Jones v. People

• Decision Date: 22 June 1964
• Docket Number: No. 20505,20505
• Citation: 393 P.2d 366,155 Colo. 148
• Parties: LaVern Jackie JONES, Plaintiff in Error, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Defendant in Error.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 366

393 P.2d 366

155 Colo. 148

LaVern Jackie JONES, Plaintiff in Error, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Defendant in Error.

No. 20505.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

June 22, 1964.

Elizabeth L. Guyton, Rocky Ford, Thulemeyer & Stewart, La Junta, for plaintiff in error.

Duke W. Dunbar, Atty. Gen., Frank E. Hickey, Deputy Atty. Gen., John E. Bush, Asst. Atty. Gen., Denver, for defendant in error.

FRANTZ, Justice.

Jones is here by writ of error, seeking to have reversed the judgment and sentence entered on the verdict of the jury fixing his penalty at death for the murder of one Powell. As the basis for reversal, he asserts that the trial court committed prejudicial error in submitting to the jury the sole question of the punishment to be imposed.

After we had reversed the case of which this is the sequel (Jones v. People, 146 Colo. 40, 360 P.2d 686), the trial court determined that the issue of guilt need not be retried and that only the question of the penalty need be resolved by the jury. We had reversed the sentence of death originally imposed because Jones had been foreclosed from introducing in evidence certain matters which a jury might have considered mitigating and, as a result, might have been moved to impose a life sentence had this testimony been admitted.

Powell was killed by Jones while the latter was perpetrating a robbery. On the former writ of error (Jones v. People, supra), we stated that the proof of the robbery and the homicide had been established--in other words, that a felony murder had been committed. At the conclusion of our opinion, we said that '[t]he judgment is reversed and a new trial ordered.'

Apparently the trial court felt that the admission of testimony which may have been mitigating could not have reduced the offense below murder in the first degree and that its only effect could be upon the extent of the punishment. As a sequitur, the trial court held that there was no necessity to retry the issue of guilt and that the trial should be limited merely to submitting to the jury for determination the question whether Jones should be sentenced to death or to life imprisonment.

Six errors are assigned as grounds for reversal. We need note only assignments 1, 5 and 6, since they in effect question the authority of the court to limit the second trial to the issue of the penalty to be imposed.

C.R.S. '53, 40-2-1 et seq., defines homicide and its modes of commission. C.R.S. '53, 40-2-20, must be construed in connection with the section relating to murder. Kent v. People, 8 Colo. 563, 9 P. 852. The latter section provides that the 'killing being proved, the burden of proving circumstances of mitigation * * * will devolve on the accused * * *.'

Thus, the latter section must be construed with C.R.S. '53, 40-2-3, part of which reads as follows:

'The jury before which any person indicted for murder shall be tried, shall, if it find such person guilty thereof, designate by its verdict whether it be murder of the first or second degree, and if murder of the first degree, the jury shall in its verdict fix the penalty to be suffered by the person so convicted, either at imprisonment for life at hard labor in the penitentiary, or at death; and the court shall thereupon give sentence accordingly.'

A jury selected pursuant to law shall hear the case, and that jury, if it determines the defendant is guilty of murder in the first degree, shall fix the penalty. This is the clear meaning and mandate of the statute. Demato v. People, 49 Colo. 147, 111 P. 703, 35 L.R.A.,N.S., 621, Ann.Cas.1912A, 783; Shank v. People, 79 Colo. 576, 247 P. 559. In determining what penalty shall be imposed, circumstances of mitigation have relevance, Jones v. People, supra; Shank v. People, supra.

Most of the states of the Union have statutes containing language similar to C.R.S. '53, 40-2-3, quoted above. Under varying circumstances some of them have had to decide questions pointing to the answer which should be made in this case. From these decisions we learn that the resolution of the issue of guilt and the extent of punishment must be a unitary action on the part of the jury, that together they form the verdict.

Thus, the problem has arisen under a statute like ours where the jury returned a verdict finding the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree but failed to assess the penalty. Was there a verdict?

Considering a former statute, bearing a resemblance to ours, the Supreme Court of California, in the case of People v. Hall, 199 Cal. 451, 249 P. 859, declared:

'From a consideration of our decisions it appears to be the settled law of this state that in the trial on a charge of murder it is first incumbent upon the jury to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused. If he be found guilty of murder in the first degree, it is then incumbent on the jury to fix the penalty. * * * Under the law, the verdict in such a case must be the result of the unanimous agreement of the jurors, and the verdict is incomplete unless, as returned, it embraces the two necessary constituent elements: First, a finding that the accused is guilty of murder in the first degree; and, secondly, legal evidence that the jury has fixed the penalty in the exercise of its discretion.'

Acting under its former statute, New York came to the same conclusion in the case of People v. Hicks, 287 N.Y. 165, 38 N.E.2d 482, 138 A.L.R. 1222:

'By providing that a jury 'finding a person guilty of murder in the first degree' (in cases of felony murder) 'may, as a part of its verdict, recommend that the defendant be imprisoned for the term of his natural life,' the Legislature has plainly said that the jury must determine two matters: First, whether the accused is guilty of the crime charged; second, whether the sentence shall be death or whether the trial judge may pronounce a sentence of life imprisonment. Both questions must be determined by the jury and the jury's answer to both questions must be embodied in its verdict. * * * [E]ach juror should know that he is one of the twelve judges who shall decide what the verdict shall be in all its parts. Until the twelve judges have agreed on every part of the verdict, they have not agreed on any verdict.'

Whenever other courts have been confronted with the same problem, they have ruled that a verdict of guilty which does not specify the punishment is incomplete and its acceptance by the trial court constitutes error. Smith v. State, 23 Ala.App. 72, 121 So. 692; State v. Christensen, 166 Kan. 153, 199 P.2d 475; Davis v. State, 51 Okl.Cr. 386, 1 P.2d 824, 2 P.2d 965; Mays v. State, 143 Tenn. 443, 226 S.W. 233. '[I]f the jury does not determine the penalty, upon returning a verdict of murder in the first degree, there is no one to determine it.' State v. Christensen, supra.

It is the mandatory duty of the trial court, without request, to instruct the jury that, should they return a verdict of guilty, it becomes their duty to designate the punishment to be inflicted, and the failure so to instruct the jury on the matter of punishment makes whatever instructions are given incomplete, and invalidates the verdict which fails to fix the penalty. State v. Loveless, 139 W.Va. 454, 80 S.E.2d 442.

Guilt and punishment are so definitely integrants of a verdict in a first degree murder case that courts, in order to arrive at a complete verdict, should admit in evidence material relevant to the question of punishment, i. e., matters in aggravation and mitigation, whether it applies to the issue of guilt or has relation only to the degree of culpability. Fields v. State, 47 Ala. 603; Fletcher v. People, 117 Ill. 184, 7 N.E. 80; Commonwealth v. Stabinsky, 313 Pa. 231, 169 A. 439.

In qualifying jurors for service in first degree murder cases, they must be willing to exercise their discretion in fixing the penalty to be...