Opinion ID: 1700705
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The judicially-constructed capital sentencing system and the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Text: Appellant contends that only the Legislature may provide the procedures in capital sentencing, that the procedures announced by this Court in Jackson v. State, 337 So.2d 1242 (Miss. 1976) [ See U.S. Supreme Court cases cited], may not be constitutionally enforced, and he urges that we overrule Jackson. In Jackson, the guidelines for a capital case were stated as follows: We now hold that a trial in which the defendant is subject to receiving the penalty of death must be conducted in two phases: The first phase shall deal only with the question of guilt or innocence of the accused or either the capital crime with which he is charged, or if warranted by the evidence, a lesser included offense. The first phase of the trial relating to guilt or innocence shall be conducted in all respects in the same manner that other criminal trials are now conducted. If the jury at the first phase of the trial finds the defendant guilty of the capital offense with which he is charged, the trial court shall immediately, if practical, conduct a separate sentencing hearing before the same jury. However, if this should be impossible for some reason now unforeseeable, the sentencing hearing may be conducted before another jury. At the sentencing hearing, the question to be decided by the jury is whether the defendant shall be sentenced to death or to life imprisonment. At this hearing, the State may elect to stand on the case made at the first hearing, if before the same jury, or may reintroduce any part of the evidence adduced at the first hearing which it considers to be relevant to the particular question of whether the defendant shall suffer death or be sentenced to life imprisonment. In addition thereto, an accused's prior record of criminal convictions, if any, may be proven as an additional aggravating circumstance whether the defendant testifies in his own behalf or not. At this hearing, the defendant may prove his lack of a prior criminal record as a mitigating circumstance and may also adduce proof of any other circumstance or combination of circumstances surrounding his life and character or the commission of the offense with with he is charged that would be reasonably relevant to the question of whether he should suffer death or be sentenced to life in prison. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt of the statutory elements of the capital offense with which the accused is charged shall constitute sufficient circumstance to authorize imposition of the penalty of death unless the mitigating circumstances shown by the evidence outweigh the aggravating circumstances. The jury shall not be required to make a special finding of any mitigating circumstance in order to return a verdict that the accused should be sentenced to life in prison. However, before the jury may return a verdict that the defendant should suffer the penalty of death, they must unanimously find in writing that after weighing the mitigating circumstances and the aggravating circumstances one against the other that the mitigating circumstances do not outweigh the aggravating circumstances and that the defendant should suffer the penalty of death. If the jury is unable to agree unanimously on a verdict at the sentencing hearing, the defendant shall be sentenced to life in prison. We also hold that all convictions of persons where the penalty of death is imposed will be reviewed by this Court as preference cases in such a manner as to see that the death penalty was warranted under the facts of the case and that death sentences will not be wantonly or freakishly imposed but will only be inflicted in a consistent and evenhanded manner under like or similar circumstances. We hold that Mississippi's death penalty statute is constitutional as construed and implemented by this opinion and that it satisfies the concerns expressed in Furman and the other recent cases.  (Emphasis added) 337 So.2d at 1256. The United States Supreme Court held the Ohio death penalty statute to be violative of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and unconstitutional in Lockett v. Ohio, ___ U.S. ___, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973, decided July 3, 1978, and said: We are now faced with those questions and we conclude that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments require that the sentencer, in all but the rarest kind of capital case, not be precluded from considering as a mitigating factor, any aspect of a defendant's character or record and any of the circumstances of the offense that the defendant proffers as a basis for a sentence less than death.  At ____, 98 S.Ct. at 2965. and The limited range of mitigating circumstances which may be considered by the sentencer under the Ohio statute is incompatible with the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. To meet constitutional requirements, a death penalty statute must not preclude consideration of relevant mitigating factors. (Emphasis added) at ____, 98 S.Ct. at 2967. In contrast with the Ohio procedure, we said in Jackson, supra, [1] that the defendant may also adduce proof of any other circumstances or combination of circumstances surrounding his life and character or the commission of the offense with which he is charged that would be reasonably relevant to the question of whether he should suffer death, or be sentenced to life in prison. 337 So.2d at 1256. Thus, appellant here was unlimited in presenting proof of any circumstance which might have been beneficial to him, and he took advantage of that provision in Jackson and requested and received the following instructions: D 23 In considering mitigating circumstances the jury may consider whether the defendant is incorrigible, or not capable of reforming his conduct to the values and standards of the community and society. D 25 The defendant John Buford Irving, III, may adduce proof of any other circumstance or combination of circumstances surrounding his life and character or the commission of the offense with which he is charged that would be reasonably relevant to the question of whether he should suffer death or be sentenced to life imprisonment. We decline to overrule Jackson, which is a complete answer to this contention. Appellant next argues that, in the event this Court declines to overrule Jackson and holds that those procedures may be constitutionally enforced, they should not be applicable to this case or to any crime that was committed prior to October 6, 1976 (date Jackson was decided), and that such an application would be violative of both the State and Federal prohibitions against ex post facto laws. In Bell v. State, 353 So.2d 1141 (Miss. 1978), decided November 9, 1977, after submission of appellant's brief here, the question was answered when this Court held that, in such case, appellant is not subjected to an ex post facto violation. Also, see Dobbert v. Florida, 432 U.S. 282, 97 S.Ct. 2290, 53 L.Ed.2d 344 (1977).