finding of an aggravating circumstance specified in subsection (d); or
(iii) the sentence of death is excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases, considering *254both the circumstances of the crime and the character and record of the defendant.
42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9711(h)(3).
Applying these standards to the instant case requires that we affirm the sentence of death. Raymond Whitney received a full and fair trial that afforded him all available procedural and substantive rights, and was convicted, inter alia, of murder of the first degree. That conviction led to imposition of a sentence of death, a sentence that is most certainly not excessive or disproportionate to that imposed in similar cases. Moreover, there was overwhelming evidence to prove to a virtual certainty that Raymond Whitney intentionally killed Mr. Taha while perpetrating a heinous felony (attempted rape), that he tortured Mr. Taha and his wife unmercifully, and that he callously placed Mr. Taha’s wife at grave risk of death, thus proving three aggravating circumstances beyond any doubt. 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9711(d) (6, 8 and 7, respectively).
In light of the overwhelming evidence of these three brutal and terrifying aggravating circumstances, it is clear that the sentence of death was not, as the dissenters suggest, “induced by the prosecutor’s remarks,” at 1156, but was, rather, required by the evidence and the Sentencing Code. The prosecutor’s dramatic closing argument in favor of the death penalty, although impassioned and emotional, was nevertheless fair commentary tailored to this particular murderer’s atrocious acts and crimes, and the sentence of death was not “the product of passion, prejudice or any other arbitrary factor.” Mr. Whitney has proven himself to be a deserving recipient of society’s fullest measure of punishment and his sentence of death must be affirmed under our standard of review established by the Sentencing Code.
The United States Supreme Court has recently reviewed a sentence of death imposed in a very similar case. In Darden v. Wainwright, — U.S. —, 106 S.Ct. 2464, 91 L.Ed.2d 144 (1986), that Court affirmed the sentence of death imposed upon the petitioner who had murdered the *255proprietor of a store while he was robbing it, sexually assaulted the dying man’s wife and shot a neighbor who was attempting to help the store owner in the face. During his summation at the guilt-innocence stage of the proceedings, the prosecutor made numerous inflammatory comments, including that petitioner was a “vicious animal” who “shouldn’t be out of his cell unless he has a leash on him and a prison guard at the other end of that leash,” that the prosecutor wished someone had “blown his head off” and was “sitting here with no face, blown away by a shotgun,” and imploring the jury to sentence petitioner to death as “the only way anybody can be sure of” keeping petitioner from getting “out on the public.” — U.S. at - - -, notes 5-12, 106 S.Ct. at---, notes 5-12. The United States Supreme Court affirmed both petitioner’s convictions for murder, robbery and assault with intent to kill as well as his sentence of death, holding that while petitioner’s trial was “not perfect ... neither was it fundamentally unfair.” — U.S. at —, 106 S.Ct. at —. That Court held that the “relevant question is whether the prosecutor’s comments ‘so infected the trial with unfairness as to make the resulting conviction a denial of due process.’ Donnelly v. DeChristoforo, 416 U.S. 637, 94 S.Ct. 1868, 40 L.Ed.2d 431 (1974). ... Under this standard of review, we agree with the reasoning of every court to consider these comments that they did not deprive petitioner of a fair trial.” Id. This conclusion was based upon a complete review of the prosecutor’s comments in the context of the evidence presented, defense counsels’ remarks to the jury, the court’s instructions to the jury, and the determination that the jury’s verdict was based upon the overwhelming evidence and the law, not upon the prosecutor’s inflammatory remarks. Id. So too in the instant case, the prosecutor’s impassioned remarks at the sentencing hearing did not deny Raymond Whitney due process of law, nor do they require that we overturn the sentence of death under the Sentencing Code.
PAPADAKOS, J., joins in this concurring opinion.

. It is interesting to observe that defense counsel’s closing argument contained references to matters not presented on the record. For example, counsel argued that perhaps in the future, medical science will find “cures" for appellant’s mental and social “defects” and that this possibility should lead the jury to return a sentence of life imprisonment.