State v. Stojetz

• Citation: 84 Ohio St.3d 452,705 N.E.2d 329
• Decision Date: 17 February 1999
• Docket Number: No. 97-1111,97-1111
• Parties: The STATE of Ohio, Appellee, v. STOJETZ, Appellant.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Ohio

Page 452

84 Ohio St.3d 452

705 N.E.2d 329

The STATE of Ohio, Appellee, v. STOJETZ, Appellant.

No. 97-1111.

Supreme Court of Ohio.

Submitted Nov. 10, 1998.

Decided Feb. 17, 1999.

SYLLABUS BY THE COURT

There is no requirement for a trial court to "life qualify" any prospective juror, absent a request by defense counsel, in a capital murder case.

                On April 25, 1996, appellant, John C. Stojetz, Jr., along with five other adult inmates, ran across the prison yard of Madison Correctional Institution and toward the Adams Alpha Unit ("Adams A"), which houses many of the state's juvenile offenders who had been tried as adults and convicted of criminal offenses.  Appellant and the other five inmates were each armed with knives commonly known as "shanks."   Appellant [705 N.E.2d 334] and the others entered the Adams A unit, circled the control desk, and held corrections officer Michael C. Browning at knifepoint.  Appellant then placed a shank to Browning's throat and ordered him to give appellant the keys that opened the cell doors of the Adams A unit.  Browning threw the keys down and was allowed to flee the unit
                

Corrections officers immediately responded to Browning's "man down" alarm and converged on Adams A. Officers were able to observe appellant and the other five inmates carrying shanks. The corrections officers, armed only with pepper mace, attempted to enter Adams A. However, appellant and the other inmates, wielding shanks, prevented the officers from entering.

Once inside Adams A, appellant and his accomplices proceeded to cell number 144, the cell of Damico Watkins, a seventeen-year-old juvenile inmate. Using the keys taken from Browning, appellant unlocked Watkins's cell and appellant and the other adult inmates entered the cell and began attacking Watkins. After eluding the initial attack and escaping from his cell, Watkins was pursued throughout the Adams A unit and repeatedly stabbed by appellant and the other shank-wielding inmates. Watkins was able to escape his attackers several times only to be again cornered and subjected to repeated stabbings. Eventually, Watkins was cornered by appellant on the second floor of the Adams A unit. As Watkins pleaded for his life, appellant and inmate Bishop repeatedly stabbed Watkins and left him for dead.

During the attack on Watkins, correction officers had surrounded the exterior of the Adams A unit. Deputy Warden Mark Saunders arrived on the scene and began conversing with the inmates who had taken over Adams A. During this conversation, inmate Lovejoy stated that "they [the inmates who had taken over Adams A] would not cell with black inmates." Also during the conversation, appellant stated, "we took care of things because you [prison officials] wouldn't." Subsequently, the inmates were ordered to surrender. The prison yard was cleared and appellant and the five perpetrators passed their shanks through a window in the foyer of Adams A. Once prison officials retrieved the weapons, appellant and the other adult inmates exited the Adams A unit and surrendered to prison authorities.

After prison authorities regained control of the Adams A unit, the coroner arrived at the scene and declared Watkins dead.

In October 1996, appellant was indicted by the Madison County Grand Jury for the aggravated murder of Watkins. The single-count indictment charged appellant with purposely causing the death of Watkins with prior calculation and design in violation of R.C. 2903.01( [A] ). The count also charged appellant with a (R.C. 2929.04[A] ) death penalty specification of committing aggravated murder while a prisoner in a detention facility.

Appellant entered a plea of "not guilty" to the charges in the indictment, and the case proceeded to a trial by jury. Evidence submitted at trial indicated that appellant was known to be the head of the "Aryan Brotherhood" gang at the Madison Correctional Institution. Other evidence at trial indicated that appellant and other members of the Aryan Brotherhood did not want to be housed in the same cells as black inmates. Further testimony indicated that appellant and members of the Aryan Brotherhood wanted to be transferred from Madison Correctional to other penal institutions. In fact, following the murder, prison authorities conducted a search of appellant's cell as well as the cells of his accomplices. During the search it was found that appellant and four of the other five inmates who had participated in the attack on Watkins had already packed their personal belongings.

At the conclusion of the trial, and after deliberation, the jury found appellant guilty of the charge and specification in the indictment. Following a mitigation hearing, the jury recommended that appellant be sentenced to death for the aggravated murder of Watkins. The trial court accepted the jury's recommendation and imposed the sentence of death.

Appellant directly appeals his conviction and sentence of death from the trial court to this court pursuant to Section 2(B)(2)(c), Article IV of the Ohio Constitution, as amended in 1994. See, also, R.C. 2953.02.

Stephen J. Pronai, Madison County Prosecuting Attorney, and Daniel H. Huston, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee.

David H. Bodiker, Ohio Public Defender, Joseph E. Wilhelm and Kelly Culshaw, Assistant Public Defenders, for appellant.

DOUGLAS, Justice.

Appellant presents nineteen propositions of law for our consideration. (See Appendix, infra.) We have considered each of appellant's propositions of law and have reviewed the death penalty for appropriateness and proportionality. Upon review, and for the reasons that follow, we affirm appellant's conviction and the sentence of death.

I

We have held on a number of prior occasions that this court is not required to address and discuss, in opinion form, each and every proposition of law raised by the parties in a death penalty appeal. We adhere to that position today as our judgment on that issue has not changed. We have, however, in this case, as in all other death penalty cases, carefully considered all of appellant's propositions of law and allegations of error and have, in its entirety, thoroughly reviewed the record. Many of the issues raised by appellant have been addressed and rejected by this court under analogous circumstances in a number of our prior cases. Therefore, these issues require little, if any, discussion. Moreover, a number of appellant's arguments have been waived. Upon a careful review of the record and the governing law, we fail to detect any errors requiring reversal of appellant's conviction and sentence. We have found nothing in the record or in the arguments advanced by appellant that would, in any manner, undermine our confidence in the integrity and reliability of the trial court's decision. Accordingly, we see no reason to deviate from our prior procedures in death penalty appeals. We address and discuss, in detail, only those issues that merit analysis.

II Proposition of Law No. 1

Appellant contends that the trial court erred in failing to "life qualify" prospective jurors after they had been death qualified in accordance with State v. Jenkins (1984), 15 Ohio St.3d 164, 15 OBR 311, 473 N.E.2d 264, paragraph two of the syllabus. Appellant argues that, during voir dire, prospective jurors must be questioned by the trial court concerning any views on capital punishment that would prevent or substantially impair their ability to consider a life sentence, as opposed to the death penalty, should the case go to the penalty phase. Thus, appellant proposes that, in order to ensure basic fairness to both parties, the trial court must, sua sponte, life-qualify prospective jurors. For the following reasons we disagree.

Initially we note that appellant's trial counsel never objected to the jury selection process, nor did defense counsel object to the trial court's lack of "life qualification" questions. Thus, appellant has waived all but plain error. See Crim.R. 52(B). An alleged error "does not constitute a plain error * * * unless, but for the error, the outcome of the trial clearly would have been otherwise." State v. Long (1978), 53 Ohio St.2d 91, 7 O.O.3d 178, 372 N.E.2d 804, paragraph two of the syllabus.

R.C. 2945.27 provides that "[t]he judge of the trial court shall examine the prospective jurors under oath or upon affirmation as to their qualifications to Appellant's first proposition of law is based substantially on Morgan v. Illinois (1992), 504 U.S. 719, 112 S.Ct. 2222, 119 L.Ed.2d 492, wherein the United States Supreme Court held that, on voir dire, upon defendant's request, the trial court must inquire into the prospective juror's views on capital punishment. Id. at 729-734, 112 S.Ct. at 2230-2233, 119 L.Ed.2d at 503-506. The Morgan court, in so holding, reiterated its views, as set forth in Witherspoon v. Illinois (1968), 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776, Adams v. Texas (1980), 448 U.S. 38, 100 S.Ct. 2521, 65 L.Ed.2d 581, Wainwright v. Witt (1985), 469 U.S. 412, 105 S.Ct. 844, 83 L.Ed.2d 841, and Ross v. Oklahoma (1988), 487 U.S. 81, 108 S.Ct. 2273, 101 L.Ed.2d 80, that a capital defendant may challenge for cause any prospective juror who, regardless of evidence of aggravating and mitigating circumstances and in disregard to jury instructions, will automatically vote for the death penalty in every case. Morgan v. Illinois, 504 U.S. at 729, 112 S.Ct. at 2229, 119 L.Ed.2d at 502-503.

                serve as fair and impartial jurors, but he shall permit reasonable examination of such jurors by the prosecuting attorney and by the defendant or his counsel."   In State v. Bedford (1988), 39 Ohio St.3d 122, 129, 529 N.E.2d 913, 920, we stated that the scope of voir dire is within the discretion of the trial court and it varies depending on the circumstances of each case
                

Appellant concedes that Morgan requires only life qualification by the trial court upon the defendant's request. Appellant would like, however,...