Court Opinion

ID: 9619557
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:29:42.657666+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:42.275104
License: Public Domain

SOSA, Senior Justice, specially concurring. I concur with the affirmance of the convictions in this case for the reasons stated in the majority opinion. I respectfully dissent on the issue of the imposition of the death penalty. I would hold that the Capital Felony Sentencing Act, NMSA 1978, Sections 31-20A-1 through 31-20A-6 (Repl.Pamp.1981) violates the Fourteenth and Eighth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and Article II, Sections 13 and 18 of the N.M. Constitution. Initially, the relevant Uniform Jury Instructions do not provide clear and objective standards to guide the jury’s sentencing decision. While the defendant and the crime may only be considered in mitigation, and not in aggravation, the jury is not instructed to this effect. This belies the fact that no effective guidance is provided the jury in its determination whether aggravating circumstances outweigh mitigating circumstances. In addition, the New Mexico death penalty provisions do not provide for meaningful proportionality review as is evidenced by the cursory discussion in the majority opinion comparing the circumstances, crimes, defendant’s history and sentences in the instant case with those of other cases. Finally, both the Uniform Jury Instructions and the sentencing statute allow for unequal treatment of equally culpable defendants. For these reasons, which I discuss in greater detail in my specially concurring opinion in State v. Garcia, 99 N.M. 771, 664 P.2d 969, cert. denied, — U.S. -, 103 S.Ct. 2464, 77 L.Ed.2d 1341 (1983), I would remand this cause for the imposition of a sentence of life imprisonment.