Court Opinion

ID: 9716512
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:42:34.03801+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:46.294240
License: Public Domain

*274Hennessey, J.
(concurring). I concur with the opinion of the Chief Justice, in result and reasoning, and in his conclusion that the mandatory death penalty for rape-murder violates both the due process guaranty of arts. 1, 10 and 12 of the Massachusetts Constitution and the cruel punishments proscription of art. 26.1
I of course disagree with the two dissenting Justices who urge that our decision in this case should await the decision of the United States Supreme Court in similar pending cases. We have a duty to face these issues, at least with reference to the Constitution of the Commonwealth, without regard to cases pending in the Supreme *275Court. In this case, and others which have been argued before us and not yet decided, we have been urged by persons under sentence of death to decide the issue. They are entitled to our prompt consideration. There may be further long delay before the Supreme Court disposes of relevant cases, and it may not then decide the issues.
A further reason why this court should proceed decisively at this time, without regard to the pace of the United States Supreme Court, is that Massachusetts is unique in the context of the death penalty controversy. Between 1947 and 1972 (the Furman case was decided in 1972) no person was executed in this Commonwealth. During that same period I take notice that the death sentences of twenty-five persons were commuted or reduced by executive action.2 During this time span seven different Governors served. There is the best of reasons to believe that the Constitution of the Commonwealth, a viable document, does not now permit capital punishment in rape-murder cases. There may be some kind of murders which may be shown to meet the test of compelling State interest which we have said is constitutionally required; perhaps crimes which in their characteristics are a peculiar and serious threat to public order and safety (e.g., murders related to terrorism and kidnapping) are of that order. Beyond that, if the present will of the people of the Commonwealth is that capital punishment should be permitted in some or all cases of murder in the first degree, procedures for amendment of the State Constitution which are relatively speedy, but still require time for reasonable reflection, are available to accomplish that end.

 I add that I also believe that all of the Justices of this court should have given further consideration, as an additional ground for our decision herein, to whether the United States Supreme Court has stated reasoning in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), which requires a conclusion that the death penalty as established in G. L. c. 265, §§ 1, 2, is proscribed, even as to rape-murder, by the Constitution of the United States. A majority of the Justices of the Supreme Court established by their opinions in the Furman case the unconstitutionality of sentencing practices which vest juries or judges with untrammeled discretion to determine whether the penalty should be death or life imprisonment. It can be argued that the law of this Commonwealth is that murder in the second degree must be submitted to the jury as a permissible verdict in every murder case, including rape-murder, regardless of circumstances. Commonwealth v. French, 357 Mass. 356, 405 (A-40) (1970). Commonwealth v. Chase, 350 Mass. 738, 744 (1966), cert. den. 385 U.S. 906 (1966). Commonwealth v. Desmarteau, 16 Gray 1, 8-11 (1860). Commonwealth v. Gardner, 11 Gray 438, 443, 445-446 (1858). See Commonwealth v. Corcione, 364 Mass. 611, 615-616 (1974); Commonwealth v. Rollins, 354 Mass. 630, 634 (1968). See also Green v. Commonwealth, 12 Allen 155, 166, 170-171 (1866). But see (as to rape-murder) Commonwealth v. McGarty, 323 Mass. 435, 441 (1948). From this it can be further argued that, since second degree murder is not punishable by the death penalty, the jury have unconstitutional untrammeled discretion in a rape-murder to choose between life imprisonment and the death penalty. It appears that dissenting Justices Reardon and Quirico would hold that the Furinan principle is not applicable here; Justice Braucher, as well, apparently took that position in O’Neal I. Chief Justice Tauro, in O’Neal I, also stated that the principle is not applicable. Justice Wilkins, joined by Justice Kaplan, infra, expressly states that he does not reach Federal constitutional grounds.

 Of the twenty-one other individuals sentenced to death between 1947 and the Furman decision, eighteen have had their sentences reduced because of the Furman decision, two received new trials and were found not guilty, and one committed suicide awaiting execution. See Cannon, First Degree Murder: The Post Conviction Experience in Massachusetts 15 (1974).