Opinion ID: 1829968
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 45

Heading: Whimsical Doubt Instruction

Text: Hansen assigns error in the Circuit Court's refusal of his whimsical doubt instruction, [19] a notion emanating from several Circuit Court of Appeals opinions of a few years back. Johnson v. Thigpen, 806 F.2d 1243 (5th Cir.1986), and Smith v. Wainwright, 741 F.2d 1248 (11th Cir.1984). This Court recently addressed whimsical or residual doubt instructions in Minnick v. State, 551 So.2d 77, 95 (Miss. 1988), reversed and remanded on other grounds, ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 486, 112 L.Ed.2d 489 (1990), and held no such instruction was required. The defendant enjoys no right to be spared the death penalty that the jury entertains a whimsical or residual doubt of his guilt, although counsel remains free to argue to the jury any such doubt. The Minnick Court relied on Franklin v. Lynaugh, 487 U.S. 164, 108 S.Ct. 2320, 101 L.Ed.2d 155 (1988). The Franklin opinion focused on the idea that where a defendant argues residual doubt to the jury, which a defendant is free to do to a relevant extent, the defendant's right to have a jury consider residual doubt is not impaired by the trial court rejecting an instruction on residual doubt. Minnick, 551 So.2d at 95. See also, Cole v. State, 525 So.2d 365, 371-72 (Miss. 1987). In the case sub judice the Circuit Court denied the whimsical doubt instruction. The Court did not err in so doing. The record does not reflect that the defendant's counsel was forbidden to argue whimsical or residual doubt to the jury. The issue is without merit.