Opinion ID: 1654600
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: whether the great risk of death aggravator was appropriate.

Text: ¶ 12. McGilberry argues that the jury instruction concerning the aggravating circumstance as to whether the defendant created a great risk of death to many persons was deficient in that it failed to require the jury to find that he knowingly created such a risk to persons other than his intended victims. This issue was capable of determination at trial and on direct appeal and is now procedurally barred from collateral review. Miss.Code Ann. § 99-39-21(1). ¶ 13. The capital murder aggravating circumstance, that a defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to many persons, has been applied to a defendant who stabbed to death only members of his family. Jackson v. State, 684 So.2d 1213 (Miss.1996). To restrict its use to those crimes where very large numbers of individuals were at risk or those where the safety of others than an intended few was jeopardized would limit the statute beyond its intended scope. Id. at 1235. The State concedes that the instruction did not recite that McGilberry knowingly created the risk but points out that there was sufficient evidence for the jury to find that McGilberry, by his conduct, knowingly put his family in jeopardy. The instruction as given was substantially correct and there was evidence at trial that McGilberry planned the murders well in advance. ¶ 14. If one aggravator is found to be invalid, we are authorized to reweigh the remaining aggravators against the mitigating circumstances and affirm, hold the error to be harmless, or remand for a new sentencing hearing. Miss Code Ann. § 99-19-105(5)(b) (Rev.2000). Therefore, even if this aggravating circumstance is assumed to be invalid, the remaining aggravating circumstances more than support the imposition of the death penalty. As previously noted, McGilberry bludgeoned his family so that he could steal a car, some cash, a money order, and a credit card and then run away from home. McGilberry, 741 So.2d at 925. The crime was premeditated and was committed in brutal fashion. The death sentence is warranted even absent a finding of the great risk of death circumstance. This issue is without merit.