Newlon v. Missouri
| Decision Date | 04 October 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 81-6660,81-6660 |
| Citation | 103 S.Ct. 185,459 U.S. 884,74 L.Ed.2d 149 |
| Parties | Rayfield NEWLON, petitioner, v. State of MISSOURI |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Adhering to my view that the death penalty is under all circumstances cruel and usual punishment forbidden by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, I would vacate the judgment of the Supreme Court of Missouri, insofar as it left undisturbed the death sentence imposed in this case. However, even if I believed that the death penalty could constitutionally be imposed under certain circumstances, I would grant certiorari and vacate the death sentence imposed here.
On Louis County, Mo., for capital murder. The evidence at trial was that Newlon, along with two others, Franz Williams and Walter West, agreed to rob a "convenience" store. Petitioner and Williams entered the store while West parked the car in front of the building. During the attempted robbery, the proprietor of the store, Mansfield Dave, was shot twice with a sawed-off shotgun. Newlon and Williams then ran from the store. Dave died from the gunshot wounds.
There was disputed testimony at trial as to whether Newlon or Williams fired the shots. West testified that petitioner had done the shooting, though there was considerable question whether West could possibly have seen what was happening inside the store from his position across the street. In a videotaped statement made prior to trial, Newlon said that he had gone to the back of the store to get a soda and to divert Dave's attention, and that while he was there, Williams had fired the shots. Newlon testified at trial and again denied responsibility for the shooting.
In his argument on summation, the prosecutor stressed that even if Newlon did not fire the shots, he was still guilty of capital murder as an accomplice of Williams. The trial judge instructed the jury as follows with respect to the elements of capital murder:
The jury returned a guilty verdict.
A separate sentencing hearing was then held before the same jury. Under Missouri law the death penalty may be imposed for capital murder if the trier of fact finds aggravating circumstances that warrant the imposition of death and the absence of sufficient countervailing mitigating circumstances. § 565.012, RSMo 1978. In this case the jury was instructed to consider two aggravating circumstances alleged by the prosecution. First, it was instructed to decide whether petitioner murdered Mansfield Dave for the purpose of receiving money. Second, it was instructed to decide whether the murder involved "depravity of mind and ... as a result thereof ... was outrageously or wantonly horrible or inhuman." See § 565.012.2(7). The jury found the second alleged aggravating circumstance to be applicable and imposed the death sentence. On appeal the Missouri Supreme Court affirmed, with two judges dissenting. 627 S.W.2d 606 (1982).
Even accepting, arguendo, the prevailing view that there are circumstances in which the death sentence may constitutionally be imposed, I would grant certiorari and set aside the sentence imposed in this case. First, the Missouri Supreme Court's decision is inconsistent with this Court's decision last Term in Enmund v. Florida, —- U.S. ——, 102 S.Ct. 3368, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1982). Enmund established that a State may not punish by death one " 'who neither took life, attempted to take life, nor intended to take life.' " Id., at ——, 102 S.Ct., at 3371. The Court observed:
Id., at ——, 102 S.Ct., at 3378.
We concluded that death is a disproportionate penalty for one who neither killed nor intended to kill.
The instructions in the guilt phase of petitioner's trial were impermissible under Enmund. A reasonable juror might have understood from the instructions that petitioner could be found guilty of capital murder even if he neither killed Dave nor intended to kill him. The instructions told the jury that it could find petitioner guilty as an accomplice if it found that Williams killed Dave with the requisite intent and that petitioner knowingly assisted Williams in the attempted robbery. Given the conflict in the evidence as to who fired the shots, it is not unlikely that the jury's verdict was in fact premised on a finding that petitioner acted as Williams' ac- complice. In any event, since the jury's guilty verdict may have been based solely on the theory of accomplice liability, and since such liability does not provide a constitutionally sufficient basis for the death penalty, petitioner's death sentence must be set aside. See, e.g., Stromberg v. California, 283 U.S. 359, 367-368, 51 S.Ct. 532, 535, 75 L.Ed. 1117 (1931). At the very least, the judgment upholding the sentence should be vacated and remanded for reconsideration in light of our decision in Enmund, which was announced five months after the Missouri Supreme Court's decision in the instant case.
Even if the trial judge had properly charged in the guilt phase of the trial that petitioner could be convicted as an accomplice only if he intended to take life, imposition of the death sentence would still have been improper because the instructions in the punishment phase of the trial permitted the jury to impose the death sentence solely on the basis of the conduct and mental state of the principal. The sole aggravating circumstance found by the jury-that the murder involved "depravity of mind and ... as a result thereof ... was outrageously or wantonly horrible or inhuman"-did not include a finding that petitioner's conduct involved "depravity of mind." The jury was required to find only that the murder itself involved "depravity of mind." It is irrational to sentence an accomplice to death on the ground that the principal's conduct evidenced "depravity of mind." The State must prove that the accomplice himself deserves the death penalty, and it cannot do so simply by attributing to him the conduct and mental state of the principal. "(P) unishment must be tailored to (the defendant's) personal responsibility and moral guilt." Enmund v. Florida, —- U.S. ——, ——, 102 S.Ct. 3368, 3378, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1982). Because the jury did not find that petitioner's actions demonstrated that he was more culpable than any other murderer, "(t) here is no principled way to distinguish this case, in which the death penalty was imposed, from the many cases in which it was not." Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420, 433, 100 S.Ct. 1759, 1767, 64 L.Ed.2d 398 (1980) (plurality opinion).
Petitioner's death sentence should also be set aside because the sentencing standards applied in this case completely failed to "channel the sentencer's discretion by 'clear and objective standards' that provide 'specific and detailed guidance,' and that 'make rationally reviewable the process for imposing a sentence of death.' " Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420, 428, 100 S.Ct. 1759, 1765, 64 L.Ed.2d 398 (1980) (plurality opinion) (footnotes omitted). The jury in Godfrey was instructed, in the terms of the Georgia statute, that it could impose the death sentence if it found that the offense was "outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman in that it involved torture, depravity of mind, or an aggravated battery to the victim." Id., at 422, 100 S.Ct., at 1762. A plurality of this Court held that the discretion of the sentencer has to be narrowed when it is instructed to consider this alleged aggravating circumstance, since "(a) person of ordinary...
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