Opinion ID: 2188508
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Three-Door Analogy

Text: Williams argues that the trial court plainly erred by allowing the prosecutor to employ an analogy to explain to the venire the assessment of punishment in a capital murder case. The prosecutor described the decision-making process as a hallway having three doors. The first door was the guilt or innocence door in which the jury decides if the defendant is guilty of first degree murder. The second door was described as the special or aggravating circumstance door in which the venire was told the jury must decide if the state proved an aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt. The third door was described as the death penalty door at which time the jury would have to assess all aggravating and mitigating evidence and determine if death was warranted. Williams argues that the three door analogy is fatally flawed because it leaves out a critical step; namely, the Section 565.030.4(2) requirement that the jury unanimously find the existence of a statutory aggravating factor and that this factor warrants the death penalty. Because Williams did not object at trial, review is for manifest injustice under the plain error rule. Rule 30.20. Williams has not demonstrated manifest injustice. First, the state made it clear that the analogy was not an instruction on the law and was only a general explanation. Second, prior to the death qualification voir dire, the trial court read to the jury MAI-CR 3d 302.03, which describes the process followed in a capital murder case. Finally, prior to deliberations, the trial court instructed the jury pursuant to MAI-CR 3d 313.41A on the findings it must make before returning a death sentence. This instruction clearly tells the jury it must unanimously find beyond a reasonable doubt one or more statutory aggravating factors and that the factors warrant the death penalty. Taken together, the state's explanation of the purpose of the analogy and the instructions given to the venire and the jury before deliberations corrected any misunderstanding by the jury of the process for deciding on the death penalty. There was no manifest injustice.