Opinion ID: 1528630
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 19

Heading: State v. Middlebrooks

Text: The Defendant alleges that T.C.A. § 39-13-204(i)(7) fails to narrow the class of death eligible defendants. The Defendant states that the felony murder aggravating circumstance insufficiently narrows the population of death eligible defendants where a defendant is convicted of felony murder, citing State v. Middlebrooks, 840 S.W.2d 317 (Tenn. 1992). In Middlebrooks , a majority of this Court held that (i)(7) could not be used as an aggravating circumstance to support the imposition of the death penalty for a conviction of felony murder because it failed to narrow the class of death eligible murderers as required by Article I, Section 16, of the Tennessee Constitution. Middlebrooks has now been reconsidered by the presently constituted Court and in State v. Bigbee, 885 S.W.2d 797 (Tenn. 1994) (Justices Drowota and O'Brien dissenting), which opinion was filed contemporaneously with this opinion, a majority of this Court reaffirmed Middlebrooks . The State avers, however, that two valid aggravating circumstances strongly supported by the proof remain after (i)(7) is removed. The State points out that in State v. Bobo, 727 S.W.2d 945, 955-956 (Tenn. 1987), multiple aggravating circumstances were clearly established and that, although little evidence of any mitigating circumstances existed, this Court held the jury's consideration of an invalid aggravating circumstance was harmless error beyond a reasonable doubt. The Defendant, Smith, responds that [t]here is a legitimate issue as to whether harmless error analysis is ever appropriate in the context of penalty phase findings of an invalid aggravating circumstance, see Comment, `Deadly Mistakes: Harmless Error in Capital Sentencing,' 54 U.Chi.L.Rev. 740, 749-58 (1987); see also State v. Black, 815 S.W.2d 166, 198 (Tenn. 1991) (Reid, C.J., dissenting).