Opinion ID: 1675525
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 15

Heading: Freeing Ronald C. Howell While Condemning Alvin Hill Is Likewise Arbitrary and Capricious

Text: Look now at the second error specified above. The district attorney argued to the jury that their verdict was not the last word, that any death sentence would be reviewed in other courts. This same argument was made in the case of Ronald C. Howell, who subsequently received an eight year sentence. Howell v. State, 411 So.2d 772 (Miss. 1982). This Court reversed, holding that it was error for the prosecuting attorney to argue to the jury both directly and indirectly by implication, that if they should made a mistake, it would be corrected. 411 So.2d at 777. Essentially the same thing happened at Alvin Hill's trial. The only difference is that Howell's lawyer timely objected while Hill's did not. If such an error is sufficient to vitiate a conviction and eight year sentence in the Howell case, surely the same result follows in a death penalty case, even though no timely objection was made. Otherwise, we are back at the same sort of arbitrary and capricious infliction of the death penalty this and other courts have striven for years to eliminate. The Supreme Court of Louisiana has held as much in State v. Lindsey, 404 So.2d 466, 481-484 (La. 1981). In Louisiana appellate sentencing review is mandated in language identical to our statute, § 99-19-105(3)(a). At the sentencing hearing in Lindsey the prosecuting attorney made an improper closing argument. No objection was made. On appeal the state argued that the point was procedurally barred. The Court rejected this argument, stating: At no time during the foregoing argument did defense counsel lodge an objection to its content. Ordinarily, this Court would find that the issue had not been preserved for review. C.Cr.P. art. 841. However, because this is a capital case and because this Court has an obligation to examine the record for passion, prejudice or arbitrary factors which may have contributed to the death penalty recommendation, this Court will review the prosecutor's argument for possible reversible error. 404 So.2d at 482-483. [Emphasis added] I suggest, with great respect and deference for my colleagues, that the approach taken by our sister court from the State of Louisiana, manifest in the Lindsey case, has much to commend it. In any event, a review of this Court's Howell decision and Louisiana's Lindsey case makes it painfully clear that the sentence review Alvin Hill has received could hardly be called heightened. See II(B)(5) above. V. Death  Is  Different Errors Occurring At Guilt Phase Require Vacation of Death Sentence Only, Not Conviction Two of the errors we complain of here  the last word argument and the failure to grant the mercy instruction  occurred at the sentencing phase. They in no way infect the guilt phase proceeding. The other matter which in our view mandates reversal occurred at the guilt phase. We refer here to the state's eliciting from Gregory Tucker that he had been convicted of manslaughter. Assuming the correctness of all that we have said above, should this Court vacate the death penalty only, or both the defendant's conviction and sentence? We have no definitive jurisprudence on the point. For most of our cases cited in Section III above were decided prior to Furman v. Georgia in 1972. The approach taken in these cases must be brought into the bifurcated trial era. Several recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, however, suggest that death-is-different types of errors  even when they occur during the guilt phase  vitiate sentence only. In Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625, 100 S.Ct. 2382, 65 L.Ed.2d 392, 393 (1980) the Court found error in the trial court's refusal to allow the jury to consider at the guilt phase the question of lesser included offense. The Beck Court, however, vacated the death sentence only. The conviction was left intact. The same may be said of the Supreme Court's most recent exposition of the Witherspoon doctrine in Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38, 100 S.Ct. 2521, 65 L.Ed.2d 581 (1980). In Adams, where jurors had been improperly challenged for cause the Court again vacated sentence only. Adams' conviction was not disturbed. Finally, in Enmund v. Florida, ___ U.S. ___, 102 S.Ct. 3368, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1982), the Court precluded use of the traditional felony murder doctrine to obtain and uphold a death sentence. The felony murder doctrine remains, however, perfectly viable as a basis for convicting one of non-capital murder. Our path is charted by Beck, Adams and Enmund. Ignoring waivers, procedural bars and the like is mandated only for purposes of reviewing the sentence of death. That death is different, that heightened review is demanded, do not mandate review of the defendant's conviction on terms or conditions other than those which would apply in any other serious criminal case. See Brooks v. State, 209 Miss. 150, 155, 46 So.2d 94, 97 (1950); Read v. State, 430 So.2d 832 (Miss. 1983). For these reasons, were I writing for the majority, I would vacate Alvin Hill's death sentence but leave undisturbed his conviction of the crime of capital murder. I would then remand the case for a new trial on the question of sentence only, carefully instructing the trial court that the three errors noted here should not be permitted to occur anew. VI. A Deliberate Bypass Exception There is one notable exception to what we say above. Where competent defense counsel, as a matter of conscious trial strategy, has affirmatively chosen to exploit a matter otherwise inadmissible, his claims here of trial error should fall on deaf ears. For example, if defense counsel had elicited the fact of Gregory's manslaughter conviction as a part of a deliberate tactic to convince the jury that Gregory was the villain, not Hill, I would concur with the majority. Invited error should not form the basis for reversal even in capital cases. [2] I carefully distinguish that situation from the one we have here. Defense counsel did not put the fact of Gregory's conviction before the jury. The state did. Once the cat is out of the bag, defense counsel cannot be expected to sit back and pretend nothing has happened. He is duty bound to mitigate the effect of this damaging evidence. And if he does so by adjusting his trial strategy so that thereafter he is pointing the finger at Gregory, the point is still available on appeal. It is wholly unrealistic and unfair for us to plant procedural error preservation pitfalls in front of counsel whose eyes should be fixed predominantly on the verdict that jury will return. In short, where defense counsel has a matter of trial strategy deliberately bypassed on procedural opportunity at trial, he may not complain here if his strategy doesn't work. Two points bear emphasis: First, the benefit of the doubt on whether there has been a deliberate bypass at trial should always go to the defendant. Cf. Gambrell v. State, 92 Miss. 728, 736, 46 So. 138, 139 (1908). Second, too many findings of deliberate bypass via trial strategy can form the basis for a persuasive claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. VII. Conclusion I will summarize briefly. The state elicited from the codefendant Gregory Tucker, a companion of Hill on July 12, 1979, that he had already been convicted of the manslaughter of Robert Lee Watkins. This was prejudicial and reversibly so. Buckley v. State, 223 So.2d 524, 528 (Miss. 1969). The prosecuting attorney argued to the jury at sentencing that its verdict was not the last word on whether Alvin Hill would live or die. This was prejudicial and reversibly so. Howell v. State, 411 So.2d 772 (Miss. 1982). Finally, the Circuit Court refused to advise the jury of its power and prerogative to refuse to impose the death penalty, no matter how great the aggravating circumstances and no matter how lacking and mitigating circumstances. See Justice Hawkins' dissenting opinion. Because of these three errors and even though the first two have not been technically preserved below, I would vacate the sentence of death imposed upon Hill and remand for a new trial on the question of sentence only  where, of course, none of these errors would be repeated. I thus join in the affirmance of Hill's conviction of the capital murder of Robert Lee Watkins but respectfully dissent from the affirmance of his sentence of death. VIII. A Word On Another Subject  Burden of Proof at Sentencing