 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Hollaway v. State8/23/2000
That same risk compels us to remand for resentencing here.
If upon remand the State again seeks a death sentence and in all future cases where the death penalty is sought, we direct that the following jury instruction be given.
"In determining whether mitigating circumstances exist, jurors have an obligation to make an independent and objective analysis of all the relevant evidence. Arguments of counsel or a party do not relieve jurors of this responsibility. Jurors must consider the totality of the circumstances of the crime and the defendant, as established by the evidence presented in the guilt and penalty phases of the trial. Neither the prosecution's nor the defendant's insistence on the existence or nonexistence of mitigating circumstances is binding upon the jurors."
III. Instruction regarding the proper use of evidence during the penalty phase
We are also concerned that the jury receive clear instruction regarding the proper use of evidence introduced by the State which goes beyond proof of a statutory aggravating circumstance.
" State's capital sentencing scheme . . . must 'genuinely narrow the class of persons eligible for the death penalty.'" Arave v. Creech, 507 U.S. 463, 474 (1993) (quoting Zant v. Stephens, 462 U.S. 862, 877 (1983)). To implement this narrowing function, in 1977 the Nevada Legislature passed and the Governor approved Senate Bill No. 220, which established the procedures by which capital punishment may be imposed in this state. See S.B. 220, 59th Leg. (Nev. 1977). Basically, three types of evidence are relevant at the penalty hearing when the State seeks a death sentence: evidence relating to aggravating circumstances, mitigating circumstances, and "any other matter which the court deems relevant to sentence." NRS 175.552(3).
Statutes and this court's case law make clear the nature and use of the first two types of evidence. Aggravating circumstances are expressly enumerated by statute, and only evidence relevant to these enumerated aggravators will serve to establish a defendant's eligibility for the death penalty. See NRS 200.030(4)(a); NRS 200.033; Middleton v. State, 114 Nev. 1089, 1116-17 & n.9, 968 P.2d 296, 314-15 & n.9 (1998), cert. denied, 120 S. Ct. 322 (1999). A mitigating circumstance can be any circumstance "relative to the offense, defendant or victim" which a juror considers mitigating. See NRS 175.552(3); NRS 200.035(7); Evans v. State, 112 Nev. 1172, 1204, 926 P.2d 265, 285 (1996). Aggravating evidence and mitigating evidence, of course, also entail relevant rebuttal evidence: a defendant can offer evidence to rebut the State's proof of aggravating circumstances, as can the State to rebut proof of mitigating circumstances.
Under Nevada's capital sentencing scheme, two things are necessary before a defendant is eligible for death: the jury must find unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt that at least one enumerated aggravating circumstance exists, and each juror must individually consider the mitigating evidence and determine that any mitigating circumstances do not outweigh the aggravating. Geary v. State, 114 Nev. 100, 105, 952 P.2d 431, 433 (1998). Even if the jury as a whole finds aggravating circumstances and every juror determines that mitigating circumstances either do not exist or do not outweigh the aggravating, the defendant is only death-eligible. The jury must then decide on a sentence unanimously and still has discretion to impose a sentence less than death. See NRS 175.554(2), (3); NRS 175.556; Bennett v. State, 111 Nev. 1099, 1109-10, 901 P.2d 676, 683 (1995).
We are concerned here with explaining the nature and use of the third type of
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Nevada DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|