Opinion ID: 465428
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: jury instructions at sentencing phase concerning

Text: MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES 148 I respectfully dissent from section two of the majority's opinion. The specific Westbrook claim addressed by the majority was neither raised below nor addressed by the district court; accordingly, I would not reach it. Moreover, I disagree with the majority's disposition of this claim. 149
150 In Westbrook v. Zant, 704 F.2d 1487 (11th Cir.1983), a panel of this court applied Spivey v. Zant, 661 F.2d 464 (5th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 458 U.S. 1111, 102 S.Ct. 3495, 73 L.Ed.2d 1374 (1982) and vacated a death sentence where the trial court had failed to adequately inform the jury what a mitigating circumstance is and what its function is in the jury's sentencing deliberations. Westbrook, 704 F.2d at 1503 (quoting Spivey, 661 F.2d at 471). The majority takes this opportunity to reevaluate jury instructions that were deemed inadequate in Westbrook, supra; Tyler v. Kemp, 755 F.2d 741, 746-47 (11th Cir.1985); Morgan v. Zant, 743 F.2d 775, 777-79 (11th Cir.1984); and Finney v. Zant, 709 F.2d 643 (11th Cir.1983). Clearly this court sitting en banc may change circuit precedent. We usually do so only after full consideration of a claim by the district court and a panel of this court. 151 In Westbrook, a death row inmate asserted that instructions at the sentencing phase of his trial failed to inform the jury of its life option (the option to impose a life sentence even though aggravating factors are present and mitigating factors are absent) and also failed to adequately inform the jury of what a mitigating circumstance is. The Westbrook court rejected the inmate's life-option challenge, 704 F.2d at 1502-03, but granted relief because the instructions inadequately defined the nature and function of mitigating circumstances. Id. at 1503. Westbrook thus demonstrates that failure to instruct regarding a jury's life-option and failure to adequately define the nature and function of mitigating circumstances are discrete claims. In his habeas corpus petition, Peek challenged the ambiguity of his sentencing charge only to the extent that the court did not adequately inform the jury of its life option. 3 He did not challenge the court's failure to adequately instruct the jury regarding mitigating circumstances. In keeping with our general policy not to review claims raised for the first time on appeal, I would not address this claim. See Ross v. Kemp, 756 F.2d 1483, 1486 (11th Cir.1985) (en banc) (reinstating panel opinion declining to address merits of Westbrook claim first raised at oral argument); Stephens v. Zant, 716 F.2d 276, 277 (11th Cir.1983) (per curiam). 152 Alternatively, I would remand the claim to the district court. Peek's petition asserts that he was denied effective assistance of counsel, one of counsel's alleged deficiencies being: 153 Counsel for petitioner failed to file any Requests to Charge in the penalty phase of the trial, thereby insuring that the jury would be uninstructed on the definition and meaning of extenuation and mitigation. 154 Petition at 19. Even if we accord this language the broadest possible reading and consider it as having raised the Westbrook issue, cf. Finney, 709 F.2d at 646-47 (justice required addressing Westbrook claim couched in terms of ineffectiveness of counsel), neither the magistrate nor the district court discovered it. 4 In addressing Peek's ineffective assistance of counsel claim, the magistrate merely found that no errors were of constitutional dimension. Thus, the magistrate's finding regarding any Westbrook claim could only have been that Peek's attorney was not deficient in neglecting to request a specific charge defining mitigating circumstances. The district court, after a de novo review of Peek's petition, adopted the magistrate's findings and recommendation. 5 These findings do not address whether mitigating circumstances were adequately defined. 155 The majority, assuming that both the district court and the magistrate considered an implicit Westbrook claim, determines that the jury instructions adequately informed the jury as to the nature and function of a mitigating circumstance. The majority bases its holding on the premise that the jury could not have misunderstood the meaning and function of mitigating circumstances. Ante at 1494-1495. Because the lower court neither considered this claim nor found facts that could lead to the majority's inference, we should remand this case to the district court to determine whether a Westbrook claim was raised and, if so, whether the instructions adequately described the function of mitigating circumstances. See Stepanian v. Addis, 782 F.2d 902 (11th Cir.1986) (per curiam) (claim not ruled on by district court not considered on appeal).
156 Assuming the merits of Peek's Westbrook claim were properly before us, I would join Judge Hatchett's dissent. I write separately to underscore that, in my view, the majority has misapplied Francis v. Franklin, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 1965, 85 L.Ed.2d 344 (1985). In Franklin, instructions on intent were held constitutionally inadequate because a juror could have understood them in an unconstitutional manner. The majority recognizes that: 157 the Constitution requires that there be no reasonable possibility that a juror will misunderstand the meaning and function of mitigating circumstances, i.e., that the law recognizes the existence of circumstances which in fairness or mercy may be considered as extenuating or reducing the punishment. 158 Ante at p. 1494. The majority finds two passages which it believes sufficient to meet constitutional requirements. First, the instruction at one point referred to mitigation as on the one hand, and aggravation on the other. Second, the charge gave an example of a sentencing consideration: the presence or absence of a criminal record. 159 Although it is possible that keen jurors may have made the inferences adopted by the majority, it is quite possible that they could have failed to make them. Under the majority's reasoning no instruction would be necessary: the jury could simply infer that because the defense presents evidence, that evidence is to be considered in favor of mercy. Moreover, the criminal record example relates specifically to an aggravating circumstance and gives the jury no guidance with respect to the great majority of mitigating circumstances that do not have a counterpart aggravating circumstance. 6 The majority concludes that the instructions here rely on jurors' common sense to divine the proper meaning and role of mitigating circumstances from self-evident sentencing considerations. The nuances and ramifications of capital sentencing, however, are too complex and significant to permit reliance on instructions that tacitly assume all jurors know the nature and function of mitigating circumstances. See Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 117-18, 102 S.Ct. 869, 878-79, 71 L.Ed.2d 1 (1982) (O'Connor, J., concurring) (extraordinary precautions guarantee, as much as is humanly possible, that the [death] sentence was not imposed out of whim, passion, prejudice, or mistake.); Spivey v. Zant, 661 F.2d at 471 (in most cases, a judge must clearly and explicitly instruct the jury about mitigating circumstances). 7 In sum, the Peek instructions fail to eliminate the possibility that the jury understood the nature and function of mitigating circumstances in an unconstitutional manner. Accordingly, I cannot join this court's opinion on the Westbrook issue.