North Carolina v. McKoy9/7/1988
conclusion also.
As the majority correctly states, in conducting proportionality review, we "determine whether the death sentence in this case is excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases, considering the crime and the defendant." State v. Brown, 315 N.C. 40, 70, 337 S.E.2d 808, 829 (1985). There are four cases in the proportionality pool in which defendants killed law enforcement officers engaged in the performance of their official duties. Those cases are: State v. Payne, 312 N.C. 647, 325 S.E.2d 205 (1985), State v. Hill, 311 N.C. 465, 319 S.E.2d 163 (1984); State v. Abdullah, 309 N.C. 63, 306 S.E.2d 100 (1983), and State v. Hutchins, 303 N.C. 321, 279 S.E.2d 788 (1981).
In Payne, defendant murdered a detective who had earlier arrested him on a drug charge. He handcuffed the detective's hands behind his back and pushed him into a river to drown. The jury returned a verdict of life imprisonment. In Hill, a policeman chased and tackled the defendant who was suspected of having committed a felony. During the ensuing struggle, defendant managed to get possession of the officer's pistol and shot and killed him. This Court found the death sentence disproportionate and sentenced defendant to life imprisonment. In Abdullah, defendant conspired with others to commit an armed robbery and shot the policeman several times during the course of the robbery, killing him. The jury returned a verdict of life imprisonment. In Hutchins, the defendant shot and killed two officers and then shot and killed a third officer who was attempting to arrest him. This Court upheld the sentence of death.
When considering the crime and the defendant and comparing this case with the crime and the defendants in the other four cases involving the killing of law enforcement officers, I find the instant case more like Abdullah, Hill, and Payne than Hutchins. Thus, I agree with defendant that to conclude that he deserves to die, when the defendants in Abdullah, Payne, and Hill were spared that ultimate penalty, would defeat the purpose of proportionality review mandated by the legislature, which, as this Court stated in State v. Jackson, 309 N.C. 26, 46, 305 S.E.2d 703, 717 (1983), "is to serve as a check against the capricious or random imposition of the death penalty." Thus, were I to reach proportionality, I would find the death sentence in the instant case disproportionate as a matter of law and sentence defendant to life imprisonment.
Justice Martin dissenting in part.
I respectfully dissent from the holding of the majority that defendant's inculpatory statements were admissible; otherwise, I concur in the majority opinion, including specifically, the resolution of the issue arising under Mills v. Maryland, 486 U.S. , 100 L. Ed. 2d 384 (1988).
With respect to the confession issue, the majority approves the admission of inculpatory statements by a sixty-five-year-old black man with an I.Q. of 74, blind in one eye, his other eye injured and bandaged so that he could not see, wounded and treated at the hospital, with a blood alcohol level of .264, afraid for his life, travelling in a van with officers for over two hours from Anson County to Raleigh, at times cold and thirsty, suffering from his wounds, and being, in the opinion of Dr. Rollins, incapable of appreciating the waiver of his constitutional rights. In this I cannot concur.
Perhaps by finecombing the
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