Opinion ID: 2974292
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Acquittal First Instruction

Text: Although we hold that Petitioner’s acquittal first claim is procedurally defaulted, we nonetheless address acquittal first jury instructions. We do this because the state of this Circuit’s law on acquittal first instructions is less than clear, as evidenced by certain district courts’ improper refusal to follow Mapes v. Coyle, 171 F.3d 408 (6th Cir. 1999) and Davis v. Mitchell, 318 F.3d 682 (6th Cir. 2003). Hartman v. Bagley, 318 F. Supp. 2d 682, 671 n.16 (N.D. Ohio 2003); Taylor v. Mitchell, 296 F. Supp. 2d 784, 813-14 (N.D. Ohio 2003). Should Ohio again choose to seek the death penalty against Petitioner, they should be equipped to impose it in a manner that does not violate the Constitution. Under the doctrine established in Mapes, 171 F.3d at 415, and expanded in Davis, 318 F.3d at 689, acquittal first jury instructions are unconstitutional in this Circuit. An acquittal first jury instruction is “any instruction requiring that a jury unanimously reject the death penalty before it can consider a life sentence . . . .” Davis, 318 F.3d at 689 (emphasis added); see also Henderson v. Collins, 262 F.3d 615, 622 (6th Cir. 2001). Acquittal first jury instructions are unconstitutional because they violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Davis, 318 F.3d at 689; see also Mapes, 171 F.3d at 416 (noting that the Ohio Supreme Court found that acquittal first instructions violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments). As the Supreme Court explained in Mills v. Maryland, 486 U.S. at 374-75, the Eighth Amendment, which applies to the states through the Nos. 04-3515/3585 Williams v. Anderson Page 17 Fourteenth Amendment, requires jurors to consider all mitigating evidence. Any instruction which precludes jurors from considering mitigating evidence violates the Eighth Amendment. Id. According to Davis, acquittal first jury instructions violate the Eighth Amendment because they “preclude[] the individual juror from giving effect to mitigating evidence and [thus] run afoul of Mills.” Davis, 318 F.3d at 689 (citing Mills, 486 U.S. at 367). Acquittal first jury instructions may also violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause by denying petitioners the right to a fair trial. See, e.g., Mapes, 171 F.3d at 416 (citing State v. Brooks, 661 N.E.2d 1030, 1041 (Ohio 1996)); Henderson, 262 F.3d at 624-25 (Clay J., dissenting). In general, jury instructions violate a petitioner’s right to a fair trial when they are contrary to state law and undermine the reliability of a verdict. See Kordenbrock v. Scroggy, 919