Opinion ID: 1947870
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 21

Heading: is the jury required to state the specific facts upon which it based its sentence of death?

Text: Mississippi Code Annotated (1978 Supp.), subsection (3) of section 99-19-101, requires: (3) For the jury to impose a sentence of death, it must unanimously find in writing the following: (a) That sufficient aggravating circumstances exist as enumerated in subsection (5) of this section; and (b) That there are insufficient mitigating circumstances, as enumerated in subsection (6), to outweigh the aggravating circumstances. The jury verdict complained of was: We the jury unanimously find that the aggravating circumstance of: 1) The capital murder was committed while the defendant was engaged in commission of burglary and/or attempted burglary is sufficient to impose the death penalty and that there are insufficient mitigating circumstances to outweigh the aggravating circumstance. Neither Mississippi's statute, nor the decisions of the United States Supreme Court and this Court, require such detailed findings; hence this contention is without merit. In Jurek v. Texas, 428 U.S. 262, 96 S.Ct. 2950, 49 L.Ed.2d 929 (1976), the United States Supreme Court approved a statutory scheme which merely required the jury to answer three general questions on aggravating circumstances. No specific findings of fact were required under the statute, merely yes or no answers to the questions. The requirement in our statute [subsection (3) of § 99-19-101] that the jury indicate the aggravating circumstance or circumstances relied on, provides an even better basis for review than the Texas statute approved in Jurek.