State v. Hampton

• Citation: 140 P.3d 950,213 Ariz. 167
• Decision Date: 15 August 2006
• Docket Number: No. CR-03-0033-AP.,CR-03-0033-AP.
• Parties: STATE of Arizona, Appellee, v. Tracy Allen HAMPTON, Appellant.
• Court: Supreme Court of Arizona

140 P.3d 950

213 Ariz. 167

STATE of Arizona, Appellee, v. Tracy Allen HAMPTON, Appellant.

No. CR-03-0033-AP.

Supreme Court of Arizona, En Banc.

August 15, 2006.

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Terry Goddard, Arizona Attorney General by Kent E. Cattani, Chief Counsel, Capital Litigation Section, Patricia A. Nigro, Assistant Attorney General, Phoenix, Attorneys for the State of Arizona.

Michael S. Reeves, Phoenix, Attorney for Tracy Allen Hampton.

OPINION

HURWITZ, Justice.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

¶ 1 On May 16, 2001, Department of Public Safety officers attempted to serve a traffic ticket on Tracy Allen Hampton.¹ The officers went to a house on East Roberts Road in Phoenix, where Hampton had been staying with Charles Findley and Findley's girlfriend, Tanya Ramsdell, who was five months pregnant. Hampton was not there, but Findley and Ramsdell were. To prove that he was not the man the officers were looking for, Findley showed them a photograph of Hampton, and the officers left.

¶ 2 Early the next day, Misty Ross and Shaun Geeslin went to the house on East Roberts Road. Hampton let them in; he told them of the police visit and his intention to confront Findley about the incident. When Findley awoke, Hampton argued with him.

¶ 3 Later during the morning of May 17, Hampton, Findley, Ross, Geeslin and several others smoked methamphetamine. Sometime after 10:30 a.m., Hampton and Geeslin left. The two returned near noon and entered a back room where Findley was kneeling on the floor working on a lighter. Hampton turned on a CD player to a loud volume, walked in front of Findley, and called out his name. As Findley looked up, Hampton shot him in the forehead, killing him. Geeslin and Ross then walked to the front door.

¶ 4 Hampton began following Ross and Geeslin, but stopped and said something like, "Wait, we have one more." He then went to a bedroom where Ramsdell was sleeping and opened the door. Ramsdell told Hampton to get out, and Hampton shot her in the head. Ramsdell and her unborn child died as a result.

¶ 5 Hampton then joined Ross and Geeslin in Geeslin's truck. After asking whether he had any blood on his face, Hampton asked to be taken to get some food. A few hours later, Hampton asked Ross whether she wanted to play a game of darts and commented, "What, I killed two people, and we can't kick it?"

¶ 6 Hampton was arrested on May 31, 2001. While awaiting trial in the Maricopa County jail in August 2001, Hampton shared a cell with George Ridley. Ridley testified at trial that Hampton admitted to committing the murders and told him the story of the murders every night for two weeks. Hampton told Ridley that he killed Findley because "he was a rat" and he killed Ramsdell because Hampton was affiliated with the Aryan Brotherhood and thought that Ramsdell was a "nigger lover" who was pregnant with a Black man's child. Hampton also told Ridley that he "thought it was funny" that Ramsdell had slept through the shooting of her boyfriend, and "bragged about the fact he was able to shoot [Ramsdell] in pretty much the same place he shot her old man." Ridley also said that before leaving the house, Hampton knelt down next to Findley's body and whispered in his ear, "I want to let you know I took care of your nigger loving old lady and her little coon baby, too. Don't worry, they didn't feel a thing."

¶ 7 The State originally charged Hampton by complaint with two counts of first degree murder for the deaths of Findley and Ramsdell, and one count of manslaughter for the death of Ramsdell's unborn child. The State later filed an information and a Notice of Intention to Seek the Death Penalty, stating that it intended to prove "one or more of the enumerated factors" in Arizona Revised Statutes ("A.R.S.") § 13-703(F) (2001).

¶ 8 On May 2, 2002, a jury found Hampton guilty on all counts. The State filed a Notice of Aggravating Factors on May 7, 2002, alleging two aggravating circumstances: (1) A.R.S. § 13-703(F)(8) (multiple homicides); and (2) A.R.S. § 13-703(F)(6) (especially heinous or depraved; "whereby defendant knew victim Tanya Ramsdell was pregnant, and/or murdered her because he believed the baby's father was Black, creating and resulting in a racist murder, thereby murdering Tanya Ramsdell in order to murder her unborn baby").

¶ 9 On June 24, 2002, the United States Supreme Court held in Ring v. Arizona ("Ring II"), 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002), that the Sixth Amendment requires a jury to find the aggravating circumstances necessary for the imposition of the death penalty. The sentencing proceedings were therefore conducted before a new jury.

¶ 10 In the aggravation phase, the jury found both the (F)(6) and (F)(8) aggravating circumstances. With respect to the (F)(6) aggravator, the jurors unanimously concluded in a special verdict form that: (1) "The defendant relished the murder"; and (2) "The killing was senseless because it was unnecessary to achieve the defendant's criminal purpose, or the victim was helpless because she was unable to resist." In the penalty phase, the jury determined that the mitigating circumstances were not sufficiently substantial to call for leniency.

¶ 11 The superior court accordingly imposed death sentences for the two murder convictions. The trial judge also sentenced Hampton to an aggravated term of twelve and one-half years for manslaughter, to run consecutively to the death penalties. The convictions and sentences have been appealed to this Court.

II. ISSUES ON APPEAL

¶ 12 Hampton raises eighteen issues on appeal. Two issues relate to the murder convictions and one to the manslaughter conviction. Fourteen issues relate to the sentences imposed. Hampton also raises claims in order to avoid federal preclusion, all of which concern the death sentences.

A. Issues Relating to the Convictions

1. Death Qualification of the Trial Jury

¶ 13 The superior court denied Hampton's pre-trial motion to preclude "death qualification"² of the jury. Hampton argues that the jury selection process violated the Eighth Amendment because the guilt phase jury was selected on the "false premises" that it would not decide aggravating factors or sentencing.

¶ 14 The United States Supreme Court has long held that the death qualification of juries is constitutional. See, e.g., Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. 412, 424-25, 105 S.Ct. 844, 83 L.Ed.2d 841 (1985). This Court repeatedly upheld the death qualification of trial juries before Ring II, when judges were responsible for sentencing decisions. See, e.g., State v. Hoskins, 199 Ariz. 127, 141-42 ¶¶ 49-50, 14 P.3d 997, 1011-12 (2000); State v. Anderson ("Anderson I"), 197 Ariz. 314, 324 ¶ 24, 4 P.3d 369, 379 (2000). After juries were assigned sentencing decisions, we upheld the death qualification of a jury in precisely the same procedural posture as Hampton's guilt phase jury—a jury that would have no role in the eventual sentencing of a defendant, even though a later jury would. State v. Anderson ("Anderson II"), 210 Ariz. 327, 337 ¶¶ 21-23, 111 P.3d 369, 379 (2005). Hampton provides no reason for us to reconsider Anderson II.

¶ 15 In any event, the factual premise of Hampton's argument—that "jurors' death penalty scruples were mollified by the court's incorrect instruction that the jury would have no role in sentencing"—is wrong. The guilt phase jury played no role in sentencing and therefore could not have been misled into thinking that responsibility for the determination of the proper sentence lay elsewhere.

2. Admission of Photographs of Victims

¶ 16 Hampton claims that the trial court erred in admitting photographs of the victims during the guilt, aggravation, and penalty phases. He argues that because he did not deny that the murders took place, but rather only claimed that he was not the murderer, the photographs "were irrelevant because they were probative only of matters not in dispute."³

¶ 17 We review the decision to admit a photograph for abuse of discretion. Id. at 339 ¶ 39, 111 P.3d at 381. The analysis is based on three factors: the photograph's relevance, its tendency to inflame the jury, and its probative value compared to its potential to cause unfair prejudice. Id.

¶ 18 Photographs of the deceased are relevant in a murder case "`because the fact and cause of death are always relevant in a murder prosecution.'" State v. Spreitz, 190 Ariz. 129, 142, 945 P.2d 1260, 1273 (1997) (quoting State v. Chapple, 135 Ariz. 281, 288, 660 P.2d 1208, 1215 (1983)). Photographs may also be relevant to prove the corpus delecti, to identify the victim, to show the fatal injury, to determine the atrociousness of the crime, to corroborate State witnesses, to illustrate testimony, or to corroborate the State's theory of the crime. Anderson II, 210 Ariz. at 339-40 ¶ 39, 111 P.3d at 381-82 (citing Chapple, 135 Ariz. at 288, 660 P.2d at 1215).

¶ 19 "Even if a defendant does not contest certain issues, photographs are still admissible if relevant because the burden to prove every element of the crime is not relieved by a defendant's tactical decision not to contest an essential element of the offense." State v. Dickens, 187 Ariz. 1, 18, 926 P.2d 468, 485 (1996) (citations and internal quotation omitted). Because "[t]here is nothing sanitary about murder," nothing in the rules of evidence "requires a trial judge to make it so." State v. Rienhardt, 190 Ariz. 579, 584, 951 P.2d 454, 459 (1997). Nonetheless, photographs must not be introduced "for the sole purpose of inflaming the jury." State v. Gerlaugh, 134 Ariz. 164, 169, 654 P.2d 800, 805 (1982).

¶ 20 We have reviewed the contested photographs, which depict the bodies of Findley, Ramsdell, and the fetus. All but the photograph of the fetus show the nature and the placement of the victims' injuries and were thus relevant to corroborate the testimony of the State's witnesses. Although the photograph of...