Opinion ID: 2428819
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Cruel Depravity of Mind

Text: The Defendant avers that the trial judge erred in charging the jury that the murders were especially cruel in that they involved depravity of mind. Aggravating circumstance T.C.A. § 39-2-203(i)(5) (1982) [§ 39-13-204(i)(5) (1991)] provides: The murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel in that it involved torture or depravity of mind. The trial court and the prosecutor concluded that the murders did not involve torture. See, e.g., State v. Williams, 690 S.W.2d 517 (Tenn. 1985); State v. Pritchett, 621 S.W.2d 127, 139 (Tenn. 1981) (instantaneous death by gunshot wound not torture). The Court, however, decided to charge a portion of circumstance (5), because it felt that when one takes a pistol and puts it to somebody's head, there is a question of cruelty and depravity of mind. The Court thereupon charged the jury an edited form of (i)(5): The murder was especially cruel in that it involved depravity of mind. It then gave the Williams definition of cruel and depravity. First, the Defendant contends that the court erred by tailoring the language of circumstance (i)(5) so that it fit the proof of his case. Defendant asserts that it was improper for the court to dissect this circumstance by omitting heinous and atrocious from its instruction. We have previously held that a trial court should charge only those aspects of an aggravating circumstance supported by the evidence in a case. See State v. Pritchett, 621 S.W.2d at 140; cf. State v. Laney, 654 S.W.2d 383, 388-389 (Tenn. 1983) (trial court should charge only those aggravating circumstances the evidence supports). For example, the trial court in this case correctly deleted torture from its instruction since none of the evidence supported a finding of torture as that term has been defined. See, e.g., State v. Williams, 690 S.W.2d at 529; State v. Pritchett, 621 S.W.2d at 139. Less certain is the correctness of the trial court's deletion of heinous and atrocious from the instruction. As used in circumstance (i)(5), the three adjectives heinous, atrocious, and cruel are complementary. Although listed disjunctively, they state a unitary concept defined and limited by torture or depravity of mind. See State v. Williams, 690 S.W.2d at 529. The better course would be to instruct all three adjectives to further clarify the nature of that type of murder addressed in circumstance (i)(5). Any error in the omission in this case is harmless, however, because we are convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the failure to include heinous and atrocious in the instruction had no effect on the result. See Clemons v. Mississippi, 494 U.S. 738, 753-754, 110 S.Ct. 1441, 1451, 108 L.Ed.2d 725 (1990). The issue critical to a finding of aggravating circumstance (i)(5) in the present case is whether the murder involved depravity of mind. The charge as given did not, as Justice Daughtrey's dissent concludes, direct the jurors' attention from the state of the Defendant's mind at the time of the killing or mislead the jury regarding what it must find to support a finding of this aggravating circumstance. While the definitions of heinous and atrocious are superficially more consonant with the concept of depravity, nothing this Court said in Williams would limit cruel only to those circumstances where torture occurs; and common sense makes no such distinction. A state of mind may be described as cruel. We find that there is no reasonable likelihood that the jurors in this case were so confused by the instruction that they were misdirected or misled regarding the requirements that must be met before aggravating circumstance (i)(5) could be found. Cf. Boyde v. California, 494 U.S. 370, 380-381, 110 S.Ct. 1190, 1198, 108 L.Ed.2d 316 (1990). (In jury deliberations common sense understanding of the instructions in the light of all that has taken place at the trial [is] likely to prevail over technical hairsplitting.) We also do not agree with the dissent that the facts in this record fail to establish cruelty as defined in Williams . One, like the Defendant, who could brutally execute a helpless, elderly woman can readily be described as a person disposed to inflict pain or suffering on another. The Defendant next contends that the trial court erred when it charged the jury aggravating circumstance (i)(5) because the evidence does not support a finding of depravity of mind. Depravity as used in circumstance (i)(5) means moral corruption; wicked or perversive act; it is not limited to the infliction of torture; and, as just noted, the critical inquiry is the murderer's state of mind at the time of killing. State v. Williams, 690 S.W.2d at 529. In State v. Black, 815 S.W.2d 166, 182 (Tenn. 1991), a majority of this Court held that the brutal and senseless execution style murder of a helpless child, who could not protect herself, evinces torture or depravity of mind. In State v. Zagorski, 701 S.W.2d 808, 814 (Tenn. 1985), the Court stated that the infliction of gratuitous violence and the needless mutilation of victims already helpless from fatal wounds indicated a depraved mind. See also State v. Williams, supra, 690 S.W.2d at 528, citing State v. Gretzler, 135 Ariz. 42, 659 P.2d 1 (1983) (depravity involves infliction of gratuitous violence on victim, senselessness of crime and helplessness of victim). In determining whether the evidence is sufficient to support a finding of depravity, we must consider the three murders separately. Arthur Lee was shot seven to eight times at close range during the course of his struggle with Bounnam, Chung and the Defendant. The cause of death was multiple gun shot wounds. The Defendant confessed to inflicting two of the wounds. During the struggle, when Lee tried to get the Defendant's gun, the Defendant shot Lee, who fell. The Defendant immediately shot Lee again, in the face, as he moved around on the floor. While the proof discloses that Arthur Lee was intentionally and deliberately killed, it is insufficient to establish depravity of mind beyond that found in any first-degree murder. See State v. Pritchett, 621 S.W.2d 127, 139 (Tenn. 1981). The record shows only that Amy Lee died as the result of a single contact gunshot wound to the head. It is otherwise silent regarding the circumstances of her death or her killer's state of mind. As in the case of Arthur Lee, the evidence is insufficient to establish depravity of mind under circumstance (i)(5). Inasmuch as we find the evidence insufficient to support one of the two aggravating circumstances found by the jury in the murders of Arthur and Amy Lee, we proceed to a harmless error analysis. See Clemons v. Mississippi, 494 U.S. 738, 110 S.Ct. 1441, 108 L.Ed.2d 725 (1990). Under the principles set forth in State v. Terry, 813 S.W.2d 420, 424-425 (Tenn. 1991), we hold that the jury's erroneous consideration of aggravating circumstance (i)(5) was not harmless error. As in Terry , once the especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel aggravating circumstance is removed from the sentencing determination, only one aggravating circumstance remains to be weighed against the substantial amount of mitigating evidence presented in this case. The persuasive quality and weight of the sole remaining aggravating circumstance is affected by the fact that the defendant did not personally commit the murder of Amy Lee, one of the murders necessary to support a finding of mass murder under T.C.A. § 39-2-203(i)(12) (1982). Furthermore, although not the aggravating circumstance most relied upon by the prosecution during final argument at the penalty phase, the prosecution did briefly emphasize the invalid aggravator in its closing argument. See Clemons v. Mississippi, 494 U.S. at 753-754, 110 S.Ct. at 1451. The prosecution also discussed this circumstance and the evidence supporting it in great detail during opening statement at the sentencing hearing. For these reasons we reverse Defendant's sentences as to Amy and Arthur Lee and remand these two cases for re-sentencing. The killing of Kai Yin Chuey does, however, evince depravity of mind under State v. Black, supra . In her case we have a helpless 74-year-old woman, who had already been shot by the Defendant and was lying on the floor unable to protect herself when the Defendant put a gun to the back of her head and shot her a second time. We find the evidence of this brutal and senseless execution of a helpless old woman sufficient to support this aggravating circumstance in the murder of Kai Yin Chuey. See also State v. Harris, 839 S.W.2d 54 (Tenn. 1992); State v. Strouth, 620 S.W.2d 467 (Tenn. 1981); Houston v. State, 593 S.W.2d 267 (Tenn. 1980).