Opinion ID: 1315723
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: refusal to give parole ineligibility instruction

Text: Kelly argues that the trial court erred in the sentencing phase when it refused to instruct the jury that he would be ineligible for parole if sentenced to life. Kelly contends that since the State presented evidence of Kelly's future dangerousness, due process and Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U.S. 154, 114 S.Ct. 2187, 129 L.Ed.2d 133 (1994), required the parole ineligibility charge. We hold that Simmons does not apply to this case, and therefore, the trial court correctly declined to give the instruction. In the sentencing phase, the State presented several witnesses who testified about Kelly's actions while he was incarcerated at the Lexington County Detention Center. The jail administrator testified that an attempted escape charge had been filed against Kelly because a mortar joint around a cinder block in his cell had been gouged out. [5] Matthew McCormack, who had twice been Kelly's cellmate at the jail, testified that he and Kelly often spoke of escaping and that Kelly had, at one point, taken action on an escape plan. McCormack stated that Kelly made a shank and planned to take a female correctional officer hostage. Although Kelly called the correctional officer to their cell, McCormack stated that Kelly backed out of going through with the plan. The State also questioned correctional officer Mark Wharton who testified that he discovered a shank in Kelly's possession. Finally, Edward Bryant, who had been in jail with Kelly, testified that he heard Kelly talk about escape. In addition, Bryant testified that Kelly bragged about his crime, requested that he be called KFC, and walked around with a cup which had a drawing of a chicken with its head cut off and a knife on it. At the conclusion of the sentencing phase, Kelly requested the following jury charge: I charge you that the term life imprisonment means imprisonment until the death of the offender. No person sentenced to life imprisonment is eligible for parole, community supervision, or any early release program, nor is the person eligible to receive any work credits, education credits, good conduct credits, or any other credits that would reduce the mandatory life imprisonment required by law. See S.C.Code Ann. § 16-3-20 (Supp.1999). The State objected to the charge and stated that because it was not going to argue future dangerousness, the charge was not required by Simmons. Ruling that the State's evidence went to Kelly's character and characteristics and not to future dangerousness, the trial court denied the request to charge. [6] In closing argument, the State argued that the death penalty was the punishment that fits the crime. The State argued that Kelly had planned his crime and that he was a master murderer. Because Kelly had no prior record, the State argued that a person who commits an unpredictable crime is more frightening than a serial killer, more frightening than a career criminal .... You kind of trust them a little bit. Further, the State argued that Kelly was intelligent, quickwitted and did not have any mental illness. Thus, the State argued that made Kelly a little more dangerous ... for this lady, this crime on January the 5th, doesn't that make him more unpredictable for Shirley Shealy. Finally, the State recounted, over objection, the evidence regarding Kelly's attempted escapes from jail and that he had a shank. The State then argued that murderers will be murderers. And he is the cold-blooded one right over there. On appeal, Kelly contends that: (1) the State's evidence about escape attempts, possession of a shank, and his behavior in jail raised the issue of future dangerousness; (2) the State argued future dangerousness in its closing; and therefore, (3) the trial court erred in refusing to charge the jury regarding Kelly's parole ineligibility. Kelly argues he was denied due process because the jury instruction was mandated by Simmons. In Simmons, a plurality of the United States Supreme Court held that when a capital defendant would be ineligible for parole if sentenced to life in prison and the State argues the defendant's future dangerousness as a basis for imposing the death penalty, the defendant is entitled to have the jury informed of his parole ineligibility through either defense argument or instruction by the trial judge. Simmons, supra. [7] The Simmons Court explained that the Due Process Clause does not allow the execution of a person `on the basis of information which he had no opportunity to deny or explain. Id. at 161, 114 S.Ct. at 2192, 129 L.Ed.2d at 141 (quoting Gardner v. Florida, 430 U.S. 349, 362, 97 S.Ct. 1197, 1207, 51 L.Ed.2d 393, 404 (1977)). Thus, the Court ruled that the State may not create a false dilemma by advancing generalized arguments regarding the defendant's future dangerousness while, at the same time, preventing the jury from learning that the defendant never will be released on parole. Id. at 171, 114 S.Ct. at 2198, 129 L.Ed.2d at 147. To be entitled to a Simmons charge, two prongs must be met. First, the State must put the defendant's future dangerousness in issue. Second, the only available alternative sentence to death is life imprisonment without possibility of parole. Id. at 178, 114 S.Ct. at 2201, 129 L.Ed.2d at 151 (O'Connor, J., concurring); see also State v. McWee, 322 S.C. 387, 391-92, 472 S.E.2d 235, 238 (1996), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 1061, 117 S.Ct. 695, 136 L.Ed.2d 618 (1997) (due process requires parole ineligibility charge only if appellant's future dangerousness was an issue and only if appellant would have been ineligible for parole upon the imposition of a life sentence). Kelly has not met either prong of the Simmons test. First, we agree with the trial court that the State's evidence at sentencing did not implicate future dangerousness. Evidence that Kelly took part in escape attempts and carried a shank simply is not the type of future dangerousness evidence contemplated by Simmons. [8] The underlying principle of the Simmons holding is that if evidence of future dangerousness is presented by the State, the defendant must be allowed to rebut this evidence by showing that he will never be eligible for parole, i.e., that he will never legally be let out of prison. In the instant case, however, Kelly argues that the evidence he is an escape threat (and thus a risk to the general public) required that the jury be instructed on parole ineligibility. The flaw in Kelly's argument is that a Simmons charge would not rebut this evidence. Telling a jury that a convicted murderer will never be eligible for parole simply does not respond to the State's evidence that he presents an escape risk. In our opinion, the evidence presented by the State in the penalty phase was designed to show that Kelly would not adapt to prison life because in jail he had been caught carrying a weapon and planning or participating in escape attempts. Kelly was allowed to rebut this evidence, through both cross-examination of the State's witnesses and the witnesses presented in his defense. [9] Thus, Kelly was given the opportunity to deny or explain the State's evidence, in accordance with due process requirements. Kelly further contends that the State argued future dangerousness to the jury and thus misled the jury in violation of his due process rights. Specifically, Kelly argues that the State's argument that Kelly is worse than a serial killer and that murderers will be murderers constituted argument on future dangerousness. We disagree. A fair reading of the State's closing argument shows that the State consciously avoided any implication of future dangerousness. Not once did the State suggest to the jury that it should impose the death penalty because Kelly would be a future danger to the general public. Cf. Simmons, supra (where the Court found the following arguments to be generalized argument of future dangerousness: what to do with [petitioner] now that he is in our midst and that the death penalty would be a response of society to someone who is a threat. Your verdict will be an act of self-defense). Instead, the State argued Kelly should be given the death penalty primarily as retribution for the heinous nature of the murder and because of the status of Shealy, the pregnant victim. We hold that future dangerousness was not an issue in this case. It was neither a logical inference from the evidence nor was it injected into the case through the State's closing argument. Additionally, the second prong of the Simmons test was not met. The Simmons rule is applicable when the only alternative to a death sentence is life imprisonment without parole. See Simmons, 512 U.S. at 178, 114 S.Ct. at 2201, 129 L.Ed.2d at 151 (O'Connor, J., concurring); State v. McWee, 322 S.C. at 391-92, 472 S.E.2d at 238. Because Kelly was tried under the new sentencing scheme which became effective on January 1, 1996, he could have been sentenced to either (1) death; (2) life without the possibility of parole; or (3) a mandatory minimum thirty year sentence. See S.C.Code Ann. § 16-3-20 (Supp. 1999). The mandatory minimum sentence of thirty years is available only if the jury returns with no finding of aggravating circumstances. Id. This Court recently held that Simmons is inapplicable under the new sentencing scheme because life without the possibility of parole is not the only legally available sentence alternative to death. State v. Starnes, 340 S.C. 312, 531 S.E.2d 907 (2000); State v. Shafer, 340 S.C. 291, 531 S.E.2d 524 (2000), cert. granted, 530 U.S. 1306, 121 S.Ct. 30, 147 L.Ed.2d 1053 (2000). The logic behind this holding is that a Simmons charge is designed to answer the State's evidence that the defendant will be a future danger to society by telling the jury that if sentenced to life in prison, the defendant will never be paroled. In other words, a Simmons charge informs the jury that by rejecting the death penalty, the defendant will spend the rest of his natural life in prison. However, if another sentence other than life without parole is available to the defendant as an alternative to the death penalty, then a Simmons charge would actually mislead the jury by representing that the defendant would never be released from prison, when in fact, a thirty-year sentence is a potential sentence for the defendant. See Starnes, 340 S.C. at 329, 531 S.E.2d at 916 (Contrary to a sentence of life imprisonment without parole, a mandatory minimum thirty year sentence does not rebut the State's argument regarding the defendant's threat to society.). Accordingly, Simmons should not, and does not, apply when as a matter of law another sentence other than death or life without parole is available to a capital defendant. [10] Nonetheless, Kelly contends that the thirty-year minimum sentence was not available to him because the jury would have violated its oath if it had not found at least one aggravating circumstance. Thus, Kelly argues that Simmons applies to the instant case. In Starnes, however, we stated that it is inappropriate to assume the jury will find a statutory aggravating circumstance. Id. at 330, 531 S.E.2d at 917. Although we granted Kelly's motion to argue against the recent precedent set in Starnes and Shafer, we adhere to that precedent and hold it is not appropriate to presume that in certain cases a jury will always find particular statutory aggravating circumstances. Cf. State v. Riddle, 301 S.C. 68, 71, 389 S.E.2d 665, 667 (1990) (where this Court found error in submitting to resentencing jury convictions from previous trial as evidence of aggravating circumstances; the Court stated that the convictions from the guilt phase were not binding upon the resentencing jury as it was the sentencing jury's responsibility to find the existence, or not, of a statutory aggravating circumstance) (emphasis added). Therefore, Kelly cannot satisfy the second prong of the Simmons test. We hold the trial court correctly refused to give the jury a Simmons charge. [11]