State v. Chandler

I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion on two grounds. First, the trial court erred in submitting the (e)(6) aggravating circumstance — that the capital felony was committed for pecuniary gain, N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(e)(6) (Supp. 1995) — and second, the death sentence is disproportionate.

In 1977, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a new capital punishment statute, N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000, modeled in large part on the American Law Institute’s Model Penal Code § 210.6. See State v. Johnson, 298 N.C. 47, 56-63, 257 S.E.2d 597, 606-10 (1979) (reviewing the history leading to the…