Opinion ID: 158868
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: duplicative aggravating circumstances

Text: 47 Petitioner argues that all three aggravating circumstances found by the jury--that the murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, petitioner had a prior violent felony conviction, and he presented a continuing threat to society--unconstitutionally overlap. '[D]ouble counting of aggravating factors, especially under a weighing scheme, [such as Oklahoma's capital procedure,] has a tendency to skew the weighing process and creates the risk that the death sentence will be imposed arbitrarily and thus, unconstitutionally.' Id. at 1239 (quoting United States v. McCullah, 76 F.3d 1087, 1111 (10th Cir. 1996)). The applicable test is not whether certain evidence is relevant to both aggravators, but rather, whether one aggravating circumstance 'necessarily subsumes' the other[s]. Cooks, 165 F.3d at 1289 (quoting McCullah, 76 F.3d at 1111); see also Johnson v. Gibson, 169 F.3d 1239, 1252 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 120 (1999). None of the aggravating circumstances in this case necessarily subsumes either of the other aggravators. See Hooks, 184 F.3d at 1239; see also Johnson, 169 F.3d at 1252; Cooks, 165 F.3d at 1289. 48