Mazzan v. State, 16292
| Citation | 103 Nev. 69,733 P.2d 850 |
| Decision Date | 04 March 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 16292,16292 |
| Parties | John Francis MAZZAN, Appellant, v. The STATE of Nevada, Respondent. |
| Court | Nevada Supreme Court |
Pursuant to a jury verdict, appellant John Francis Mazzan was convicted of first degree murder and was sentenced to death. See Mazzan v. State, 100 Nev. 74, 675 P.2d 409 (1984). This court affirmed Mazzan's conviction, but vacated his sentence and remanded the case to the district court for a second penalty hearing because Mazzan was denied effective assistance of counsel during his first penalty hearing. Mazzan, supra. At Mazzan's second penalty hearing, the jury found as aggravating circumstances that Mazzan committed the murder while engaged in the commission of a burglary and robbery. The jury found no mitigating circumstances sufficient to outweigh the aggravating circumstances and sentenced Mazzan to death. We affirm the imposition of the death sentence against Mazzan.
Mazzan, a thirty-one year old hairdresser, and the victim were friends who spent much of the last day of the victim's life together. The victim, who had given Mazzan permission to spend the night at his residence, was found dead in a pool of blood the following morning. The victim had been stabbed fifteen times and had died of internal organ damage and massive blood loss. Many of the chest wounds had the same depth and angle, suggesting that the victim was helpless when the violent attack began. There were a number of defensive wounds on the victim's body, indicating that before he fell, fatally wounded, the victim had attempted to shield himself from his assailant.
Investigators found virtually no money or drugs in the victim's residence, although the victim was known to have quantities of both before his death. Two days following the victim's death, Mazzan paid his delinquent rent from a large roll of bills. Based on this and other evidence, the jury found that Mazzan had burglarized, robbed, and brutally murdered his friend. We conclude that the record supports the jury's finding that this crime involved a violent, premeditated murder committed in furtherance of a robbery and during a burglary. See NRS 200.033.
Mazzan appeals the sentence of death on two grounds. First, Mazzan contends that his capital sentence is invalid because of the prosecutor's reference to the process of appellate review. In his closing argument at the second penalty hearing, the prosecutor stated:
Well, if you are convicted of murder, and you appeal and appeal and appeal, and if sometime for whatever reason--and as the judge told you that's not before you--the sentence is overturned or changed, and you have to come back to do it again, does that mean we lay down and quit? You can't do that.
Mazzan argues that this statement presented an intolerable danger of bias toward a death sentence because it implied that any error may be corrected later on appeal. To support this contention, Mazzan relies on Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U.S. 320, 323, 105 S.Ct. 2633, 2636-37, 86 L.Ed.2d 231 (1985) in which the Supreme Court vacated a death sentence when the prosecutor "urged the jury not to view itself as determining whether the defendant would die, because the death sentence would be reviewed for correctness by the State Supreme Court." The Court noted that it "has always premised its capital punishment decisions on the assumption that a capital sentencing jury recognizes the gravity of its task and proceeds with the appropriate awareness of its 'truly awesome responsibility.' " Id. at 341, 105 S.Ct. at 2646. Since the prosecutor had sought to minimize the jury's sense of responsibility, the Court held that the death sentence must be vacated and concluded that "it is constitutionally impermissible to rest a death sentence on a determination made by a sentencer who has been led to believe that the responsibility for determining the appropriateness of the defendant's death rests elsewhere." Id. at 329, 105 S.Ct. at 2639-40. In the present case, Mazzan argues that the prosecutor's...
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State v. McKoy, 585A85
... ... (Emphasis added.) "Mere reference to the process of appellate review does not invalidate a death sentence." Mazzan v. State, 733 P.2d 850, 851 (Nev.1987). Viewed in context, the prosecutor's argument stressed the jury's role as the final factfinder rather than ... ...
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Petition of Jeffries
...did not diminish jury's sense of responsibility), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 210, 98 L.Ed.2d 161 (1987); Mazzan v. State, --- Nev. ----, 733 P.2d 850, 851 (1987) ("Mere reference to the process of appellate review does not invalidate a death sentence."). See also Dutton v. Brown......
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Lopez v. State
...death penalty in cases less egregious than appellant's. See, e.g., Hardison v. State, 104 Nev. 530, 763 P.2d 52 (1988); Mazzan v. State, 102 Nev. 69, 733 P.2d 850 (1987); Miranda v. State, 101 Nev. 562, 707 P.2d 1121 (1985); Farmer v. State, 101 Nev. 419, 705 P.2d 149 (1985); Nevius v. Stat......
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Williams v. State, 28394
...instructed to presume that if it returned a death sentence, it must assume that the sentence would be carried out. In Mazzan v. State, 103 Nev. 69, 733 P.2d 850 (1987), the prosecutor referred to the process of criminal appeals in murder cases and the possibility of a murder verdict being o......