Background
Susan Joy Jacobson fatally shot her live-in boyfriend while he slept in February 2015. A jury convicted her of premeditated first-degree murder. Because Jacobson was an adult and the State did not seek the death penalty, her counsel, the prosecutor, and the superior court agreed that Arizona law required a natural-life sentence, which the court imposed.
The Court of Appeals affirmed Jacobson’s conviction and sentence on direct appeal. Her first, timely post-conviction-relief proceeding also failed. In a second, untimely and successive petition, Jacobson argued that the sentencing court had discretion to impose life with a possibility of release and should have considered mitigation evidence.
The Court’s Holding
The Arizona Court of Appeals granted review but denied relief. It held that Jacobson’s constitutional claim was precluded because the asserted right—to press a particular statutory-interpretation argument at sentencing—is not a right that can be waived only through her personal, knowing, and voluntary waiver.
Her claims that the sentence was unauthorized and that the law had significantly changed were also properly dismissed. Jacobson did not provide sufficient reasons for failing to raise them in her earlier post-conviction proceeding; the relevant statutes had not changed, and her lack of legal training and law-library access did not excuse the delay.
The court further held that the claim failed on the merits. Under A.R.S. § 13-752(A), an adult convicted of premeditated first-degree murder when the State does not seek death must receive natural life. The life-or-natural-life choice applies to juvenile first-degree-murder defendants and felony-murder defendants, not to Jacobson.
Key Takeaways
- An untimely, successive PCR petition must provide sufficient reasons for not raising the claim earlier.
- A defendant need not personally waive counsel’s decision not to make a particular sentencing argument.
- For an adult convicted of premeditated first-degree murder where death is not sought, Arizona law mandates natural life.
Why It Matters
The decision reinforces Arizona’s strict PCR preclusion and timeliness rules, including the limited category of constitutional rights that require a defendant’s personal waiver.
It also clarifies that the sentencing discretion in A.R.S. § 13-752(A) does not extend to adult defendants convicted of premeditated first-degree murder outside a capital prosecution.