Opinion ID: 759483
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Avoiding Arrest or Prosecution Aggravating Circumstance

Text: 156 One of the aggravating circumstances the jury found was that the murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding prosecution. Coe argues that there was no evidence, beyond rank speculation, to support this aggravating circumstance. The only direct evidence in the record of Coe's motivations came in his confession, when he said that he snapped when Medlin told him that Jesus loved him. But, as the state supreme court noted, there was testimony at trial (concerning Medlin's personality and Coe's veracity) that cast doubt on the Jesus explanation. State v. Coe, 655 S.W.2d 903, 913 (Tenn.1983), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 1063, 104 S.Ct. 745, 79 L.Ed.2d 203 (1984). Also, as the prosecutor noted in his closing statement, Coe had a strong motivation to kill Medlin, because she would have been a key witness in Coe's prosecution for kidnapping and rape. 157 As with other sentencing issues, we review the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury's decision; the finding can be invalidated only if no rational trier of fact could have found the factor beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). The circumstantial evidence in this case, though thin, is enough to satisfy the standard of review we apply here.