Court Opinion

ID: 9700281
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 21:18:32.569804+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:06.656827
License: Public Domain

HANDLER, J.,
dissenting.
Today, the Court again affirms a capital-murder conviction and death sentence despite egregious errors in the jury charges and extreme prosecutorial misconduct. Once again, the Court repeats resolute principles that are designed to maximize a defendant’s protections and to achieve fairness, to the greatest extent possible, in capital eases. Once again, the Court, conceding that those principles have been violated, nonetheless finds those violations inconsequential. It is distressing that this Court, in cases involving the prosecution for capital murder, has come to honor guarantees of due process and fairness in the breach. It ought not affirm a capital-murder conviction and death sentence when critical doubts in their validity exist. I therefore dissent.
The majority upholds defendant’s death sentence though the guilt-phase jury charge in respect of the own-conduct determination was confusing, contradictory, and inaccurate. I believe that the deficiencies in the jury instructions warrant reversal of the own-conduct determination and, thus, reversal of defendant’s *94death sentence. Consequently, I join Justice O’Hem’s dissenting opinion.
In addition, I believe that the prosecutor’s repeated acts of misconduct require reversal of defendant’s purposeful-or-knowing murder conviction and death sentence. In my opinion, the trial court’s erroneous penalty-phase ultimate-outcome instruction also mandates reversal of defendant’s sentence. I write separately on these points.
I
On three occasions, the prosecutor crossed the bounds of legitimate argument or questioning and engaged in misconduct. By considering each instance in isolation, the majority devalues the prejudicial impact of the prosecutor’s misconduct. When the instances of the misconduct are appraised together, the totality of the misconduct and the prejudice to defendant compel reversal of defendant’s purposeful-or-knowing murder conviction and death sentence. Further, the prosecutor’s guilt-phase summation, in which despite the utter absence of evidence he described authoritatively and in vivid detail the robbery and murder of Keith Donaghy, by itself mandates reversal of defendant’s murder conviction and death sentence.
A.
The State presented evidence of the events before and after the approximately one hour during which Michael Mills and defendant were absent from the Columbia Cafe on the night of October 6, 1993. According to the State’s evidence, Mills and defendant looked for a car prior to leaving the bar. They possessed a gun when they left the bar. They drove off in Renee Burkhardt’s car with Mills behind the wheel. An hour later Mills, and subsequently defendant, returned to the bar. Later that evening, defendant made inculpatory statements regarding the robbery and murder of Donaghy.
*95Except for the fact that Donaghy was shot by the gun Mills and defendant had possessed and was robbed, the State did not present any evidence about what had actually occurred during the hour after Mills and defendant had left the Columbia Cafe. The State did not produce any eyewitness testimony or forensic evidence that shed any light on exactly what had happened during that hour or so. Defendant’s oral statements provided the only description of the crime.
The State possessed additional, but inadmissible, evidence pertaining to the commission of the murder and robbery. Prior to committing suicide, Mills gave a statement to the police. In that statement, Mills detailed what had occurred from the time he and defendant left the Columbia Cafe through the moment he returned to the bar. The jury was aware that Mills had committed suicide prior to trial.
The absence of admissible evidence did not deter the prosecutor from offering an animated description of the crime. He stated:
So what happens? Around 8:00 Mills and Feaster pull out. Mills is the driver. Somewhere along that route [defendant’s] first act of intent to kill, first act of purpose, preplanned, premeditated, intent to kill occurs. He takes the shotgun and loads it with the slug.
Defense counsel immediately objected, but the trial court, characterizing the prosecutor’s statement as an inference, concluded that the prosecutor’s statement was permissible.
The prosecutor continued:
Well, maybe he doesn’t do it during the ride, but the act of putting this slug into this weapon is an intent, an intent to use this gun, use it with a slug. It’s not the bird shot, or whatever you would use for small game. This is a slug, this is a three quarter ounce piece of lead. That’s his first act of intent.
* * *
[Defendant] and Mills are headed towards the gas station with him intent on lolling Keith. As [Wr]igley puts it, he wanted to feel what it was like to kill. And what you find from the pictures and the video [of the crime scene] is that is what his intent was when he went in that station, first to kill.
What do they do? They drive down the front. Here is Ogden Road. They drive in front of the station. And here are the windows. Keith is seated here. They *96can see that he’s alone, seated there doing his job. They continue down. And they go down the road between the Texaco and—
Defense counsel, citing the lack of evidentiary support for the prosecutor’s statements, again objected. The trial court instructed the prosecutor not to ask for speculation and exhorted him to ask merely for inferences based on the record. The prosecutor did not heed the court. He next stated to the jury: “Pulled down Georgetown Road and park. Mills is going to — he’s going to be the getaway driver. What does Feaster do? It’s loaded — not now — .” Defense counsel objected for a third time. At a sidebar conference, the trial court concluded that the prosecutor’s comments were proper. When defense counsel questioned the eviden-tiary basis for the prosecutor’s statement that Mills was the getaway driver, the prosecutor insisted that he had never made that statement.
The prosecutor went on in the same vein:
The second act of his intent of this premeditation to kill is, Sergeant Hannigan says you can pull the trigger all day long on this shotgun and it doesn’t go off. All day long. What do you have to do in order for the shotgun to fire? You have to cock the hammer back. That act is intent to use this to kill someone, armed with the pumpkin ball slug in this gun. And that is done before he gets into the gas station, because he does not have time once he’s in the station to cock this gun. That is done while he is on his way into the station.
And how does he go? He goes along this way, from the bays, he sneaks across, and there is the door. Keith, who is looking out the windows, doesn’t see him because he’s coming from the blind side. And what does he do? With the hammer cocked, he shoulders into the door. Remember, it opens inside, from the inside. He shoulders in the door like this.
The prosecutor subsequently filled in the canvas painting a descriptive picture of the shooting and the assailants’ ride from the gas station.
After the prosecutor completed his summation, defense counsel futilely reiterated his objections. Because defense counsel had already given his closing argument, he could not respond to the prosecutor’s remarks.
Several aspects of the prosecutor’s closing argument went far beyond argument presenting reasonable inferences from the evidence. Due to the absence of the supporting evidence and any *97clarifying or cautionary instruction that the prosecutor’s remarks could at most be considered possible inferences to be drawn from the evidence, the jury likely believed those remarks were based directly on evidence in the State’s possession and that Mills was the source for the prosecutor’s narrative.
A prosecutor’s “summation ‘is limited to commenting upon the evidence and the reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom.’ ” State v. Johnson, 120 N.J. 263, 296, 576 A.2d 834 (1990) (quoting State v. Bucanis, 26 N.J. 45, 56, 138 A.2d 739, cert. denied, 357 U.S. 910, 78 S.Ct. 1157, 2 L. Ed.2d 1160 (1958)); accord State v. Chew, 150 N.J. 30, 84, 695 A.2d 1301 (1997), State v. Dixon, 125 N.J. 223, 259, 593 A.2d 266 (1991); State v. Zola, 112 N.J. 384, 426, 548 A.2d 1022 (1988); State v. Smith, 27 N.J. 433, 460, 142 A.2d 890 (1958). As Justice Brennan expounded:
No authority questions that the broadest latitude in summation must be allowed the prosecutor and defense counsel alike to advocate their respective positions before the jury in order that justice and right be done. But every statement of the rule in our own reports emphasizes that comment must be restrained within the facts shown or reasonably suggested by the evidence adduced.
[State v. Bogen, 13 N.J. 137, 140, 98 A.2d 295 (1953).]
Despite this Court’s repeated admonitions to prosecutors regarding the legal and ethical requirement to base closing arguments on the evidence in the record, see, e.g., State v. Farrell, 61 N.J. 99, 104, 293 A.2d 176 (1972), many portions of the prosecutor’s account of the crime exceeded the permissible seeking of reasonable inferences from the evidence presented at trial and sharing those inferences — as inferences — with the jury.
Despite the majority’s contrary assertions, the prosecutor’s characterization of Mills as the otherwise-innocent getaway driver finds minimal support in the record evidence. Though the evidence suggests that Mills drove to and from the crime scene, it hardly establishes that Mills never alighted from the driver’s seat of Burkhardt’s ear. No evidence shows that Mills merely waited in the car during the robbery and killing. While defendant had planned to commit a robbery before he secured Mills’s involvement, that fact also fails to substantiate the prosecutor’s deeming *98Mills the passive getaway driver. The majority holds that the prosecutor’s characterization of Mills as the getaway driver, “although approaching the fine line that separates forceful from impermissible closing argument, [was a] fair inferenee[] to be drawn from the record.” Ante at 62, 716 A.2d at 425 (internal quotations and citation omitted). In my opinion, the prosecutor crossed the line. Given that hardly any evidence supported the inference that Mills was nothing more than a passive getaway driver, the prosecutor’s bald, unqualified, declarative assertion that Mills played an insubstantial role was improper. The statement was one of fact, not inference, and it was too attenuated to be passed off as a fact or inevitable inference.
The Court acknowledges that the prosecutor’s comment that defendant loaded and cocked the gun during the car ride was improper. See ante at 62, 716 A.2d at 425. The prosecutor’s assertion that defendant loaded and cocked the gun in the car finds absolutely no support in the record. The gun could have been loaded long before defendant retrieved it from Tina Shiplee’s trunk; perhaps the gun was loaded when Daniel Kaighn lent it to defendant. Not a shred of evidence suggests that the gun was not loaded when Mills and defendant left the Columbia Cafe. The claim that defendant cocked the gun while in the car is similarly far-fetched. It does not take long to cock a gun.' Defendant could have cocked it at any time, including the second before shooting the victim. Thus, the prosecutor’s declaration that defendant loaded and cocked the gun while Mills drove him to the gas station has no support in the record and was highly inappropriate.
The Court also concedes that the prosecutor’s pronouncements that defendant shouldered the door in a specific manner and approached Donaghy from the blind side constituted prosecutorial misconduct. See ante at 63, 716 A.2d at 426. The record contained no evidentiary basis for those comments.
By speaking in short, staccato, declarative sentences, the prosecutor presented his unreasonable inferences as incontrovertible *99facts. The manner in which the prosecutor named Mills the getaway driver gave unwarranted weight to the impermissible inference made from the attenuated evidence adduced at trial. Similarly, the way the prosecutor confidently described how defendant purportedly loaded and cocked the gun during the ride to the gas station obfuscated the fact that the allegations had absolutely no evidentiary support and imported an inaccurate aura of authenticity into the prosecutor’s unfounded accusations. The manner in which the prosecutor delivered his closing argument accentuates the impropriety of the prosecutor’s summation and escalates the prejudicial impact on defendant.
Though finding several of the prosecutor’s comments to be “inappropriate,” the Court is “not persuaded that in the context of the entire trial the prosecutor’s comments had the capacity to deprive defendant of a fair trial.” Ante at 63, 716 A.2d at 426. I disagree. In my opinion, the summation prejudiced defendant and that the prosecutorial misconduct was “‘so egregious that it deprived defendant of a fair trial.’ ” State v. Harvey, 151 N.J. 117, 216, 699 A.2d 596 (1997) (Harvey II) (quoting State v. Ramseur, 106 N.J. 123, 322, 524 A.2d 188 (1987)). Accordingly, I believe that reversal of defendant’s purposeful-or-knowing murder conviction and death sentence is mandated. See State v. Rose, 112 N.J. 454, 524, 548 A.2d 1058 (1988) (reversing death sentence because prosecutorial misconduct deprived defendant of fair penalty trial).
As the Court recognizes: “In resolving whether the misconduct is prejudicial and thus denied defendant a fair trial, we will consider whether counsel registered a timely objection, whether the remark was withdrawn promptly, and whether the court struck the remarks and ordered the jury to disregard them.” Ante at 59, 716 A.2d at 424. All of these factors serve to undermine defendant’s murder conviction and death sentence. During the prosecutor’s summation, defense counsel objected several times. With the exception of one minor qualification, the prosecutor never withdrew his remarks. Moreover, the trial *100court, deeming the summation proper, did not strike any of the prosecutor’s improper remarks.
Referring to matters outside the record is a serious transgression from the prosecutor’s duty to deliver a summation based on the evidence adduced at trial. E.g., Bogen, 13 N.J. at 139-41, 98 A.2d 295; see also ABA Standards for Criminal Justice § 3-5.8a (3d ed. 1993) (ABA Standards) (“In closing argument to the jury, the prosecutor may argue all reasonable inferences from evidence in the record. The prosecutor should not intentionally misstate the evidence or mislead the jury as to the inferences it may draw.”); id. at § 3-5.8, comment (“Assertions of fact not proven amount to unsworn testimony of the advocate and are not subject to cross-examination.”); id. at § 3-5.9 (“The prosecutor should not intentionally refer to or argue on the basis of facts outside the record.”). The egregiousness of the prosecutor’s conduct is intensified in this case because the apparent source for the prosecutor’s extra-record assertions was Mills’s statement, which was not subject to cross-examination. Referring to extra-record matters within one’s personal knowledge is one of the gravest forms of prosecutorial misconduct.
The [prosecutor] is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a ease, but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor — indeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one.
It is fair to say that the average jury, in a greater or less degree, has confidence that these obligations, which so plainly rest upon the prosecuting attorney, will be faithfully observed. Consequently, improper suggestions, insinuations, and, especially, assertions of personal knowledge are apt to cany much weight against the accused when they should properly cany none.
[Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 88, 55 S.Ct. 629, 633, 79 L. Ed. 1314, 1321 (1935) (emphasis added).]
See also New Jersey Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC) 3.4e (forbidding attorneys from “asserting] personal knowledge of *101facts in issue”). In this case, little, if any, evidence adduced at trial supported the prosecutor’s assertions that Mills was a mere getaway driver, that defendant loaded and cocked the gun during the ride to the gas station, and that defendant approached Dona-ghy from the blind side. Yet, the jury was aware that Mills, prior to committing suicide, had spoken to police. The jury knew that Mills had informed police officers of the location of the discarded gun. It is thus extremely likely, given the prosecutor’s dogmatic presentation, that the jury inferred that Mills had told the police his version of events surrounding the robbery and murder, and readily surmised that Mills’s statement to police was the source for the prosecutor’s extra-record allegations.
While the prosecutor neither expressly used Mills’s statement to fill the evidentiary gaps nor explicitly attributed to Mills the factual information that he imparted, the appearance of the prosecutor illicitly referring to the statement was unmistakable. Although the jury was unaware of the actual contents of Mills’s statement, because the prosecutor confidently told the jury what had happened after Mills and defendant had left the Columbia Cafe, the jury could not know that the prosecutor’s summation did not parrot Mills’s statement.
The prosecutor’s summation carried tremendous weight.
[B]ecause the prosecutor represents the government and people of the State, it is reasonable to say that jurors have confidence that he will fairly fulfill his duty to see that justice is done whether by conviction of the guilty or acquittal of the innocent. His comments in summation whether proper or improper carry with them the authority of all he represents. It is unlikely a juror will believe a prosecutor would intentionally mislead him.
[Farrell, supra, 61 N.J. at 105, 293 A.2d 176 (citation omitted).]
Accord Berger, supra, 295 U.S. at 88, 55 S.Ct. at 633, 79 L. Ed. at 1321; see also ABA Standards, supra, § 3-5.8, comment (“The prosecutor’s argument is likely to have significant persuasive force with the jury. Accordingly, the scope of argument must be consistent with the evidence and marked by the fairness that should characterize all of the prosecutor’s conduct. Prosecutorial conduct in argument is a matter of special concern because of the possibility that the jury will give special weight to the prosecutor’s *102arguments, not only because of the prestige associated with the prosecutor’s office, but also because of the fact-finding facilities presumably available to the office.”). In finding the prosecutorial misconduct harmless, the majority chooses to underestimate the power of the prosecutor’s summation. When juxtaposed against this Court’s commitment to guard against prosecutorial misconduct in capital cases, see Ramseur, supra, 106 N.J. at 323-24, 524 A.2d 188, that choice is most difficult to comprehend. The prosecutor’s baseless allegations impacted the jury’s guilt-phase finding that defendant had intended to kill Donaghy and that defendant had killed by his own conduct. In addition, by unjustifiably embellishing defendant’s premeditation, the prosecutor’s summation affected the jury’s penalty-phase verdict.
The prosecutor’s characterization of Mills as a mere getaway driver tainted the own-conduct determination. By asserting that Mills was the passive getaway driver, the prosecutor likely distorted the jury’s view of the testimony, which contained minimal evidence suggesting that Mills simply sat in the car while defendant went into the gas station. The prosecutor virtually foreclosed the possibility that Mills could have shot Donaghy by asserting, without support or qualification, that Mills merely waited in the car while defendant committed the robbery and murder.
The prosecutor’s unfounded allegations that defendant loaded and cocked the gun during the ride to the gas station and that defendant blindsided Donaghy likely contaminated the jury’s finding that the homicide was purposeful or knowing. At a minimum, those accusations, which exaggerated defendant’s premeditation, corrupted the jury’s decision to sentence defendant to die. See State v. Marshall, 130 N.J. 109, 155, 613 A.2d 1059 (1992) (.Marshall II) (recognizing degree of premeditation influences death-worthiness), cert. denied, 507 U.S. 929, 113 S.Ct. 1306, 122 L. Ed.2d 694 (1993). The prosecutor’s comments critically bolstered the State’s theory that defendant intended to kill when he designed the plan to rob the gas station.
*103Although the trial court instructed the jury that it had to rely on its own, rather than the attorneys’, recollection of the facts, defendant’s murder conviction and death sentence cannot stand. The prosecutor’s summation caused irremediable damage and rendered the court’s admonition impotent. The prosecutor’s unjustified allegations concerned the critical issues of premeditation and own conduct. Moreover, the declarations were not even phrased as requests that the jury draw certain inferences; rather, they were stated as factual and evidential in nature. Given the nature of the remarks and the trial court’s refusal to cure the error despite counsel’s objections, the instruction could not have had a sufficiently curative effect to counter the prejudice that the prosecutor’s remarks likely engendered.
Likewise, the prosecutorial misconduct requires reversal despite the existence of evidence suggesting that defendant, by his own conduct, purposefully murdered Donaghy. Though defendant allegedly made numerous statements in which he admitted to fatally shooting Donaghy, doubts regarding whether those statements were ever made precludes a finding that the prosecutor’s characterization of Mills as a mere getaway driver was harmless. The witnesses accusing defendant of having admitted to committing the murder gave testimony that contradicted other witnesses’ and sometimes their own testimony. In addition, defense counsel vigorously impeached those witnesses, who either had criminal records or promises of a reward conditioned upon defendant’s murder conviction. Moreover, many of these witnesses were drug users who were under the influence of drugs or alcohol on the night of the crimes. Besides, Mills’s suicide illustrates a consciousness of guilt that could give rise to the inference that he, not defendant, was the triggerman. Therefore, the prosecutorial misconduct tainted the own-conduct determination.
The circumstantial evidence implying that the killing of Dona-ghy was intentional paled in comparison to the prosecutor’s ungrounded assertions that defendant had loaded and cocked the gun during the ear ride and had blindsided Donaghy. Even *104assuming that the prosecutorial misconduct did not infect the jury’s determination that the murder of Donaghy was purposeful or knowing, the baseless allegations of premeditation affected the penalty-phase deliberations. A defendant’s degree of premeditation critically influences his deathworthiness. See State v. Martini, 139 N.J. 3, 53, 651 A.2d 949 (1994) (Martini II), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 875, 116 S.Ct. 203, 133 L. Ed.2d 137 (1995); Marshall II, supra, 130 N.J. at 155, 613 A.2d 1059. The prosecutor’s unfounded exaggeration of defendant’s premeditation contaminated the penalty-phase deliberations.
The prosecutor’s characterization of Mills as a mere getaway driver requires reversal of the own-conduct determination. Furthermore, the prosecutor’s unjustified allegations that defendant loaded and cocked the gun while Mills drove to the gas station and that defendant approached Donaghy from the blind side compel reversal of the purposeful-or-knowing murder conviction. At a minimum, those accusations poisoned the penalty-phase deliberations and mandate reversal of defendant’s death sentence.
B.
The guilt-phase summation was not the only instance in which the prosecutor acted improperly. During his opening and closing arguments in the penalty phase, the prosecutor argued that defendant’s presentation of mitigating evidence amounted to an attempt to evade personal responsibility for the commission of the robbery and murder.
In his penalty-phase opening statement, the prosecutor argued:
Use your common sense. Ask yourselves what they present, is that based on a real fact? Is that based on something or is it an exaggeration? Do they have in mind a specific diagnosis they want to reach and then pick and choose the facts that fit that diagnosis, and then ask yourselves what does that have to do with this man[’s] coldly, calculated, preplanned murder of Keith Donaghy.
What it really comes down to is requiring Mr. Feaster to accept personal responsibility, personal responsibility for his acts. Mir. Feaster is personally responsible for the ultimate act, the killing of the innocent Keith Donaghy. That’s the ultimate act and he should be required to accept the ultimate responsibility for that act and that’s the death penalty.
*105In response to defense counsel’s objection and motion for a mistrial, the prosecutor once again denied that he had made the statement to which defense counsel objected.1 This time, the prosecutor claimed that he had never implied that defendant sought to avoid personal responsibility by offering mitigating evidence. Based on the prosecutor’s misrepresentation, the court overruled the objection and denied defendant’s motion for a mistrial.
In his penalty-phase summation, the prosecutor again failed to refrain from referring to personal responsibility. He began his summation as follows: “Ladies and gentlemen, it comes down to personal responsibility. Richard Feaster is personally responsible for the ultimate act, killing of an innocent human being, and he must be held responsible for that act.”
I concur with the Court’s conclusion that the prosecutor’s argument was improper. See ante at 86-87, 716 A.2d at 438; see also State v. Bey, 129 N.J. 557, 620-21, 610 A.2d 814 (1992) (Bey III) (holding prosecutor’s comment that defendant’s mitigating evidence was “not an excuse” had been improper), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 1164, 115 S.Ct. 1131, 130 L. Ed.2d 1093 (1995). However, I disagree with the Court’s approach of only considering independently this instance of prosecutorial misconduct. Rather, to measure its effects, the misconduct should be aggregated. When considered in its entirety, the prosecutorial misconduct was not harmless.
C.
The prosecutor again acted improperly when he cross-examined two defense experts. At the penalty phase, Frank Dyer, a *106psychologist, and Robert Latimer, a psychiatrist, testified that defendant was amenable to rehabilitation. The prosecutor construed the defense’s line of questioning as an invitation to demonstrate defendant’s alleged future dangerousness, an impermissible nonstatutory aggravating factor.
The cross-examination of Dyer proceeded as follows:
Q: You talk about rehabilitation in prison, if he learns a straight trade, that’s going to rehabilitate him?
A It would equip him with the means of making a living.
Q: Okay.
A I’m not saying that in and of itself is going to produce rehabilitation.
Q: But that would be part of — in your evaluation of Mr. Feaster, the trade would help in rehabilitating him from committing other crimes?
A: That would play a role.
Q: Did you read Ms. Feldman’s report about Mr. Feaster and his selling of the money — selling of the drugs for money?
A Yes.
Q: Okay. And in that he describes how he saw the other people selling drugs and realized that they made more money than he did and didn’t have to work as hard, is that correct?
A Yes.
Q: Okay. And that he began selling these drugs at night after graduating from high school. He further describes how he worked 12 hours a day doing concrete work, would come home in the evening, wash, eat, and go out selling drugs. He said he did this to make money. How is that consistent with, if you teach Richard Feaster a trade, he will be rehabilitated?
A Well, as I stated before, I did not testify that merely teaching him a trade would affect his rehabilitation, but that it would further that cause.
Q: Okay. But as he’s describing this to Ms. Feldman, he already has a trade, he’s working, concrete, but he wants to make easier money later that night.
A This defendant’s perspective on life matters, I think, would change during the lengthy period of incarceration.
Q: Yes. Because he would be in a state prison with other felons, correct?
A: Well, I think it would be because he would be deprived of his liberty for an extended period of time.
Q: He’s deprived of liberty, in contact with other felons, is that correct?
A: Well, yes.
Q: And the tendency there is to learn from those other people?
A: I don’t know if I would state that with any degree of certainty.
Q: Well, that’s part of it, isn’t it?
*107A: Well, optim[ally] he would learn from the people who were attempting to teach him a trade, educate him and counsel him.
Q: The other side is if you have a tendency to commit crimes and that’s what you want to do, that’s a good school to be in for an extended period of time?
A: Well, I will concede that.
After cross-examining Latimer regarding testimony that defendant was very impulsive and was prone to losing control when under stress, the prosecutor embarked on this line of questioning:
Q: What is the bottom line as far as what made him kill an innocent human being?
A: ... This is a young man who’s very troubled, who comes from a very troubled home, who has a hole in his head from atrophy of the frontal lobe on the lobe that controls judgment and thought-out activities, who has a low IQ to the level of borderline retardation, who is under stress, who is awaiting to go into the Marines, who has a horrible child upbringing with a great deal of repressed anger and at a given moment commits a planned act that goes sour.
Q: What would you say about the stress that is present in a prison system?
A: I don’t understand; you have to be more specific.
Q: Would you say that’s a stressful situation, being in a prison?
A: Prison and divorce are just about the two most stressful things I hear from the statisticians. Death in the family, prison, divorce is right up there, but you have to understand that human beings are adaptive machines. Our brain is nothing but a machine to adapt. People adapted to the concentration camps. We can adapt to loss of loved ones. We can adapt to the most unfortunate circumstances, because that is a function of our brain. We are machines of adaptation, so I think that he can adapt to the prison system.
It certainly will take a long time, and in the prisons people are put on suicide watch routinely, especially in lock-ups, in jails. The most frequent suicide takes place in the police lock-ups, in the city jails, because—
Q: How do you think that would affect Mr. Feaster, the stress in prison?
A: It’s going to affect him the same as it affects most people who are in prison. It’s a terrible thing.
Q: Would you say that it’s more stressful than going into the Marines?2
A: Of course, certainly.
*108The prosecutor’s cross-examination of Dyer and Latimer exceeded mere rebuttal of evidence pertaining to defendant’s capacity for rehabilitation, one of defendant’s proposed catch-all mitigating factors, and instead improperly attempted to establish that defendant’s alleged future dangerousness justified the imposition of a death sentence. See State v. Coyle, 119 N.J. 194, 230-31, 574 A.2d 951 (1990) (forbidding State from advancing future dangerousness nonstatutory aggravating factor); Rose, supra, 112 N.J. at 520-21, 548 A.2d 1058 (same); Ramseur, supra, 106 N.J. at 321, 524 A.2d 188 (same). During the cross-examination of Dyer, the prosecutor made generalizations about prison life and strongly implied that defendant, due to his tendency toward criminality, learn from other prisoners to commit more crimes. Similarly, while cross-examining Latimer, the prosecutor suggested that the stress of prison life would cause defendant to lose control and act impulsively. These lines of questioning pertained to defendant’s alleged future dangerousness. In both instances, the prosecutor took the conclusions of defendant’s mitigation experts — that defendant was amenable to rehabilitation in a structured prison environment and that stress predisposed defendant to lose control— and, instead of rebutting the conclusions by attempting to prove their falsity, used them as aggravating circumstances. In addition to appropriately asserting that prison would not rehabilitate defendant and that defendant’s lack of control was not a mitigating circumstance, the prosecutor contended that if defendant were allowed to spend his life in prison, incarceration would make him a hardened criminal and cause him to lose control and act on that enhanced criminality. A prosecutor cannot utilize mitigating evidence to show that a defendant is a future danger. A vast distinction exists between undermining mitigating evidence and accepting that evidence as proof of a nonstatutory aggravating factor. By doing the latter, the prosecutor acted improperly.
The Court determines that if the prosecutor had improperly asserted the future dangerous nonstatutory aggravating factor, the court’s curative instruction rendered the error harmless. Ante at 89, 716 A.2d at 439. I do not agree. I believe that the *109assertion of defendant’s alleged future dangerousness, when considered along with the prosecutor’s improper comments at the guilt-phase and penalty-phase summations and the penalty-phase opening argument, necessitates reversal of defendant’s death sentence. See State v. Pennington, 119 N.J. 547, 611, 575 A.2d 816 (1990) (Handler, J., concurring and dissenting) (concluding assertions of future dangerousness, among other prosecutorial misconduct, required reversal of death sentence); State v. Long, 119 N.J. 439, 526-27, 575 A.2d 435 (1990) (Handler, J., concurring and dissenting) (same).
D.
The Court has often forcefully condemned prosecutorial misconduct. Forty-three years ago, Chief Justice Vanderbilt wrote:
A public prosecutor must not only be zealous in enforcing the law, he must consistently refrain from any conduct that is lacking in the essentials of fair play. Where his conduct has crossed the line and resulted in foul play, we have not hesitated to reverse the decision below and remand it for a new trial. The right to a fair trial must be preserved by every means at our command.
[State v. D’Ippolito, 19 N.J. 540, 550, 117 A.2d 592 (1955).]
See also State v. West, 29 N.J. 327, 338, 149 A.2d 217 (1959) (“[The prosecutor] is not an ordinary adversary; he represents the State whose interest is served by an untainted judgment firmly rooted in facts alone.”). Despite the fact that the prosecutor in this case crossed the line and engaged in foul play, the Court hesitates to reverse defendant’s murder conviction and death sentence. In so doing, the majority disregards this Court’s pledge to patrol vigilantly prosecutorial misconduct in capital cases. In Ramseur, supra, 106 N.J. at 323-24, 524 A.2d 188, this Court wrote:
Prosecutors in capital eases are hereby on notice that in the future, this Court will not hesitate to refer on its own motion possible violations of the special ethical rules governing prosecutors to the appropriate district ethics committee for disciplinary action. We are well aware that within the legal profession the prosecutor’s double calling — to represent vigorously the state’s interest in law enforcement and at the same time help assure that the accused is treated fairly and that justice is done — is uniquely challenging. That challenge is what makes the prosecutor’s mission such a difficult one and such an honorable one. A prosecutor willing to engage in proscribed conduct to obtain a conviction in a capital case betrays his oath in both *110its respects. Not only does he scoff at rather than, seek justice, he also represents the state poorly. Because death is a uniquely harsh sanction, this Court of necessity will more readily find prejudice resulting from prosecutorial misconduct in a capital case than in other criminal matters; prosecutors who fail to take seriously their particularly stringent ethical obligations in capital cases thus strongly risk postponing, and even jeopardizing, the enforcement of the law. We are confident that our prosecutors will be equal to this ethical challenge, but we also stand ready to take whatever action is required to remedy any abuses.
[ (emphasis added).]
In this ease, the majority does not assiduously guard against prosecutorial excess. Rather, the Court deceptively deflates the prejudicial impact of the prosecutorial misconduct by isolating each instance of impropriety and overstating the strength of the State’s case against defendant.
Sadly, the Court’s decision is not an aberration. With the exception of Rose, supra, 112 N.J. at 524, 548 A.2d 1058, this Court has repeatedly rejected powerful claims of prosecutorial misconduct in capital cases. See Harvey II, supra, 151 N.J. at 216-20, 699 A.2d 596; State v. Marshall, 123 N.J. 1, 152-64, 586 A.2d 85 (1991) (Marshall I), cert. denied, 507 U.S. 929, 113 S.Ct. 1306, 122 L. Ed.2d 694 (1993); State v. Hightower, 120 N.J. 378, 411-12, 577 A.2d 99 (1990) (Hightower I); State v. Koedatich, 112 N.J. 225, 320-25, 548 A.2d 939 (1988) (Koedatich I); State v. Biegenwald, 106 N.J. 13, 40-41, 524 A.2d 130 (1987) {Biegenwald II); Ramseur, supra, 106 N.J. at 323, 524 A.2d 188. By not reversing defendant’s capital-murder conviction and death sentence despite deplorable and prejudicial prosecutorial misconduct, this Court’s promise in Biegenwald II, supra, 106 N.J. at 40, 524 A.2d 130, to “scrupulously review” claims of prosecutorial misconduct in capital cases appears illusory.
II
The trial court imposed maximum sentences on defendant’s robbery and possession of an unlawful weapon convictions. The court sentenced defendant to a consecutive twenty-year prison term with a ten-year parole disqualifier for robbing Donaghy. It sentenced defendant to a concurrent five-year prison term with a *111two-and-one-half-year parole disqualifier for possessing a sawed-off shotgun.
In the penalty-phase charge, the court informed the jury of the maximum sentences for defendant’s noncapital convictions. The court did not tell the jury that it would, or was likely to, impose consecutive sentences. The court also instructed the jury that “[t]he possible sentences for the other convictions should not influence your decision regarding the appropriateness of a death sentence on the murder charge.” In my opinion, by not informing the jury that it was likely to impose a consecutive sentence for the robbery conviction, the court committed reversible error. See State v. Harris, 156 N.J. 122, 246-50, 716 A.2d 458 (1998) (Handler, J., dissenting). The court’s instruction to disregard the noncapital sentences was erroneous. See State v. Nelson, 155 N.J. 487, 504-05, 715 A.2d 281 (1998). The error demands reversal of defendant’s sentence. See id. at 527, 715 A.2d 281 (Handler, J., dissenting).
The court’s likelihood of imposing a consecutive sentence on the robbery conviction can be inferred from its ultimate imposition and the history of courts consistently imposing consecutive sentences in capital eases. In Harris, supra, 156 N.J. at 246, 716 A.2d 525 (Handler, J., dissenting), State v. Morton, 155 N.J. 383, 410, 715 A.2d 228 (1998), and State v. Nelson, 155 N.J. 487, 496, 715 A.2d 281 (1998), the trial courts imposed maximum consecutive sentences on each defendant’s noncapital convictions. The trial court in State v. Martini, 131 N.J. 176, 207, 619 A.2d 1208 (1993) (Martini I), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 875, 116 S.Ct. 203, 133 L. Ed.2d 137 (1995), imposed the defendant’s capital sentence consecutively to his kidnapping sentence. In Loftin, supra, 146 N.J. at 333, 680 A.2d 677, the court imposed the defendant’s capital sentence consecutively to the life sentence he received for committing a prior murder. Due to courts’ repeated imposition of consecutive sentences on capital defendants, one can fairly infer that, at the time of the penalty-phase charge, the trial court intended to levy *112the consecutive robbery sentence it ultimately imposed on defendant.
Had the jury been aware that defendant would not have been eligible for parole for forty years, the highly subjective penalty-phase deliberations may have been affected. If defendant had not been sentenced to death, his commission of the robbery and murder in this case would have precluded his parole eligibility until defendant reached the age of sixty-two, an age at which people rarely engage in violent criminal behavior. In State v. Davis, 96 N.J. 611, 617, 477 A.2d 308 (1984), this Court held that empirical data regarding the diminished criminality of men over fifty-five years old was relevant and admissible at the penalty phase of a capital trial. In so holding, the Court recognized that evidence of the inverse correlation between age and criminality can affect the jury’s determination of a capital defendant’s sentence. In this case, had the jury known that defendant could not be eligible for parole until he was sixty-two, as opposed to believing that defendant would be parole-eligible at age fifty-two, the jury’s subtle and sophisticated weighing process could have yielded a different sentence. Thus, I conclude that the trial court’s failure to inform the jury that it would likely impose the robbery sentences consecutively on defendant was not harmless. On that basis alone, the Court should vacate defendant’s death sentence.
In my opinion, the trial court should have instructed the jury that it could consider defendant’s parole ineligibility as mitigating evidence. See Loftin, supra, 146 N.J. at 428, 680 A.2d 677 (Handler, J., dissenting). Moreover, I believe that instructing the jury to disregard defendant’s noncapital sentence is irrational and confusing. See id. at 427, 680 A.2d 677 (Handler, J., dissenting); see also Nelson, supra, 155 N.J. at 523-26, 715 A.2d 281 (Handler, J., concurring) (stating consequences of defendant’s other, noncap-ital sentences should be explained to jury and considered as mitigating evidence). The Court has repeatedly required trial *113courts to inform juries of the practical effects of their sentences. See id. at 370, 680 A.2d 677; Martini I, supra, 131 N.J. at 311, 619 A.2d 1208; Bey III, supra, 129 N.J. at 601, 610 A.2d 814. Yet, requiring juries to disregard defendant’s aggregate noncapi-tal sentence “has the effect of ... telling them to be ‘blind’ to this fact.” Loftin, supra, 146 N.J. at 427, 680 A.2d 677. In order to protect defendant’s rights to fundamental fairness and to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, the jury should be able to consider defendant’s noncapital sentences when determining whether he lives or dies.
Therefore, I conclude that defendant’s death sentence should be reversed because the trial court did not inform the jury that the court would likely impose a consecutive sentence on the robbery conviction and because the court instructed the jury to disregard defendant’s noncapital sentences.
Ill
Defendant’s trial was riddled with errors. In addition to the court’s guilt-phase charge being internally contradictory and incorrect, pernicious prosecutorial misconduct pervaded the guilt and penalty phases. Moreover, the trial court’s ultimate-outcome instruction was erroneous and prejudicial. The Court disregards these defects and affirms defendant’s convictions and death sentence. I dissent.

RPC 3.3(a)(1) forbids attorneys from knowingly ”mak[ing3 a false statement of material fact ... to a tribunal.” If the prosecutor was aware that he was falsely denying that he had made improper comments to the court, he twice committed a severe violation of his ethical obligation to be candid toward the tribunal. The fact that-he made two false denials suggest that his misrepresentations were not accidental.

 The reference to the Marines came from the fact that, at the time of the murder, defendant was about to join the Marines, which according to Kevin Wrigley was one reason why defendant wanted to know what it was like to kill. The prosecutor insinuated that because the stress of entering the Marines caused defendant to kill, the stress of being incarcerated could have a similar effect.