Opinion ID: 1936097
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 33

Heading: whether the circuit court erred by failing to inform the jury of sentences jackson would be required to serve on his convictions for armed robbery and two counts of aggravated assault before the jury deliberated on his death sentence

Text: Jackson further contends that the circuit court's failure to inform the jury of the sentences he would be required to serve for the other charges against him deprived him of the opportunity to convey important mitigating evidence to the jury. He first asserts that the circuit court's refusal to grant Jury Instruction D-S-13 denied him the opportunity to instruct the jury that if sentenced to four consecutive life sentences on Counts 1 through 4, he would not be eligible for parole for forty years. We have found that evidence of other sentences might be used as a mitigating factor to show that the defendant would be subject to serious punishment even if the death penalty were not imposed. Davis v. State, 512 So.2d 1291, 1293 (Miss. 1987). However, matters such as eligibility for parole or lack thereof and the judges determination of sentence configuration are not a proper subject of jury instructions. Williams v. State, 544 So.2d 782, 798 (Miss. 1987). He further argues, that this Court has allowed evidence of mitigating circumstances of an unlimited nature. Davis, 512 So.2d at 1293, quoting Leatherwood v. State, 435 So.2d 645, 650 (Miss. 1983). See also Chase v. State, 645 So.2d 829, 856 (Miss. 1994) (restriction only that evidence is relevant). While the Davis Court noted that it is highly unusual for a defense counsel to cite the existence of another prison sentence as a mitigating factor (indeed, we have never heard of it being done before), it suggested that the evidence might be used to show that the defendant was subject to severe punishment even if the death penalty were not imposed. Davis, 512 So.2d at 1293. As distinguished from Davis, however, where the judge refused the defendant's request to admit his sentencing order as evidence, the record does not indicate that Jackson attempted to introduce the other sentences as mitigating evidence or that the circuit court refused to admit the sentencing order. Since he neither attempted to introduce evidence of the other sentences nor requested an appropriate jury instruction, the assignment of error is procedurally barred. Williams v. State, 445 So.2d 798 (Miss. 1984). Accordingly, there is no merit to this assignment of error.