Opinion ID: 2459828
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Other penalty-phase objections

Text: Appellant briefly submits three other points of error which he alleges occurred during the penalty-phase. He asserts that the trial court erred (1) in refusing his proffered modified version of AMCI2d Form Three, which would inform the jury that they may but were not required to give death even if all the interrogatories were answered in the affirmative; and (2) in refusing to modify Form Three to read, [t]he aggravating circumstances, when weighed against the mitigating circumstances, justify beyond a reasonable doubt a sentence of death. He concedes that these two assignments of error are likely foreclosed by the United States Supreme Court's decision in Blystone v. Pennsylvania, 494 U.S. 299, 110 S.Ct. 1078, 108 L.Ed.2d 255 (1990). We agree that they are. Appellant further contends that the trial court erred in refusing to strike the risk of death to others aggravating circumstance, and asks us to overrule our decision in Cox v. State, 313 Ark. 184, 853 S.W.2d 266 (1993), in which we held that the killing of more than one person automatically converts a case into a death case because the risk of death to others aggravating circumstance also covers actual deaths. We decline the invitation to overrule our precedent. The record has been examined in accordance with Arkansas Supreme Court Rule 4-3(h), and it has been determined that there were no errors with respect to rulings on objections or motions prejudicial to the appellant not discussed above. Affirmed in part; reversed and remanded in part. GLAZE, CORBIN and BROWN, JJ., concur in part and dissent in part.