State v. Prince

75 P.3d 114, 206 Ariz. 24
Arizona Supreme Court·Decided August 26, 2003·No. CR-00-0328-AP·Published·Cited by 18 cases

Opinions

SUPPLEMENTAL OPINION

McGREGOR, Vice Chief Justice.

¶ 1 The only issue before us is whether reversible error occurred when a trial judge sentenced Wayne Benoit Prince to death under a procedure that violated Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002) (Ring II). We exercise jurisdiction pursuant to Article VI, Section 5.3 of the Arizona Constitution and Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) section 13-4031 (2001). Based on our review of the record, we cannot conclude that the Ring II violation constituted harmless error.

I.

¶ 2 On March 25,1998, Prince and his wife Christine Parker were involved in a heated domestic dispute. Christine’s son was asleep during the incident, but Cassandra, her thirteen-year-old daughter, attempted to flee the apartment to summon help. Prince was armed with a gun and threatened to kill the children, Christine, and then himself. Eventually, the fight moved into Cassandra’s room, where Prince held a pillow around the gun and shot Cassandra in the head. Prince then shot Christine. Christine survived, but Cassandra did not.1

¶ 3 A jury found that Prince committed the attempted murder of Christine and the first degree murder of Cassandra. Following the jury’s guilty verdict, the trial judge conducted a sentencing hearing to determine wheth[26] er any aggravating or mitigating circumstances existed. A.R.S. § 13-703 (2001), amended by 2002 Ariz. Sess. Laws, 5th Spec. Sess., eh. 1, § 1. The judge found beyond a reasonable doubt the presence of two aggravating circumstances: (1) Prince committed the murder in an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner, A.R.S. section 13-703.F.6; and (2) Prince was an adult at the time he committed the murder and Cassandra was under fifteen years of age, A.R.S. section 13-703.F.9. The judge determined that the mitigating circumstances were not “sufficiently substantial to call for leniency” and sentenced Prince to death for the first degree murder conviction. Id. § 13-703.E.

¶4 We affirmed Prince’s convictions and his sentence for the attempted murder charge on his direct appeal. State v. Prince, 204 Ariz. 156, 161 ¶ 28, 61 P.3d 450, 455 (2003). This supplemental opinion reviews only Prince’s death sentence. Prince raises several arguments to challenge his death sentence. However, we address only the Ring II violation because we conclude that Prince must be resentenced. Because Prince will be resentenced, all other sentencing issues he asserts are moot.

II.

¶ 5 In Ring II, the United States Supreme Court held that Arizona’s former capital sentencing scheme violated the right to a jury trial guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Ring II, 536 U.S. at 609, 122 S.Ct. at 2443. The Court declared that “[cjapital defendants, no less than non-capital defendants ... are entitled to a jury determination of any fact on which the legislature conditions an increase in their maximum punishment.” Id. at 589, 122 S.Ct. at 2432. The Court reversed our decision in State v. Ring, 200 Ariz. 267, 25 P.3d 1139 (2001) (Ring I), and remanded for further proceedings consistent with its decision. Ring II, 536 U.S. at 609, 122 S.Ct. at 2443.

¶ 6 Following the Supreme Court’s Ring II decision, we consolidated all death penalty cases for which this court had not yet issued a direct appeal mandate to determine whether Ring II requires this court to reverse or vacate the defendants’ death sentences. In State v. Ring, 204 Ariz. 534, 555 ¶ 53, 65 P.3d 915, 936 (2003) (Ring III), we held that we will examine a death sentence imposed under Arizona’s superseded capital sentencing statutes for harmless error.

III.

A.

¶7 To establish the F.6 aggravating circumstance, the state must prove that the manner in which a defendant killed the victim was especially heinous, cruel, or depraved. A.R.S. § 13-703.F.6. The state needs to prove only one of the heinous, cruel, or depraved components for this aggravating circumstance to apply. State v. Gretzler, 135 Ariz. 42, 51, 659 P.2d 1, 10 (1983). Cruelty refers to the victim’s mental and physical suffering, whereas depravity concerns the “mental state and attitude of the perpetrator as reflected in his words and actions.” State v. Clark, 126 Ariz. 428, 436, 616 P.2d 888, 896 (1980). The judge found that Cassandra’s murder was both especially cruel and depraved.

¶ 8 The trial court concluded that Cassandra contemplated her fate before being shot.2 Mental anguish encompasses a victim’s contemplation of her ultimate fate. State v. Jackson, 186 Ariz. 20, 29, 918 P.2d 1038, 1047 (1996). Few especially cruel findings, however, are predicated solely on an inference that the victim contemplated his or her fate.3 [27] Previous cases in which we have upheld the cruelty finding, based primarily on the victim’s contemplation, have involved other circumstances not present here, from which the anguish can be more readily established. In some cases, the victims witnessed their aggressors shoot or stab a loved one before they were killed or the victims pled for mercy.4 Other cases have involved a longer, more definite period of captivity.5 In this case, no witness could quantify the length of time between the point at which Cassandra first experienced mental anguish and the moment that Prince shot Cassandra. The length of time during which a victim contemplates her fate affects whether the victim’s mental anguish is sufficient to bring a murder within that group of murders that is especially cruel. See State v. Soto-Fong, 187 Ariz. 186, 204, 928 P.2d 610, 628 (1996) (reversing cruelty finding because victims were killed in rapid succession without any appreciable time to contemplate their fate). Based on this record, we cannot conclude, beyond a reasonable doubt, that a jury hearing the same evidence as did the judge would have interpreted the evidence as he did and found Prince murdered Cassandra in an especially cruel manner.

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State v. Prince, 75 P.3d 114, 206 Ariz. 24 (Ark. 2003).

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