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State v. Robinson4/14/2004
ry service, co-workers, deputies from the Rapides Parish Detention Center, a prison consultant, and defendant's spiritual advisor.
PASSION, PREJUDICE, AND OTHER ARBITRARY FACTORS
The notoriety of the quadruple murders in the small community of Poland, Louisiana garnered vast pretrial publicity. For this reason, the trial court granted defendant's motion for change of venue, and a jury was selected in St. Landry Parish to try the case in Rapides Parish. See La.C.Cr.P. art. 623.1. Further, even though the defendant and four victims were all Caucasians, race became an issue during jury selection when the State argued that the defense exercised all of its peremptory challenges to exclude white males from the jury. The court overruled all of the State's objections as it did not discern a pattern of discrimination by the defense.
Likewise, the defense urged that the State exercised its peremptory challenges in a discriminatory fashion to exclude African-Americans from the jury, in violation of Batson v. Kentucky. As addressed Section III, Subpart E, even though the trial court never found a prima facie case of discrimination, the State articulated race neutral reasons on the record for all of the disputed challenges. Thus, we find that no prejudice is apparent in the jury's recommendation of death.
AGGRAVATING CIRCUMSTANCES
The State relied on two aggravating circumstances under La.C.Cr.P. art. 905.4(A) and the jury returned the verdict of death on all four counts, agreeing that both were supported by the evidence: 1) the offender knowingly created a risk of death or great bodily harm to more than one person; and 2) the victim was under the age of twelve years. As discussed previously in Section I, Subpart A regarding the sufficiency of the evidence, the aggravating circumstances relied upon by the State were fully supported by the evidence. Consequently, defendant's sentence of death is firmly grounded on the finding of these two aggravating circumstances.
PROPORTIONALITY REVIEW
Although the federal Constitution does not require proportionality review, Pulley v. Harris, 465 U.S. 37, 104 S.Ct. 871, 79 L.Ed.2d 29 (1984), comparative proportionality review remains a relevant consideration in determining the issue of excessiveness in Louisiana. See State v. Burrell, 561 So.2d 692, 710 (La. 1990); State v. Wille, 559 So.2d 1321 (La. 1990); State v. Thompson, 516 So.2d 349 (La. 1987). This Court reviews death sentences to determine whether the sentence is disproportionate to the penalty imposed in other cases, considering both the offense and the offender. State v. Sonnier, 380 So.2d 1, 5 (La. 1979). If the jury's recommendation of death is inconsistent with sentences imposed in similar cases in the same jurisdiction, an inference of arbitrariness arises. Sonnier, at 7.
Since 1976, seven Rapides Parish juries (in addition to the jury in the instant case) have sentenced defendants to death. The most analogous to the case at bar is State v. Roy, wherein this Court affirmed the conviction and death sentence of a defendant who stabbed his former girlfriend's ex-husband and aunt to death, and slit his ex-girlfriend and her two children's throats; the latter three victims survived. State v. Roy, 95-0638 (La. 10/4/96), 681 So.2d at 1230. The same situation is present in the instant case, as both cases involved execution-style attacks on an entire family apparently motivated by revenge. A review of the other capital verdicts from Rapides Parish reveal that defendant's sentence of death is not disproportionate to the crime for which he was convicted.
Given the scarcity of comparable cases in Rapides Parish, it is appr
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