Opinion ID: 609824
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The weighing process

Text: 107 A death penalty statute is constitutional only if the statue genuinely narrows the class of persons eligible for the death penalty and reasonably justifies the imposition of a more severe sentence on the defendant compared to others found guilty of murder. Lowenfield v. Phelps, 484 U.S. 231, 244, 108 S.Ct. 546, 554, 98 L.Ed.2d 568 (1988) (citing Zant v. Stephens, 462 U.S. 862, 877, 103 S.Ct. 2733, 2742, 77 L.Ed.2d 235 (1983)). 108 Chandler argues that due to the breadth of 848(e), the finding of guilt under Section 848(e) does not satisfy the constitutional requirement that a capital statute must genuinely narrow the class of defendants eligible for the death penalty. Instead, Chandler contends that the narrowing function occurs during the sentencing phase when the jury finds aggravating factors. Chandler further contends that because one of the aggravating factors duplicates a jury finding at the guilt phase, the jury's weighing process is skewed in favor of imposing the death penalty. He submits that the jury's deliberations are skewed because the jury will inevitably consider the number of aggravating factors during its weighing process. 109 Section 848 establishes a two-step scheme that guides the jury's deliberations. At the guilt phase, the jury determines whether the defendant intentionally killed or commanded or procured the intentional killing of an individual while engaging in or working in furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise. Before the death penalty can be recommended, the jury at sentencing must first unanimously find that the government has proved beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of aggravating factor (n)(1) and at least one other aggravating factor from the list in (n)(2) through (n)(12). Aggravating factor (n)(1) mirrors the intent element found at the guilt phase. The jury then considers whether the aggravating factors sufficiently outweigh any mitigating factors to justify a sentence of death. If no mitigating factors are found, the jury considers whether the aggravating factors are sufficient to justify a sentence of death. 110 As long as a death penalty statute narrows the class of persons subject to the death penalty at the guilt phase of trial, the fact that the jury may find an aggravating factor that duplicates a finding made at the guilt phase does not render the capital statute unconstitutional. Lowenfield, 484 U.S. at 246, 108 S.Ct. at 555. The statutory scheme of Section 848 satisfies the requirements of Lowenfield. 4 Initially, the statute requires the jury to find that the defendant intentionally committed homicide in connection with large scale drug trafficking. The statute does not embrace anyone who committed murder, but only those who did so in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise. Thus, Section 848(e) sufficiently narrows the class of death eligible defendants at the guilt phase. Moreover, Section 848 requires that the jury find at least one other aggravating factor from the list of (n)(2)-(n)(12) before the death penalty can be imposed. The statute also requires the jury to consider any mitigating circumstances and allows the jury to weigh the aggravating and mitigating factors. This is all that Lowenfield requires. 111 Nevertheless, Chandler suggests that the present case is distinguishable from Lowenfield because Section 848(e) requires the jury to weigh the factors while the statute in Lowenfield did not. Chandler posits that the jury will be influenced in its weighing process by the number of aggravating factors. Although the Supreme Court has observed that the difference between a weighing statute and a non-weighing statute is not one of 'semantics' , Stringer v. Black, --- U.S. ----, ----, 112 S.Ct. 1130, 1137, 117 L.Ed.2d 367 (1992), we have previously rejected the kind of argument Chandler now makes. Johnson v. Singletary, 991 F.2d 663, 669 (11th Cir.1993) (per curiam). Further, any such distinction was erased by the district court's instructions. The court's instructions made clear that the weighing process was not a mechanical one and that different factors could be given different weight. Thus, the jury was adequately instructed that it should not reach a decision based on the number of aggravating or mitigating factors. Accordingly, the scheme of Section 848(e) was not improperly skewed towards a sentence of death.