Opinion ID: 1587246
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Instruction issues.

Text: The trial judge instructed the jury with respect to Caudill to consider, if believed to be true, the mitigating circumstance set forth in KRS 532.025(2)(b)(2), viz: The capital offense was committed while the defendant was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance even though the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance is not sufficient to constitute a defense to the crime. At trial, the prosecutor requested that the instruction be accompanied by the definition of EED set forth in McClellan, 715 S.W.2d at 468-69, quoted verbatim in Part IV, issue 3, supra. Caudill's trial counsel did not join in that request, no doubt because the McClellan definition serves to narrow, not broaden, the scope of EED. Dean v. Commonwealth, Ky., 777 S.W.2d 900, 910-11 (1989) (Leibson, J., concurring); McClellan, supra, at 473-74 (Leibson, J., dissenting). Caudill's appellate counsel, however, asserts that it was reversible error to omit the McClellan definition from the penalty phase instructions, relying on the plurality opinion in Dean, supra, at 909. Upon further reflection, we conclude that the McClellan definition of EED applies only to EED as a defense under KRS 507.020(1)(a) and not to EED as a mitigating circumstance under KRS 532.025(2)(b)(2). The language in the latter statute differs somewhat from the former, primarily in that the murder statute requires that there be a reasonable explanation or excuse for the EED, whereas the mitigation statute does not contain that qualification. Yet, the qualification is included in the McClellan definition. McClellan, supra, at 468-69. If the McClellan definition applied to both statutes, evidence justifying an instruction on EED as a mitigator would have to be equally as strong as evidence justifying an instruction on EED as a defense. If so, the omission of the McClellan definition from Caudill's penalty phase instructions would be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, because, if the evidence was insufficient to entitle Caudill to an EED guilt phase instruction, it was equally insufficient to entitle her to an EED mitigation instruction. However, the phrase, even though the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance is not sufficient to constitute a defense to the crime, in KRS 532.025(2)(b)(2) clearly anticipates that a broader form of emotional disturbance is available as mitigation of punishment than as a defense to the crime. Thus, even though, as here, the evidence is insufficient to warrant an instruction on EED as a defense to the crime, it could still be sufficient to warrant an instruction on EED as a mitigating circumstance. [2] Therefore, the McClellan definition does not apply to EED as a mitigating circumstance and the trial judge properly denied the prosecutor's motion to include the definition in the penalty phase instructions. To the extent that Dean holds otherwise, it is overruled. [3]
The trial judge instructed the jury with respect to both appellants to consider, if believed to be true, the mitigating circumstance described in KRS 532.025(2)(b)(5), viz: The defendant was an accomplice in a capital offense committed by another person and [his][her] participation in the capital offense was relatively minor. Both appellants assert error in the trial judge's refusal to delete the language, and [his][her] participation in the capital offense was relatively minor. We disagree. To delete the language in question would completely change the meaning and intent of this statutory mitigating circumstance. Obviously, major participation by an accomplice in a capital offense is not a mitigating circumstance. Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. at 157-58, 107 S.Ct. at 1688.
There is no requirement that a capital penalty jury be instructed that its findings on mitigation need not be unanimous. Mills v. Commonwealth, Ky., 996 S.W.2d 473, 492 (1999); Tamme, 973 S.W.2d at 37; Bowling, 873 S.W.2d at 180. There was no need to instruct the jury that it could impose a life sentence even if it found an aggravating factor beyond a reasonable doubt. Bussell v. Commonwealth, Ky., 882 S.W.2d 111, 113 (1994). Instruction No. 19, Authorized Sentences, read together with the verdict forms and as further explained during closing arguments, adequately apprised the jury of the available range of penalties and the role of the aggravator in the sentencing scheme. An instruction may not be judged in artificial isolation but must be considered in the context of the instructions as a whole and the trial record. Estelle v. McGuire, 502 U.S. 62, 72, 112 S.Ct. 475, 482, 116 L.Ed.2d 385 (1991) (internal quotations omitted). Finally, as we have stated many times, while we prefer the specimen verdict forms at 1 Cooper, Kentucky Instructions to Juries (Criminal) § 12.10A (4th ed. Anderson 1999), over the specimen forms at § 12.10 of that treatise, we do not deem the use of the latter forms to be reversible error. E.g., Hodge, 17 S.W.3d at 854. We note that when the prosecutor suggested that the § 12.10A forms be used, the attorneys representing Caudill and Goforth advised they had no objection to the § 12.10 forms prepared by the trial judge.