Opinion ID: 609824
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Instruction on the weighing process

Text: 102 Following the jury's finding of aggravating and mitigating factors, Section 848(k) provides that the jury shall then consider whether the aggravating factors found to exist sufficiently outweigh any mitigating factor or factors found to exist, or in the absence of mitigating factors, whether the aggravating factors are themselves sufficient to justify a sentence of death. Chandler assigns error to the district court's failure to instruct the jury that it was required to find that the aggravating circumstances sufficiently outweighed any mitigating factors either beyond a reasonable doubt or by clear and convincing evidence. Chandler contends that because the possible punishment under Section 848 is the death penalty, the weighing process must be interpreted to require a heightened burden of proof. 103 The clear language of a statute controls any interpretation of the statute absent a clearly expressed legislative intent to the contrary. In this case, the language of Section 848(k) is clear and the meager legislative history is not to the contrary. The statute states that the jury must consider whether the aggravating factors sufficiently outweigh the mitigating factors to justify a sentence of death or if no mitigating factors exist whether the aggravating factors are themselves sufficient to justify a sentence of death. There is no language suggesting that the weighing process is governed by a burden of proof. Congress obviously knew how to assign burdens of proof to jury findings; it did so in Section 848(j) for findings of aggravating factors (beyond a reasonable doubt) and mitigating factors (by a preponderance of the evidence). If Congress had intended to govern the jury's weighing process with a burden of proof, it could have done so. It did not, and we will not construe the statute to require one. 104 That the jury need only be instructed that the aggravating factors sufficiently outweigh the mitigating factors is entirely appropriate. A capital sentencing scheme is constitutional even if it does not require that a specific burden of proof govern the jury's weighing process. Ford v. Strickland, 696 F.2d 804, 817-818 (11th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 865, 104 S.Ct. 201, 78 L.Ed.2d 176 (1983). The Supreme Court has also observed, we have never held that a specific method for balancing mitigating and aggravating factors in a capital sentencing proceeding is constitutionally required. Franklin v. Lynaugh, 487 U.S. 164, 179, 108 S.Ct. 2320, 2330, 101 L.Ed.2d 155 (1988) (plurality); see Zant v. Stephens, 462 U.S. 862, 875 n. 13, 103 S.Ct. 2733, 2742 n. 13, 77 L.Ed.2d 235 (1983). Congress created a constitutional capital sentencing scheme by requiring the jury to find that the aggravating factors sufficiently outweigh the mitigating factors before a death sentence could be recommended. 105 Alternatively, Chandler submits that even if the statute does not require a burden of proof in the weighing process, the district court erred in its instructions to the jury. The district court instructed the jury both at the beginning of the sentencing hearing, the preliminary instructions, and again at the conclusion, the supplemental jury instructions. On each occasion the district court provided the jury with a copy of the instructions that the district court requested the jury follow as the instructions were read aloud. Both the preliminary and the supplemental instructions discussed the weighing process five times. Three of those times the district court instructed that the aggravating factors must sufficiently outweigh the mitigating factors. Twice the district court instructed that the aggravating factors must outweigh the mitigating factors. The district court also gave the jury a verdict form. The form was to be signed by each juror and confirmed that the jury had found that the aggravating factors sufficiently outweighed the mitigating factors. 106 We review jury instructions under the standard discussed above. 3 In context, the instructions sufficiently charged the jury on the weighing process. The instructions communicated to the jury that it must find that the aggravating factors when balanced against the mitigating factors justified a sentence of death. The fact that the district court omitted the word sufficiently two times does not render the instructions inadequate or erroneous. Moreover, the jury form that each juror signed stated that the aggravating factors unanimously found by us to exist sufficiently outweigh any mitigating factor or factors found to exist to justify a sentence of death. RII-221-3 (emphasis added).