State v. Stephens12/5/1997
s, 305 N.C. 656, 684-86, 292 S.E.2d 243, 260-61, cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1056, 74 L. Ed. 2d 622, 103 S. Ct. 474 (1982). We decline to revisit this issue, and this assignment of error is overruled.
In his final assignment of error, defendant argues that the North Carolina death penalty statute, N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000, is unconstitutional, arbitrary and discriminatory on its face and as applied in this case. This Court has consistently held that "North Carolina's death penalty statute, N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000, is constitutional and not based upon subjective discretion, applied arbitrarily, capriciously, or pursuant to a pattern of discrimination based upon race, gender, or poverty." State v. Garner, 340 N.C. 573, 605, 459 S.E.2d 718, 735 (1995), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 133 L. Ed. 2d 872 (1996); accord State v. Williams, 339 N.C. 1, 52, 452 S.E.2d 245, 275 (1994), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 133 L. Ed. 2d 61 (1995). Defendant concedes this issue has been considered and rejected. We therefore stand by our holding in Garner and reject this assignment of error.
PROPORTIONALITY REVIEW
Having found no error in either the guilt/innocence phase of defendant's trial or the capital sentencing proceeding, we are required by statute to review the record and determine (1) whether the evidence supports the aggravating circumstances found by the jury; (2) whether passion, prejudice or "any other arbitrary factor" influenced the imposition of the death sentence; and (3) whether the sentence "is excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases, considering both the crime and the defendant." N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(d)(2).
In the present case, the defendant was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and one count of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. In all three murders, the jury found the aggravating circumstance that the murders were part of a course of conduct by defendant including other crimes of violence against other persons. Further, in the murders of Antwon Jenkins and Michael Kent Jones, the jury found the murders were committed for the purpose of avoiding arrest, by means of eliminating these victims as witnesses. After thoroughly reviewing the record, transcript and briefs in the present case, we conclude that the record fully supports the aggravating circumstances found by the jury. We further conclude that there is no evidence or indication that the sentence of death was imposed under the influence of passion, prejudice or any other arbitrary factor.
The final statutory duty of this Court is to conduct a proportionality review. One purpose of proportionality review is to guard "against the capricious or random imposition of the death penalty." State v. Barfield, 298 N.C. at 354, 259 S.E.2d at 544. Another "is to eliminate the possibility that a person will be sentenced to die by the action of an aberrant jury." State v. Holden, 321 N.C. 125, 164-65, 362 S.E.2d 513, 537 (1987), cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1061, 100 L. Ed. 2d 935, 108 S. Ct. 2835 (1988). In conducting proportionality review, we compare this case to others in the pool, as defined in State v. Williams, 308 N.C. 47, 79-80, 301 S.E.2d 335, 355, cert. denied, 464 U.S. 865, 78 L. Ed. 2d 177, 104 S. Ct. 202 (1983), and State v. Bacon, 337 N.C. 66, 106-07, 446 S.E.2d 542, 563-64 (1994), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 1159, 130 L. Ed. 2d 1083, 115 S. Ct. 1120 (1995), that "are roughly similar with regard to the crime and the defendant." State v. Lawson, 310 N.C. 632, 648, 314 S.E.2d 493, 503 (1984), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1120, 86 L. Ed. 2d 267, 105 S. Ct. 2368 (1985). Whether the death penalty
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