Opinion ID: 1587246
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: EED mitigator.

Text: The trial judge instructed the jury with respect to Caudill to consider, if believed to be true, the mitigating circumstance set forth in KRS 532.025(2)(b)(2), viz: The capital offense was committed while the defendant was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance even though the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance is not sufficient to constitute a defense to the crime. At trial, the prosecutor requested that the instruction be accompanied by the definition of EED set forth in McClellan, 715 S.W.2d at 468-69, quoted verbatim in Part IV, issue 3, supra. Caudill's trial counsel did not join in that request, no doubt because the McClellan definition serves to narrow, not broaden, the scope of EED. Dean v. Commonwealth, Ky., 777 S.W.2d 900, 910-11 (1989) (Leibson, J., concurring); McClellan, supra, at 473-74 (Leibson, J., dissenting). Caudill's appellate counsel, however, asserts that it was reversible error to omit the McClellan definition from the penalty phase instructions, relying on the plurality opinion in Dean, supra, at 909. Upon further reflection, we conclude that the McClellan definition of EED applies only to EED as a defense under KRS 507.020(1)(a) and not to EED as a mitigating circumstance under KRS 532.025(2)(b)(2). The language in the latter statute differs somewhat from the former, primarily in that the murder statute requires that there be a reasonable explanation or excuse for the EED, whereas the mitigation statute does not contain that qualification. Yet, the qualification is included in the McClellan definition. McClellan, supra, at 468-69. If the McClellan definition applied to both statutes, evidence justifying an instruction on EED as a mitigator would have to be equally as strong as evidence justifying an instruction on EED as a defense. If so, the omission of the McClellan definition from Caudill's penalty phase instructions would be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, because, if the evidence was insufficient to entitle Caudill to an EED guilt phase instruction, it was equally insufficient to entitle her to an EED mitigation instruction. However, the phrase, even though the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance is not sufficient to constitute a defense to the crime, in KRS 532.025(2)(b)(2) clearly anticipates that a broader form of emotional disturbance is available as mitigation of punishment than as a defense to the crime. Thus, even though, as here, the evidence is insufficient to warrant an instruction on EED as a defense to the crime, it could still be sufficient to warrant an instruction on EED as a mitigating circumstance. [2] Therefore, the McClellan definition does not apply to EED as a mitigating circumstance and the trial judge properly denied the prosecutor's motion to include the definition in the penalty phase instructions. To the extent that Dean holds otherwise, it is overruled. [3]