Opinion ID: 1129388
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Alabama's Statutory Sentencing Scheme and Apprendi

Text: Martin contends that Alabama cases have too narrowly interpreted the United States Supreme Court's decisions in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), and Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002). In Apprendi, the United States Supreme Court held that [o]ther than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt. 530 U.S. at 490, 120 S.Ct. 2348. According to the Supreme Court's holding in Ring, Arizona's statutory sentencing scheme violated the rule set forth in Apprendi. In Ex parte Hodges, 856 So.2d 936 (Ala.2003), we explained the difference between Alabama's sentencing scheme and Arizona's: However, under Arizona's statutory scheme, unlike Alabama's, only the trial court heard the evidence submitted at the sentencing hearing. The trial court determined which aggravating circumstances and mitigating circumstances existed, weighed those circumstances, and sentenced Ring to death. The Supreme Court concluded that because `Arizona's enumerated aggravating factors operate as the functional equivalent of an element of a greater offense,' those factors must be found by a jury. 536 U.S. at 609, 122 S.Ct. at 2443 (quoting Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 494 n. 19, 120 S.Ct. 2348). Because the trial judge and not the jury made the factual findings required to sentence Ring to death, the Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the Supreme Court of Arizona. 856 So.2d at 943. In Ex parte Waldrop, 859 So.2d 1181 (Ala.2002), the defendant was sentenced to death for a murder committed during a robbery. Because the existence of one of the aggravating circumstances (that the murder was committed during a robbery) was determined by the jury, we concluded that Ring and Apprendi did not require us to reverse the sentence. Only one aggravating circumstance must exist in order to impose a sentence of death. Ala.Code 1975, § 13A-5-45(f). Thus . . . the jury, and not the trial judge, determined the existence of the `aggravating circumstance.. . .' Waldrop, 859 So.2d at 1188. In the instant case, as in Waldrop, the jury determined the existence of one of the aggravating circumstances (i.e., that the murder was committed for pecuniary gain). Although the trial court in overriding the jury's recommendation of a sentence of life imprisonment also considered the aggravating circumstance that the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel when compared to other capital murders, all that is required to impose a sentence of death is the existence of one aggravating circumstance, which in this case was determined by the jury. Therefore, the findings in the jury's verdict alone exposed [Martin] to a range of punishment that had as its maximum the death penalty. This is all Ring and Apprendi require. Waldrop, 859 So.2d at 1188.