Scott Douglas Nordstrom v. State of Arizona

142 P.3d 1247, 213 Ariz. 434, 486 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 15, 2006 Ariz. App. LEXIS 109
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedSeptember 14, 2006
Docket2 CA-SA 2006-0056
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 142 P.3d 1247 (Scott Douglas Nordstrom v. State of Arizona) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scott Douglas Nordstrom v. State of Arizona, 142 P.3d 1247, 213 Ariz. 434, 486 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 15, 2006 Ariz. App. LEXIS 109 (Ark. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

OPINION

HOWARD, Presiding Judge.

¶ 1 In this special action, we are asked to determine the scope of petitioner Scott Douglas Nordstrom’s sentencing trial, which is scheduled as a result of our supreme court’s decision in State v. Nordstrom, 206 Ariz. 242, ¶ 28, 77 P.3d 40, 46 (2003) (Nord-strom II), that vacated six death sentences the respondent judge had imposed on Nord-strom’s first-degree murder convictions and remanded the case for resentencing by a jury pursuant to A.R.S. §§ 13-703 and 13-703.01. The respondent judge ruled that Nordstrom was only entitled to have a jury weigh the aggravating and mitigating circumstances in determining whether he should be sentenced to death for murdering the six victims and that he was not entitled to have the jury determine the existence of the aggravating circumstances. For the reasons stated below, we accept jurisdiction of this special action and grant relief.

BACKGROUND

¶ 2 In December 1997, a jury found Nordstrom guilty of first-degree murder and various other offenses in connection with events that had occurred in Tucson on May 30, 1996, and June 13, 1996, at the Moon Smoke Shop and the Firefighters’ Union Hall. State v. Nordstrom, 200 Ariz. 229, ¶¶ 1-4, 6, 8, 25 P.3d 717, 724-26 (2001) (Nordstrom I). After a sentencing hearing, the respondent judge found beyond a reasonable doubt that aggravating circumstances existed as to the murder convictions under § 13-703(F)(1) (“The defendant has been convicted of anoth *436 er offense in the United States for which under Arizona law a sentence of life imprisonment or death was imposable.”), § 13-708(F)(5) (“The defendant committed the offense as consideration for the receipt, or in expectation of the receipt, of anything of pecuniary value.”), and § 13-703(F)(8) (“The defendant has been convicted of one or more other homicides ... that were committed during the commission of the offense.”). The respondent found no mitigating circumstances existed that were “sufficiently substantial to call for leniency,” § 13-703(E), and sentenced Nordstrom to death on the murder convictions. The supreme court affirmed the convictions and the death sentences. Nordstrom I, 200 Ariz. 229, ¶ 99, 25 P.3d at 745.

¶ 3 In 2002, the United States Supreme Court reversed the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Ring, 200 Ariz. 267, 25 P.3d 1139 (2001) (Ring I), and held in Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 588, 609, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 2432, 2443, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002) (Ring II), that this state’s capital sentencing statutes were unconstitutional because they violated a defendant’s right to a jury trial as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court stated that, “[bjecause Arizona’s enumerated aggravating factors operate as ‘the functional equivalent of an element of a greater offense,’ the Sixth Amendment requires that they be found by a jury.” Id. at 609, 122 S.Ct. at 2443, quoting Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 494 n. 19, 120 5. Ct. 2348, 2365 n. 19, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). Thereafter, the Arizona Supreme Court consolidated the cases in which defendants had been sentenced to death under the invalidated statutory scheme and in which the supreme court had not yet issued its mandate. State v. Ring, 204 Ariz. 534, ¶¶ 5-6, 65 P.3d 915, 925 (2003) (Ring III). The supreme court concluded in Ring III that “Arizona’s failure to require a trial judge to submit the aggravating circumstance element of capital murder to a jury does not constitute structural error.” Id. ¶ 53, 65 P.3d 915. Consequently, the court determined it would review the sentences of such defendants for harmless error. Id.

¶4 Among the cases the supreme court reviewed was Nordstrom’s. Nordstrom II, 206 Ariz. 242, ¶ 3, 77 P.3d at 42. The court concluded there was no reason to disturb the respondent judge’s finding that the aggravating circumstance under § 13-703(F)(1) existed based on the supreme court’s decision in Ring III. Nordstrom II, 206 Ariz. 242, ¶ 7, 77 P.3d at 43. In Ring III, the supreme court said, it had held the Sixth Amendment “does not require a jury to determine the existence of an (F)(1) factor.” Nordstrom II, 206 Ariz. 242, ¶ 6, 77 P.3d at 43, citing Ring III, 204 Ariz. 534, ¶ 55, 65 P.3d at 937. As for the circumstances under § 13-703(F)(5) and (F)(8), the court found in Nordstrom II, based on the record before it, that “no reasonable jury would have failed to find the aggravating factors set forth in [these subsections] proven beyond a reasonable doubt.” 206 Ariz. 242, ¶ 17, 77 P.3d at 47. 1 But, the court concluded, “because some of the findings with respect to the mitigating factors rested on an assessment of the credibility of witnesses,” the case had to be remanded for resentencing. Id. ¶ 18, 77 P.3d 40.

¶ 5 Specifically, the court stated it could not find “beyond a reasonable doubt that a jury would not have weighed this evidence differently than did the trial judge.” And, the court observed, “a different finding as to the mitigating circumstances could affect the determination whether the mitigating circumstances are ‘sufficiently substantial to call for leniency.’ ” Id. ¶ 27, 77 P.3d 40, quoting § 13-703(E). Consequently, the court vacated the death sentences and remanded the matter to the respondent judge “for resentencing by a jury under A.R.S. sections 13-703 and -703.01 (Supp.2002),” id. *437 ¶ 28, 77 P.3d 40, the statutes the legislature amended after the United States Supreme Court invalidated Arizona’s capital sentencing scheme in Ring II. See 2002 Ariz. Sess. Laws 5th Spec. Sess., ch. 1, § 7; State v. Viramontes, 204 Ariz. 360, n. 1, 64 P.3d 188, 189 n. 1 (2003) (acknowledging amendments to death penalty statutes were in response to Ring II).

¶ 6 In December 2005, Nordstrom filed a pro se memorandum, which appointed counsel adopted and supplemented about a month later. 2 Nordstrom maintained in these memo-randa that, based on the express terms of § 13-703.01, particularly subsections (N), (O), and (P), as well as Rule 19.1(c), Ariz. R.Crim.

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Bluebook (online)
142 P.3d 1247, 213 Ariz. 434, 486 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 15, 2006 Ariz. App. LEXIS 109, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scott-douglas-nordstrom-v-state-of-arizona-arizctapp-2006.