 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Olsen v. State4/14/2003
on is important only to this court's reviewing process.
2. Weighing/Nonweighing Distinction
[ ] We have not considered the death penalty statute since it was amended in 1989, although we held the previous version was constitutional in Hopkinson I, 632 P.2d at 152. Hopkinson I considered a statute that instructed that aggravating circumstances proved beyond a reasonable doubt must outweigh any and all mitigating circumstances. If this conclusion is reached, the defendant can be sentenced to death. Id. at 153. Specifically, at that time the statute required the jury to determine "[w]hether sufficient mitigating circumstances exist . . . which outweigh the aggravating circumstances found to exist." Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 6-2-102(d)(i)(B) (Michie 1977). The 1989 amendment to the statute removed the weighing language and now reads, in pertinent part:
The jury shall consider aggravating and mitigating circumstances unanimously found to exist, and each individual juror may also consider any mitigating circumstances found by that juror to exist. § 6-2-102(d)(ii).
Both parties contend that Wyoming's statute should be considered "weighing" although it does not use that specific term. Both contend it is weighing because the statute limits the jury's consideration to statutorily-defined aggravating factors by the express language in § 6-2-102(d)(ii), which states that the jury must unanimously determine whether the defendant should be sentenced to death or life imprisonment based upon the consideration of aggravating and mitigating circumstances found to exist. The State argues that "consider" is a synonym of "weigh" and the jury's discretion is "channeled." The defense contends that the statute is too unclear to be constitutional because it does not give the jury guidance or direction "on how the aggravators and mitigators" should be "considered." The defense claims this "nonweighing" element causes the statute to be ambiguous, the court cannot determine legislative intent, and the statute must be declared unconstitutionally vague. Using dictionary definitions, the State contends that the statutory language, "consider aggravating and mitigating circumstances," is a directive that the jury is to weigh them in some fashion and affords it discretion to evaluate this evidence in whatever manner it chooses.
[ ] Our earlier discussion of the differences between weighing and nonweighing statutory language indicates that Wyoming's statutory language does not impose a nonweighing scheme. Olsen contends that eliminating the directive "outweigh" requires finding the statute too ambiguous to be constitutional. Proffitt specifically addressed the issue of whether a statute is constitutional when it gives no guidance as to how the mitigating and aggravating circumstances should be weighed in any specific case. The Court responded:
While these questions and decisions may be hard, they require no more line drawing than is commonly required of a factfinder in a lawsuit. For example, juries ha ve traditionally evaluated the validity of defenses such as insanity or reduced capacity, both of which involve the same considerations as some of the above-mentioned mitigating circumstances. While the various factors to be considered by the sentencing authorities do not have numerical weights assigned to them, the requirements of Furman are satisfied when the sentencing authority's discretion is guided and channeled by requiring examination of specific factors that argue in favor of or against imposition of the death penalty, thus eliminating total arbitrariness and capriciousness in its imposition.
The directions given to judge and jury by the Florida statute are sufficiently clear and precise to
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 Wyoming DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|