Opinion ID: 1266535
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Constitutional Challenges to Capital Punishment Statutes

Text: Powell assigns error to the trial court's denial of his motion to have the Virginia death penalty statute and the statutory scheme under which capital murder trials are conducted and death sentences are reviewed on appeal declared unconstitutional. To the extent that this assignment of error remains pertinent to Powell's conviction of attempted capital murder, we have addressed and rejected in prior capital murder cases the specific arguments raised in it, and we find no reason to modify our previously expressed views on these issues: (1) Virginia's two statutory aggravating factors of future dangerousness and vileness are not unconstitutionally vague. Beck v. Commonwealth, 253 Va. 373, 387, 484 S.E.2d 898, 907, cert. denied, 522 U.S. 1018, 118 S.Ct. 608, 139 L.Ed.2d 495 (1997) (vileness); Clagett, 252 Va. at 86, 472 S.E.2d at 267 (future dangerousness). (2) Virginia's penalty-determination phase instructions adequately inform the jury regarding the concept of mitigation. Swann v. Commonwealth, 247 Va. 222, 228, 441 S.E.2d 195, 200, cert. denied, 513 U.S. 889, 115 S.Ct. 234, 130 L.Ed.2d 158 (1994).