Opinion ID: 1667377
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Overbreadth of aggravating circumstances

Text: Mr. Bowen argues the aggravating circumstances concerning murder committed in an especially cruel or depraved manner and murder committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing an arrest should not have been presented to the jury because they violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. We rejected the overbreadth and vagueness arguments with respect to the avoiding or preventing arrest aggravating circumstance in Coulter v. State, 304 Ark. 527, 804 S.W.2d 348 (1991). The United States Supreme Court rejected the overbreadth argument with respect to the especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner aggravating circumstance in Arizona upon which our statute was modeled. Walton v. Arizona, 497 U.S. 639, 110 S.Ct. 3047, 111 L.Ed.2d 511 (1990). See also Greene v. State, 317 Ark. 350, 878 S.W.2d 384 (1994). We hold the statutes, Ark.Code Ann. §§ 5-4-603 and 5-4-604 (Repl.1993), permitting these aggravating circumstances to be considered by the jury are not unconstitutionally overbroad.