Opinion ID: 1590214
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Alleged improper jury instruction on the balancing of aggravating and mitigating circumstances in determining sentence.

Text: Walker next contends that the trial court committed plain error in its instruction to the jury on the balancing of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances in determining his sentence. According to Walker, the trial court's instruction mirrors the instruction this Court held to be plain error in Ex parte Bryant, [Ms. 1990901, June 21, 2002] 951 So.2d 724, 727 (Ala.2002). In Ex parte Bryant, this Court held that the trial court committed plain error when during the penalty-phase instructions to the jury it invited the jury to recommend a sentence of death without finding the existence of any aggravating circumstance. We held that the following instruction by the trial court constituted reversible error: `I charge you, members of the jury; that if you do not find that an alleged aggravating circumstance was proved, that does not automatically or necessarily mean that you should sentence Mr. Bryant to death by electrocution, instead such a finding only means that you must consider other factors, more specifically mitigating circumstances, before deciding whether a sentence of life in prison or death by electrocution is present.' 951 So.2d at 727. As this Court explained in Ex parte McNabb, 887 So.2d 998 (Ala. 2004), it was the court's invitation in Ex parte Bryant to recommend a sentence of death without finding any aggravating circumstance that was plain error. We have reviewed the trial court's penalty-phase instruction in this case, and we conclude that the trial court's instruction did not constitute plain error; the trial court did not invite the jury in Walker's case to recommend a sentence of death without finding any aggravating circumstance. The trial court's penalty-phase instruction here with regard to the statements of law concerning the balancing of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances is identical to the penalty-phase instruction given by the trial court in Ex parte McNabb, 887 So.2d at 1000-03. As we concluded in Ex parte McNabb, although the court did not Specifically instruct the jury what to do if it found the mitigating and aggravating circumstances equally balanced, we cannot conclude, considering the charge in its entirety, that the error `seriously affected] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of [these] judicial proceedings,' Ex parte Davis, 718 So.2d [1166] at 1173-74 [(Ala.1998)], so as to require reversal of the sentence. 887 So.2d at 1004. No plain error exists in Walker's trial in this regard.