Opinion ID: 1060373
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 32

Heading: Constitutional Challenges to Death Penalty

Text: The Appellant raises numerous challenges to the constitutionality of Tennessee's death penalty provisions. The challenges raised by the Appellant have been previously examined and rejected by case law decision. The body of law upholding the constitutionality of Tennessee's death penalty provisions, specifically, that rejecting the claims currently raised by the Appellant, is recited as follows: 1. Tennessee's death penalty statutes meaningfully narrow the class of death eligible defendants; specifically, the statutory aggravating circumstances set forth in TENN.CODE ANN § 39-2-203(i)(2), (i)(5), (i)(6), and (i)(7) provide such a meaningful basis for narrowing the population of those convicted of first degree murder to those eligible for the sentence of death. [14] See State v. Vann, 976 S.W.2d 93, 117-118 (Tenn.1998) (Appendix), cert. denied, 526 U.S. 1071, 119 S.Ct. 1467, 143 L.Ed.2d 551 (1999); Keen , 926 S.W.2d at 742. 2. The death sentence is not capriciously and arbitrarily imposed in that (a) The prosecutor is not vested with unlimited discretion as to whether or not to seek the death penalty. See State v. Hines, 919 S.W.2d 573, 582 (Tenn.1995), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 847, 117 S.Ct. 133, 136 L.Ed.2d 82 (1996). (b) The death penalty is not imposed in a discriminatory manner based upon economics, race, geography, and gender. See Hines, 919 S.W.2d at 582; Brimmer, 876 S.W.2d at 87; Cazes, 875 S.W.2d at 268; Smith, 857 S.W.2d at 23. (c) Standards or procedures for jury selection exist to insure open inquiry concerning potentially prejudicial subject matter. See Caughron, 855 S.W.2d at 542. (d) The death qualification process does not skew the make-up of the jury and does not result in a relatively prosecution prone guilty-prone jury. See State v. Teel, 793 S.W.2d 236, 246 (Tenn.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 1007, 111 S.Ct. 571, 112 L.Ed.2d 577 (1990); State v. Harbison, 704 S.W.2d 314, 318 (Tenn.), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1153, 106 S.Ct. 2261, 90 L.Ed.2d 705 (1986). (e) Defendants are not unconstitutionally prohibited from addressing jurors' popular misconceptions about matters relevant to sentencing, i.e., the cost of incarceration versus cost of execution, deterrence, method of execution. See Brimmer, 876 S.W.2d at 86-87; Cazes, 875 S.W.2d at 268; Black, 815 S.W.2d at 179. (f) There is no constitutional violation when the jury is instructed that it must agree unanimously in order to impose a life sentence, and is not told the effect of a non-unanimous verdict. See Brimmer, 876 S.W.2d at 87; Cazes, 875 S.W.2d at 268; Smith, 857 S.W.2d at 22-23. (g) Requiring the jury to agree unanimously to a life verdict does not violate Mills v. Maryland [486 U.S. 367, 108 S.Ct. 1860, 100 L.Ed.2d 384 (1988)] and McKoy v. North Carolina [494 U.S. 433, 110 S.Ct. 1227, 108 L.Ed.2d 369 (1990)]. See Brimmer, 876 S.W.2d at 87; [ State v. ] Thompson, 768 S.W.2d [239] at 250 [(Tenn.1989)]; State v. King, 718 S.W.2d 241, 249 (Tenn.1986), superseded by statute as recognized by, Hutchison, 898 S.W.2d at 161. (h) The jury is required to make the ultimate determination that death is the appropriate penalty. See Brimmer, 876 S.W.2d at 87; Smith, 857 S.W.2d at 22. (i) The defendant is not denied closing argument in the penalty phase of the trial. See Brimmer, 876 S.W.2d at 87; Cazes, 875 S.W.2d at 269; Smith, 857 S.W.2d at 24; Caughron, 855 S.W.2d at 542. 3. The appellate review process in death penalty cases is constitutionally adequate. See Cazes, 875 S.W.2d at 270-71; Harris, 839 S.W.2d at 77. Moreover, the supreme court has recently held that, while important as an additional safeguard against arbitrary or capricious sentencing, comparative proportionality review is not constitutionally required. See State v. Bland, 958 S.W.2d 651, 663 (Tenn.1997), cert. denied, 523 U.S. 1083, 118 S.Ct. 1536, 140 L.Ed.2d 686 (1998). Based upon the above case decisions, the appellant's constitutional challenges to Tennessee's death penalty statutes are rejected.