(DOWNLOAD) "People V. Tenneson" by Colorado Supreme Court # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: People V. Tenneson
- Author : Colorado Supreme Court
- Release Date : January 12, 1990
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 76 KB
Description
Pursuant to section 16-12-102(1), 8A C.R.S. (1986), the prosecution challenges the penalty phase instructions in two death penalty cases, People v. Tenneson, No. 88SA144, and People v. Vialpando, No. 88SA258.*fn1 In each case, the trial court instructed the jury that in order to sentence the defendant to death the jurors must find that the proven statutory aggravating factors outweigh any mitigating factors beyond a reasonable doubt and that death is the appropriate penalty beyond a reasonable doubt. Each court also instructed the jury that there is a presumption in favor of life imprisonment. The prosecution takes issue with those instructions. The prosecution further challenges the instruction given in Tenneson that the jury must consider as mitigating circumstances a list of forty-five statements concerning the defendant and the crime he committed. We approve the trial courts' instructions regarding the burden of establishing that death is the appropriate penalty and also hold that the trial courts acted within their discretion in giving the instructions concerning a presumption of life imprisonment. We disapprove the trial courts' instructions requiring that aggravating factors outweigh mitigating factors. We also conclude that the Tenneson court erred in instructing the jury that it must consider certain statements of purported fact as mitigating circumstances.