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State v. Glassel

Supreme Court of Arizona
Oct 24, 2005
121 P.3d 1240 (Ariz. 2005)

Opinion

No. CR-03-0022-AP.

October 24, 2005.

Appeal from the Superior Court, Maricopa County, No. CR 2000-006872, Peter C. Reinstein, J.


ORDER

This Court has received Appellant's Motion for Reconsideration. The Court ordered the State to respond. After review and consideration, the Court finds that it made an error of fact in State v. Glassel, 211 Ariz. 33, 116 P.3d 1193 (2005). This Court stated that the trial court had prevented Glassel from asking two jurors for their meaning of the phrase "sufficiently substantial to call for leniency". Id. at ¶ 41. In fact, the trial court prevented Glassel from asking twelve jurors this question.

Glassel contends that this error is sufficient to require reconsideration because he has a right, under Morgan v. Illinois, 504 U.S. 719, 112 S.Ct. 2222, 119 L.Ed.2d 492 (1992), to ask jurors for their understanding of the phrase "sufficiently substantial to call for leniency." Glassel is incorrect.

Morgan gives defendants the right to determine whether potential jurors would automatically vote for death once a defendant has been found guilty of capital murder. Id. at 729, 112 S.Ct. 2222. The trial court permitted Glassel to ask jurors the Morgan question. In addition, Glassel was allowed to ask the twelve jurors at issue for their views about specific mitigating circumstances. Those jurors' responses gave him considerable information about what mitigating circumstances they might find to be sufficiently substantial to call for leniency. Therefore, any factual error in the Court's opinion on this point is not material to the conclusions reached in our opinion. Accordingly,

IT IS ORDERED denying Appellant's Motion.

Michael D. Ryan, Justice


Summaries of

State v. Glassel

Supreme Court of Arizona
Oct 24, 2005
121 P.3d 1240 (Ariz. 2005)
Case details for

State v. Glassel

Case Details

Full title:STATE of Arizona, Appellee, v. Richard J. GLASSEL, Appellant

Court:Supreme Court of Arizona

Date published: Oct 24, 2005

Citations

121 P.3d 1240 (Ariz. 2005)
211 Ariz. 370