Opinion ID: 1605533
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Did the trial court err in refusing Instruction D-15?

Text: Instruction D-15 provided: In your deliberations on the question of punishment, you are to presume that if you sentence Edward Earl Johnson to life imprisonment that he will spend the rest of his life in prison, and you are to presume that if you sentence Edward Earl Johnson to death that his execution will be carried out, and he will die in the gas chamber. You are to make no other presumptions regarding the aforesaid matters. In Bullock v. State, 391 So.2d 601 (Miss. 1980), this Court held: Instruction D-33 would have instructed the jury it was to presume that, if the accused was sentenced to life imprisonment, he would spend the rest of his life in prison, and the jury was to presume that, if the accused was sentenced to death, he will receive lethal gas until he is dead. The instruction was improper and was calculated to confuse the jury. (391 So.2d at 610) Instruction D-15 was properly refused.