Opinion ID: 746275
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Mitigating-Circumstance Instruction

Text: 25 Kilgore argues that the mitigating-circumstance instruction given his jury was phrased so as to limit impermissibly the jury's discretion to find that there were mitigating circumstances which outweighed the aggravating circumstances of the crime. The instruction, he argues, violates 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). Kilgore's argument is foreclosed by our decision in Reese v. Delo, 94 F.3d 1177, 1186 (8th Cir.1996), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 2421, 138 L.Ed.2d 185 (1997). In that case, the petitioner made a virtually identical argument to the one Kilgore now advances, about the same wording in Missouri's mitigating-circumstance instruction. We reject Kilgore's argument for the same reasons.