Haberstroh v. State, 18617
| Decision Date | 27 November 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 18617,18617 |
| Citation | 782 P.2d 1343,105 Nev. 739 |
| Parties | Richard Lee HABERSTROH, Appellant, v. The STATE of Nevada, Respondent. |
| Court | Nevada Supreme Court |
On July 21, 1986, Richard Lee Haberstroh abducted a woman from a grocery store parking lot. Haberstroh then took his victim into the desert outside Las Vegas, where he robbed her, sexually assaulted her, and, finally, strangled her. The strangulation caused irreparable brain damage, which ultimately resulted in the woman's death.
A jury found Haberstroh guilty of the murder and sentenced him to death. The jury also convicted Haberstroh of first-degree kidnapping, sexual assault, and robbery, each with the use of a deadly weapon. Haberstroh received four consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole for the kidnapping and sexual assault convictions and two consecutive fifteen-year sentences for the robbery conviction.
Haberstroh now asserts that certain of the prosecutor's arguments during the sentencing phase of his trial constituted prosecutorial misconduct and warrant a new penalty hearing. We disagree.
In his final argument to the jury, the prosecutor argued that in light of Haberstroh's past conduct in prisons, the imposition of the death penalty was the only way to be sure Haberstroh would not kill again. In support of his argument, the prosecutor relied on evidence present in the penalty hearing which indicated that Haberstroh, while serving a term in a federal prison, masterminded an escape plot that included the taking of hostages at gunpoint. The prosecutor's evidence further revealed that Haberstroh, while serving yet another prison term, had fashioned a deadly weapon out of a piece of metal and used it to threaten the life of a prison guard in another escape attempt. The prosecutor finally pointed to evidence showing that Haberstroh had acquired and concealed a piece of angle iron in the Clark County jail just two days before his penalty hearing in this case.
When there is evidence, as in this case, of a defendant's past conduct which supports a reasonable inference that even incarceration will not deter the defendant from endangering others' lives, a prosecutor is entitled to ask the jury to draw that inference. See State v. Green, 81 Nev. 173, 176, 400 P.2d 766, 767 (1965). The prosecutor is further entitled to ask jurors to consider that inference when deciding whether to impose the death penalty. See Skipper v. South Carolina, 476 U.S. 1, 5, 106 S.Ct. 1669, 1671, 90 L.Ed.2d 1 (1986). "Consideration of a defendant's past conduct as indicative of his probable future behavior is an inevitable and not undesirable element of criminal sentencing." Id.
This is not a case in which the prosecutor made purely speculative predictions as to a defendant's improbable rehabilitation and future propensity to kill in an attempt to persuade the jury to impose the death penalty. See Flanagan v. State, 104 Nev. 105, 754 P.2d 836 (Adv.Opn. No. 20, May 18, 1988); Collier v. State, 101 Nev. 473, 705 P.2d 1126 (1985). Here, the evidence of the defendant's past conduct in prisons and jails justified the prosecutor's argument that unless executed, Haberstroh may continue to pose a threat to the lives of others. The prosecutor did not, in this instance, violate the dictates of Collier.
Haberstroh argues that the prosecutor also committed misconduct when he referred to the jury as "the conscience of the community." To the extent the comment can be considered misconduct, the court's admonition that the jury disregard the statement cured any possible prejudice. See Snow v. State, 101 Nev. 439, 447, 705 P.2d 632, 638 (1985). Therefore, we conclude that Haberstroh received a fair penalty hearing.
Haberstroh also raises a number of contentions concerning the fairness of the guilt phase of his trial. We have carefully considered these contentions and conclude that each lacks merit. Accordingly, we affirm each of Haberstroh's convictions and the corresponding sentences.
Our case law is well settled: a prosecuting attorney may not argue to a death penalty jury that a murder convict should be executed because he is a threat to kill other innocent victims in the future. 1 For example, in Collier we said it was improper for the attorney to argue that "there was but one 'rational' solution," namely, "to execute Collier before he could kill again." Collier, 101 Nev. at 478, 705 P.2d at 1129.
There are sound reasons for not permitting a prosecutor to make this kind of argument to a jury that is making a life or death decision. First, it should be remembered that capital punishment, as the term implies, is imposed in order to punish for bad deeds already committed, not to cull out villains who are thought by state officials to be dangerous in the future. It must also be remembered that state's attorneys are powerful authority figures, representatives of the sovereign, and recognized as having special knowledge and sound judgment in the field of criminal justice. So, when the attorney for the state is allowed to stand up and address jurors, telling them that the only way to save the lives of innocent victims in the future is to terminate the life of the offender, such rhetoric is powerful indeed, almost irresistible. When this kind of argument is allowed, the critical decision of life or death tends to become more the state's than the jury's. In any event, although there may be arguments to the contrary, the established case law in Nevada bars this kind of argument by prosecuting attorneys.
Today, without stating any reasons, without stating any authority 2 and without expressly overruling Collier and the other cases, we approve the following argument: "[T]here's only one way to make sure that the person does not commit another crime like this ... and that is to impose the death penalty on Mr. Haberstroh." To say, as the majority opinion does, that this kind of statement does not "violate the dictates of Collier " is to ignore the plain dictates of Collier, which clearly proclaim that a prosecutor's arguing that the death penalty should be imposed so that the defendant will not "kill again" is impermissible. What we disapprove of yesterday, we approve of today.
I should probably stop here and simply say that I disagree with the majority opinion because I believe that if we are going to overrule Collier, Flanagan and Pellegrini, we should do so frankly and expressly and state reasons for our abrupt change of mind; but there is more to the majority opinion than this. The...
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