Opinion ID: 1057594
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Right to Present Mitigation Evidence

Text: The defendant contends that the trial court's denial of a second continuance also violated his constitutional right to present mitigation evidence. The State counters that the trial court did not exclude any mitigation evidence. Exclusion of relevant mitigating evidence from a sentencing hearing violates the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Skipper v. South Carolina, 476 U.S. 1, 8, 106 S.Ct. 1669, 90 L.Ed.2d 1 (1986). When a trial court erroneously excludes mitigating evidence in the sentencing phase of a trial, the State bears the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the sentence would have been the same even if the excluded evidence had been allowed. State v. Rimmer, 250 S.W.3d 12, 24 (Tenn.2008). We agree with the State that the defendant's claim does not sound under the Eighth Amendment. The trial court did not exclude any relevant mitigating evidence. The defendant chose not to call Dr. Montgomery to testify at the sentencing hearing. Dr. Montgomery's testimony at the continuance hearing was speculative as to whether the defendant suffers from brain damage. The defendant has failed to show that additional time would have altered Dr. Montgomery's findings such that the defendant would have presented Dr. Montgomery as a witness at the sentencing hearing. Similarly, the defendant has not demonstrated how the denial of a continuance restricted Dr. Charvat's testimony. The record contains nothing more to substantiate the claim of the defendant that he suffers from brain damage. No further proof was presented on the issue at the hearing on the motion for a new trial, which was held three years after the trial. We conclude that the trial court's denial of a second continuance neither effectively denied Dr. Montgomery the chance to testify nor restricted Dr. Charvat's testimony. Accordingly, we hold that the trial court's ruling did not violate the defendant's constitutional right to present mitigating evidence during the sentencing phase.