People v. District Court, s. 27963

• Decision Date: 23 October 1978
• Docket Number: 28017 and 28049,Nos. 27963,s. 27963
• Citation: 586 P.2d 31,196 Colo. 401
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, By and Through their duly appointed representative, Frank G. E. Tucker, District Attorney, Petitioner, v. The DISTRICT COURT OF the STATE of Colorado, George E. Lohr, as one of the District Court Judges of the District Court, Respondent. Nolan L. BROWN, District Attorney In and For the First Judicial District, County of Jefferson, State of Colorado, Petitioner, v. The DISTRICT COURT IN AND FOR the FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT, State of Colorado, and the Honorable Michael C. Villano, one of the judges thereof, Respondents. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado ex rel. Robert R. GALLAGHER, Jr., District Attorney for the Eighteenth Judicial District, State of Colorado, Petitioner, v. The DISTRICT COURT, IN AND FOR the EIGHTEENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT, County of Arapahoe, State of Colorado, and the Honorable William B. Naugle, one of the judges thereof, Respondents.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 31

586 P.2d 31

196 Colo. 401

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, By and Through their

duly appointed representative, Frank G. E. Tucker, District Attorney, Petitioner, v. The DISTRICT COURT OF the STATE of Colorado, George E. Lohr,

as one of the District Court Judges of the

District Court, Respondent.

Nolan L. BROWN, District Attorney In and For the First

Judicial District, County of Jefferson, State of

Colorado, Petitioner, v. The DISTRICT COURT IN AND FOR the FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT,

State of Colorado, and the Honorable Michael C.

Villano, one of the judges thereof, Respondents.

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado ex rel. Robert R.

GALLAGHER, Jr., District Attorney for the

Eighteenth Judicial District, State of

Colorado, Petitioner, v. The DISTRICT COURT, IN AND FOR the EIGHTEENTH JUDICIAL

DISTRICT, County of Arapahoe, State of Colorado,

and the Honorable William B. Naugle, one

of the judges thereof, Respondents.

Nos. 27963, 28017 and 28049.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

Oct. 23, 1978.

Frank G. E. Tucker, Dist. Atty., Glenwood Springs, Robert L. Russel, Dist. Atty., Milton K. Blakey, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty., Colorado Springs, for petitioner in No. 27963.

Kenneth Dresner, Gunnison, Kevin O'Reilly, Glenwood Springs, for respondent in No. 27963.

Nolan L. Brown, Dist. Atty., Frank Mackey, III, Deputy Dist. Atty., Golden, for petitioner in No. 28017.

Gregory Walta, Colorado State Public Defender, Craig L. Truman, Chief Deputy State Public Defender, Norman R. Mueller, Deputy State Public Defender, Denver, for respondents in No. 28017.

Robert R. Gallagher, Jr., Dist. Atty., James C. Sell, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty., Littleton, for petitioner in No. 28049.

Kenneth K. Stuart, Littleton, Jane S. Hazen, Denver, for respondents in No. 28049.

ERICKSON, Justice.

Three different district court judges have held that the Colorado death penalty statute, section 16-11-103, C.R.S. 1973 (1976 Supp.), is unconstitutional. The prosecution, in all three cases, has sought review in these original proceedings. In each case, we issued a rule to show cause and now discharge the rule.

Ordinarily, an original proceeding is not available as a means for obtaining an interlocutory appeal. C.A.R. 21.1. Interlocutory appeals are only permitted in limited circumstances provided by C.A.R. 4.1. We have elected to address the issue in these cases because of the threshold question relating to the application of the death penalty in a number of pending cases in the Colorado Courts.

In the three cases before us, it is conceded that the death penalty would have been an issue for the judge or jury to resolve under our bifurcated procedure. Section 16-11-103, C.R.S. 1973 (1976 Supp.). The facts of the particular cases are not material to a determination of the constitutional issues which we must resolve.

The Colorado death penalty statute represents the attempt by the General Assembly to comply with the ambiguous directives of the Supreme Court of the United States in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (1972), and its progeny, Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976); Proffitt v. Florida, 428 U.S. 242, 96 S.Ct. 2960, 49 L.Ed.2d 913 (1976); Jurek v. Texas, 428 U.S. 262, 96 S.Ct. 2950, 49 L.Ed.2d 929 (1976); Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S. 280, 96 S.Ct. 2978, 49 L.Ed.2d 944 (1976); Roberts v. Louisiana, 428 U.S. 325, 96 S.Ct. 3001, 49 L.Ed.2d 974 (1976). The confusion has been magnified by subsequent pronouncements. Roberts v. Louisiana, 431 U.S. 633, 97 S.Ct. 1993, 52 L.Ed.2d 637 (1977); Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, 97 S.Ct. 2861, 53 L.Ed.2d 982 (1977); Gardner v. Florida, 430 U.S. 349, 97 S.Ct. 1197, 51 L.Ed.2d 393 (1977); and Lockett v. Ohio, --- U.S. ----, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978).

The United States Supreme Court's seminal opinion in Furman v. Georgia, supra, created considerable confusion concerning the circumstances under which the death sentence could be constitutionally imposed. The Supreme Court, in invalidating the Georgia death penalty statute, supported their result with a short Per curiam opinion and nine separate opinions, some of which are basically irreconcilable. No unifying rationale was provided for the guidance of legislative bodies of the different states. The elements of a constitutional death penalty statute have been touched on, without clarity of definition, in a number of later cases from that Court.

In 1976, the Supreme Court expanded on some of the views expressed in Furman. See Gregg v. Georgia, supra; Jurek v. Texas, supra; Woodson v. North Carolina, supra; Proffitt v. Florida, supra. Again, the Supreme Court's inability to agree on a set of principles within which to judge a particular statute made it difficult for a state legislature to enact a constitutionally valid death penalty. All that the majority of the court endorsed is that under some circumstances, and subject to a number of limitations, the death penalty may be imposed.

Finally, during this last term, four Justices of the United States Supreme Court have seen fit to "reconcile previously differing views in order to provide that guidance." Lockett v. Ohio, supra, 98 S.Ct. at 2965. Chief Justice Burger, together with Justices Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, have expressed their opinion that a death penalty statute is unconstitutional if the judge or jury is:

"(P)recluded from considering as a mitigating factor, any aspect of a defendant's character or record and any of the circumstances of the offense that the defendant(s) proffers as a basis for a sentence less than death." Id. 98 S.Ct. at 2965.

When the views of those four Justices are joined with those of Justice Marshall, who has declared that, in his view, any death penalty statute is unconstitutional, ¹ it is apparent that Colorado's death penalty statute cannot withstand constitutional examination in the United States Supreme Court.

We start from the predicate that the death penalty qualitatively differs from any other sentence. Lockett v. Ohio, supra, 98 S.Ct. at 2964. Lockett v. Ohio is the latest edict from the Supreme Court, and it has advised legislative bodies that the qualitative difference between the death penalty and other punishments requires that before the solemn act of condemning another human being to death may be carried out, the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution ² require that the judge or jury in every case must:

"(B)e allowed to consider on the basis of all relevant evidence not only why a death sentence should be imposed, but also why it should not be imposed. . . . What is essential is that the jury have before it All possible relevant information about the individual defendant whose fate it must determine." Jurek v. Texas supra, 428 U.S. at 271, 96 S.Ct. at 2956 (plurality opinion, Stevens, J.). (Emphasis added)

The Colorado statute in issue was drafted before the Lockett opinion was announced. All three trial judges have properly held that section 16-11-103, C.R.S. 1973 (1976 Supp.), violates the constitutional commandment now set forth in the Lockett case, because it does not allow the sentencing entity in these cases, the jury to hear all the relevant facts relating to the character and record of the individual offender or the circumstances of the particular case. Woodson v. North Carolina, supra, 428 U.S. at 304, 96 S.Ct. 2978 (plurality opinion, Stewart, J.).

A statute must meet at least two requirements before it can serve as the basis for imposition of the death sentence. First, it must provide a " meaningful basis for distinguishing the . . . cases in which it is imposed from (those) in which it is not." Furman v. Georgia, supra, 408 U.S. at 313, 92 S.Ct. at 2764 (White, J., concurring). To do so, the statute must contain " objective standards to guide, regularize, and make rationally reviewable the process for imposing a sentence of death." Woodson v. North Carolina, supra, 428 U.S. at 303, 96 S.Ct. at 2991 (plurality opinion, Stewart, J.). To attain this end, the legislature may enumerate specific aggravating factors, the presence of which will serve to justify the imposition of a sentence of death, Gregg v. Georgia, supra; Proffitt v. Florida, supra, or the legislature's "action in narrowing the categories of murders for which a death sentence may ever be imposed serves much the same purpose." Jurek v. Texas, supra, 428 U.S. at 270, 96 S.Ct. at 2955 (plurality opinion, Stevens, J.). ³

The second requirement is that, as noted above, the defendant must be allowed to present any relevant information as to why the death sentence should not be imposed upon him.

Colorado statutes provide a bifurcated proceeding for these cases in which the death penalty is sought. At the first stage of the proceedings, the substantive question of the defendant's guilt is tried. If he is convicted of a class one felony, such as first degree murder, the same jury then hears evidence concerning the proper penalty. Section 16-11-103(5), C.R.S.1973 (1976 Supp.) lists five mitigating factors on which the defendant may present evidence. Section 16-11-103(6) lists eight aggravating factors which the People may prove were involved in the commission of the crime. If the jury finds that none of the mitigating circumstances, and any one of the aggravating circumstances, existed at the time the crime was committed, it must impose the death sentence. Any other combination of findings results in a sentence of life imprisonment. In pertinent part, Section 16-11-103 provides:

"(2) In the sentencing hearing any information relevant to any of the aggravating or mitigating factors set forth in subsection (5) or (6) of this section may be presented by either the people or the defendant, subject to the rules governing admission of evidence at criminal trials. The people and the defendant shall be permitted to rebut any evidence received at the hearing and shall be given...