State v. Payton
| Decision Date | 30 June 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 62388,62388 |
| Citation | 361 So.2d 866 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. Aaron PAYTON and Byron G. Coulon. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara A. Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Louise S. Korns, Thomas Chester, Dennis J. Waldron, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-appellant.
Jay C. Zainey, New Orleans, for Aaron M. Payton.
John Wilson Reed, New Orleans, for Byron Coulon.
The ultimate issue raised in this review of criminal pre-trial proceedings is whether the merger of the existing capital murder sentence procedure, La. R.S. 14:30, La. C.Cr.P. art. 905 et seq., and the new second degree murder statute, La. R.S. 14:30.1(B), deprives a defendant of his right to a fair trial or exposes him to cruel and unusual punishment. The trial court refused to sustain defendant Byron Coulon's motion to quash but granted partial relief by declaring unconstitutional the new second degree murder statute, La. R.S. 14:30.1(B). The State appealed, La. Const. 1974, art. 5, § 5(D), contending that the legislature's combination of statutes pertaining to first degree murder, second degree murder and capital sentences does not offend any concept of fundamental fairness. Defendant Coulon sought writs, which we granted to review his complaint that the first degree murder death penalty should be judicially reprobated because the statutory scheme for its imposition fails to comply with the requirement of Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (1972), that standardless jury discretion be replaced by procedures guarding against arbitrary or capricious imposition of death sentences.
For the reasons hereinafter assigned we conclude that, as strictly construed in the light of governing fundamental principles, one aspect of the legislation must be declared invalid, but the remainder of the statutory design is severable and constitutionally tolerable. Although the legislative techniques employed in adding the new second degree murder offense to our law raise serious questions, we cannot upon this our first examination say that the entire enactment was so ill advised as to warrant judicial condemnation.
Before considering the issues presented it is necessary to understand the Louisiana statutory scheme for the imposition of the death penalty existing prior to the enactment of the new second degree murder law. In Roberts v. Louisiana, 428 U.S. 325, 96 S.Ct. 3001, 49 L.Ed.2d 974 (1976), the United States Supreme Court held that Louisiana legislation reinstituting the death penalty failed to provide a constitutionally adequate response to the rejection by Furman of unbridled jury discretion in the imposition of capital sentences. Because the statutes lacked standards to guide the jury in selecting those among first degree murderers who should receive the death penalty, thus plainly inviting the jurors to disregard their oaths and choose a verdict for a lesser offense whenever they felt the death penalty was inappropriate, the statutes failed to provide adequate safeguards against the arbitrary and capricious imposition of death sentences. After the Roberts decision, the legislature in 1976 redefined first and second degree murder, provided specific procedures to be followed in determining the sentence to be imposed for a capital offense, and provided for mandatory review of death sentences by this Court.
The Louisiana statutory scheme, apparently modeled on the Georgia statutes which were upheld in Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976), defines first degree murder as a homicide committed with specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm. The penalty for the crime is death or life imprisonment without parole, probation or suspension of sentence in accordance with the recommendation of the jury. La. R.S. 14:30.
The capital defendant's guilt or innocence is determined in the traditional manner in the first stage of a bifurcated trial. The trial judge is required to instruct the jury as to the law applicable to the charged offense and to each lesser included offense. La. C.Cr.P. art. 803.
The lesser included offense of second degree murder was redefined in 1976 as a homicide committed when the offender is attempting or perpetrating any of certain enumerated felonies, even though he has no intent to kill. 1 The penalty for second degree murder was set at life imprisonment at hard labor without eligibility for parole, probation or suspension of sentence for a period of forty years. La. R.S. 14:30.1.
After a verdict of guilty to first degree murder, a sentencing hearing is conducted before the same jury. La. C.Cr.P. art. 905 et seq. The sentence will be life imprisonment unless the jury finds unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt at least one statutorily defined "aggravating circumstance." 2 The aggravating circumstances are:
"* * * (a) The offender was engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary, or armed robbery;
(b) The victim was a fireman or peace officer engaged in his lawful duties;
(c) The offender was previously convicted of an unrelated murder, aggravated rape, or aggravated kidnapping;
(d) The offender knowingly created a risk of death or great bodily harm to more than one person;
(e) The offender offered or has been offered or has given or received anything of value for the commission of the offense;
(f) The offender at the time of the commission of the offense was imprisoned after sentence for the commission of an unrelated forcible felony;
(g) The offense was committed in an especially heinous, atrocious or cruel manner. " La. C.Cr.P. art. 905.4.
Having found an aggravating circumstance, however, the jury is not required to impose the death penalty. Instead, it is merely authorized to impose it after considering evidence of "any mitigating circumstances." 3 Unless the jury determines unanimously that the death penalty should be imposed, the defendant will be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, probation or suspension of sentence. In the event the jury imposes the death penalty, it must designate in writing the aggravating circumstance which it found to exist beyond a reasonable doubt. 4
Review by this Court is provided for in every case in which the death penalty is imposed. 5 To assist it in deciding whether to sustain the death penalty this Court requires by rule that it be supplied, in every case, with a verbatim transcript of the sentencing hearing and a report from the trial judge in the form of a standard questionnaire. 6 In deciding whether the sentence of death is to be sustained in any given case, this Court shall determine if the sentence is "excessive." 7
The questions presented in the instant case were created in 1977 when the legislature added a new, second definition of second degree murder:
"The killing of a human being when the offender has a specific intent to kill, under circumstances that would be first degree murder under Article 30, but the killing is accomplished without any of the aggravating circumstances listed in Article 905.4 of the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure." La. R.S. 14:30.1(B).
The additional definition of second degree murder makes it possible for a person who commits an unaggravated, intentional homicide to be convicted of, or plead guilty to, a lesser offense and receive a life sentence parolable after forty years without the necessity of a capital sentencing hearing. Before the second definition was added, a homicide committed with a specific intent to kill, but without aggravating circumstances, was punishable as first degree murder by life imprisonment without possibility of parole, probation or suspension of sentence, 8 only after a sentencing hearing in which the jury failed to find an aggravating circumstance. 9
The passage of the new second degree murder statute evidently was impelled both by humanitarian arguments against subjecting all convicted first degree murderers to the capital sentencing hearing, as well as by the practical need for a vehicle to facilitate plea bargains, convictions and sentencings in murder cases devoid of aggravating circumstances. Defendant does not quarrel with the underlying motives for the enactment, but he contends that a logical interpretation of the statute will either erase the effect of the bifurcated trial, the only capital sentencing procedure to pass constitutional muster by the Supreme Court, See, 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); or permit arbitrary and capricious imposition of the death penalty.
Defendant argues that a new second degree murder law defining the crime as a first degree murder accomplished without aggravating circumstances impliedly amends the definition of first degree murder to require proof of at least one aggravating circumstance as an essential element of the capital offense; accordingly, he contends the State would be entitled to introduce any and all evidence pertaining to the circumstances of the offense and the character and propensities of the offender at the guilt or innocence portion of the trial. If the statute were to be interpreted to allow the general introduction of such evidence we agree that it would be unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court in Gregg v. Georgia, supra, acknowledged that much of the information that is relevant to the sentencing decision may have no relevance to the question of guilt, or may even be extremely prejudicial to a fair determination of that question. 428 U.S. at 190, 96 S.Ct. 2909. The Court noted that in other situations it had concluded that a jury cannot be expected to consider certain evidence on one issue, but not another, See, e. g., ...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Ramseur
...and it is "narrowed" by resort to aggravating factors, the vagueness of c(4)(c) infects the very definition of the crime. Cf. State v. Payton, supra, 361 So.2d 866 ("vileness" aggravating factor sufficient for sentencing purposes but not as an element of an offense). In my opinion this is a......
-
State v. Tuttle
...and Wood, but also an unconstitutionally vague definition of an element of the crime of first degree murder. See, e.g., State v. Payton, 361 So.2d 866, 871 (La.1978). Godfrey is one of the more recent United States Supreme Court cases which state that the eighth and fourteenth amendments to......
-
Sawyer v. Butler
...death penalty procedures were designed to comply with the Supreme Court's Eighth Amendment decisions, see, e.g., State v. Payton, 361 So.2d 866, 870-73 (La.1978), State v. Sonnier, 379 So.2d 1336, 1370 (La.1980), and State v. Willie, 410 So.2d 1019, 1032-33 (La.1982), and another string of ......
-
State v. Taylor
...procedure was declared unconstitutional in Roberts v. Louisiana, 428 U.S. 325, 96 S.Ct. 3001, 49 L.Ed.2d 974 (1976).2 See State v. Payton, 361 So.2d 866 (La.1978), in which this court held that the 1977 amendment to second degree murder "impliedly amended" the first degree murder statute to......