Opinion ID: 1720938
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence: death sentence

Text: In this case, the jury imposed the death penalty upon finding both that (1) [t]he murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel in that it involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death, and that (2) [t]he murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding, interfering with or preventing a lawful arrest or prosecution of the defendant or another. Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(5) and (6) (1997 Repl.). On appeal, the defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support these aggravating circumstances. The Court of Criminal Appeals rejected this claim and found the evidence sufficient. We first address the defendant's claim that the evidence is insufficient to support the (i)(5) aggravating circumstance. In State v. Williams, 690 S.W.2d 517 (Tenn.1985), we defined torture as the infliction of severe physical or mental pain upon the victim while he or she remains alive and conscious. Id. at 529. With respect to serious physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death, we explained in State v. Odom, 928 S.W.2d 18 (Tenn.1996), that serious alludes to a matter of degree, and that the physical abuse must be beyond that or more than what is necessary to produce death. Id. at 26. In this case, the medical examiner testified that the wounds on the victim's body were too numerous to catalog. The victim's throat had been repeatedly slashed, defensive wounds were found on her right arm, bruises consistent with crawling were found on her knees, and she had sustained at least four heavy blows to her head. Her skull was fractured in several places. A pentagram had been carved onto her chest. According to the medical proof, and the defendant's own statements to the police and to other witnesses, the victim was alive and conscious when these injuries were inflicted upon her. In fact, according to the defendant's statements, some of the wounds were inflicted because the victim would not stop begging for her life. The defendant also admitted, and the crime scene revealed, that the victim repeatedly tried to run away and escape the attack. In fact, the victim was so terrified that she offered to walk to her home in Florida without returning to the Job Corps facility for her belongings in exchange for her life. The merciless assault upon the victim continued for a period of thirty minutes to an hour. Considering this record, we agree with the Court of Criminal Appeals that the evidence is overwhelmingly sufficient to support the jury's finding that [t]he murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel in that it involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death. Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(5) (1997 Repl.). We also reject the defendant's contention that the evidence is insufficient to support the jury's finding of the (i)(6) aggravating circumstance. This Court has previously held that to establish the applicability of this aggravating circumstance, the State must prove that avoidance of prosecution or arrest was one of the purposes motivating the killing. State v. Bush, 942 S.W.2d 489, 504 (Tenn.1997); State v. Smith, 868 S.W.2d 561, 581 (Tenn.1993); State v. Carter, 714 S.W.2d 241, 250 (Tenn.1986) (avoidance of arrest need not be sole motive for murder). In this case, Pike repeatedly told police that as she was assaulting the victim, she heard a voice telling her that she had to do something to keep the victim from reporting the assault and causing her to go to prison for attempted murder. When the victim begged for her life, Pike responded that she was not going to be rotting in jail because of [the victim's] stupid ass. Based upon our consideration of the record, we agree with the Court of Criminal Appeals that the evidence was sufficient to support the jury's finding that [t]he murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding, interfering with or preventing a lawful arrest or prosecution of the defendant or another. Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(6) (1997 Repl.).
Finally, the defendant contends that the jury failed to properly consider and weigh the mitigating circumstances against the aggravating circumstances. The weight given aggravating and mitigating circumstances is entirely within the province of the jury. The jury determines whether or not mitigation exists and whether the aggravating circumstances outweigh mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Bland, 958 S.W.2d 651, 661 (Tenn.1997); State v. Barber, 753 S.W.2d 659, 669 (Tenn.1988). As previously discussed, the State relied upon two aggravating circumstances. In mitigation, the defendant offered proof to show that she was young when the offense was committed, that she had no prior history of criminal activity, that she was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance when the murder occurred, that her capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of her conduct or to conform her conduct to the requirements of the law was substantially impaired as a result of mental disease or defect, that she had a difficult childhood, and that she had a personal and family history of substance abuse. Through cross-examination, the State elicited testimony from the defendant's witnesses that she had been difficult, manipulative, and dishonest from an early age, that she previously had threatened an individual with a butcher knife, and that she had been accused of sexually molesting her half-sister. The State also offered rebuttal proof to show that Pike had visited the crime scene with a group of other females on the day the victim's body was discovered and giggled as she asked questions about the murder. Considering the proof in this record, we are of the opinion that the evidence is sufficient to support the jury's finding that the aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt.