Opinion ID: 1059631
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Jury Instructions and Sentencing Form

Text: In his sixteenth assignment of error, Bailey contends that the trial court erred during the guilt-determination phase in giving separate instructions proffered by the Commonwealth defining capital murder as the killing of more than one person as a part of the same act or transaction, Code § 18.2-31(7), and capital murder as the killing of a person under the age of fourteen by a person age twenty-one or older, Code § 18.2-31(12). Bailey contends that the instructions were confusing in that they implied to the jury that it might convict Bailey of capital murder twice, even though Bailey had only been indicted on a single count of capital murder, which set forth disjunctively the two grounds for the capital murder charge. The Commonwealth contends that the indictment was worded to permit convictions for two offenses of capital murder. We agree with the Commonwealth. In Payne v. Commonwealth, 257 Va. 216, 509 S.E.2d 293 (1999), the defendant was charged in separate indictments with two offenses of capital murder of one victim. [5] We held that it is clear, as well as logical, that the General Assembly intended for each statutory offense [in Code § 18.2-31] to be punished separately `as a Class 1 felony.' Id. at 228, 509 S.E.2d at 301. In this case, two offenses of capital murder were charged in a single indictment. This distinction from Payne does not, however, preclude the conclusion that the indictment charged two capital murder offenses upon which Bailey could be convicted and sentenced. A single indictment may charge [t]wo or more offenses ... if the offenses are based on the same act or transaction. Rule 3A:6. Contrary to Bailey's assertion, the indictment for the capital murder of Nathan does not charge two offenses of capital murder exclusively in the disjunctive. Rather, the indictment clearly charges that the killing occurred as part of the same act or transaction as the killing of Katherine and/or as the killing of a person under the age of fourteen by a person age twenty-one or older. Thus, here, as in Payne, the Commonwealth was entitled to seek a separate conviction and death sentence on each offense of capital murder charged in the indictment. In his seventeenth assignment of error, Bailey contends that the trial court erred in presenting the jury with verdict forms in the penalty-determination phase that were inherently confusing and led to a substantial risk of an unreasoned and hence arbitrary and capricious jury verdict. Bailey contends that this is so because the verdict forms set out three alternative theories under which the jury might find that the vileness predicate would apply. The Commonwealth contends that because Bailey proffered no alternative verdict forms, he is deemed to have waived his objection to the forms used by the trial court. Cf. Atkins v. Commonwealth, 257 Va. 160, 178 n. 8, 510 S.E.2d 445, 456 n. 8 (1999). However, unlike the circumstance in Atkins, where we held that a proffer of alternative verdict forms was sufficient to preserve an objection even though there was no express objection to the improper verdict forms proffered by the Commonwealth, here there is an express objection on the record. When a principle of law is materially vital to the defendant in a criminal case, it is reversible error for the trial court to fail to correct a defective instruction or verdict form when the error is patent or the subject of a proper objection. Id. at 178, 510 S.E.2d at 456; accord Whaley v. Commonwealth, 214 Va. 353, 355-56, 200 S.E.2d 556, 558 (1973); Bryant v. Commonwealth, 216 Va. 390, 392-93, 219 S.E.2d 669, 671-72 (1975). Thus, although the better practice would have been for Bailey to proffer alternative verdict forms, he was not required to do so in order to preserve his objection. We agree with the Commonwealth, however, that the verdict forms in this case were not confusing and did not misstate the law. The verdict forms merely recited the alternative findings the jury might make in reaching its sentencing decision. Thus, unlike the situation in Atkins, the trial court's instructions on sentencing and the verdict forms were in accord with and correctly reflected the law.