Opinion ID: 1060945
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: sufficiency of evidence aggravating circumstance

Text: Pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-206(c)(1)(B)-(C) (1991 Repl. & 1996 Supp.), we have examined the evidence to determine whether it is sufficient to support the aggravating circumstance found by the jury and whether it is sufficient to support the jury's finding that the aggravating circumstance outweighed any mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt. We conclude that the evidence is clearly sufficient to support these findings. The trial court correctly instructed the jury as to the definitions of the terms heinous, atrocious, and cruel in accordance with this Court's decision in State v. Williams, 690 S.W.2d 517, 529 (Tenn. 1985); see also State v. Odom, 928 S.W.2d 18, 26 (Tenn. 1996). Also in accordance with Williams, the trial court instructed the jury that torture means the infliction of severe physical or mental pain upon the victim while he or she remains alive and conscious. Id. The proof introduced by the State during the trial clearly established torture. [6] The defendant shot the victim once in the leg. The victim began bleeding profusely. Proof introduced at the sentencing hearing established that the bruising of the victim's femoral nerve would have caused great pain. Despite the bleeding from the wound and the resulting pain, the victim fled as fast as he could from his attackers. They pursued him for some 273 feet, almost 100 yards, shooting him again during the chase. No doubt terrified, the victim crawled under a truck seeking refuge, but the defendant was relentless. He knelt down and shot the victim several other times in the leg while the victim was underneath the truck, and then left the dying victim under the truck pleading for help. Sanders repeatedly called out, Oh God, please help me, as the defendant and his friend ran away from the scene of the shooting. According to the medical testimony, the victim could have remained alive, conscious and in pain for four to five minutes after he was shot. According to the testimony of two eyewitnesses, the victim was alive, conscious, pleading for help, and attempting to crawl out from underneath the pickup truck for ten to fifteen minutes after they first heard gunshots. The facts and circumstances surrounding this murder are clearly sufficient to establish torture as that term has been defined in State v. Williams, supra , and to support the jury's finding that this 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) (1991 Repl.). See also State v. Jones, 789 S.W.2d 545 (Tenn. 1990); State v. Henley, 774 S.W.2d 908 (Tenn. 1989); State v. Taylor, 771 S.W.2d 387 (Tenn. 1989); State v. Sutton, 761 S.W.2d 763 (Tenn. 1988); State v. Porterfield, 746 S.W.2d 441 (Tenn. 1988); State v. Cooper, 718 S.W.2d 256 (Tenn. 1986); State v. McNish, 727 S.W.2d 490 (Tenn. 1987); State v. Campbell, 664 S.W.2d 281 (Tenn. 1984). Moreover, the evidence is sufficient to support the jury's finding that the statutory aggravating circumstance so found outweighed mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt. In mitigation of the offense, the defendant relied upon his cooperation with police, his youth, lack of a prior adult record, lack of education, and absence of his father from the home. Although the proof shows that Bland eventually turned himself into the Memphis police, he did so only at the urging of his grandmother and mother and only after the police had instituted an intensive search for him. Moreover, while the defendant was young at the time of the murder, only nineteen, and had no adult criminal record, Bland admitted that he had an extensive juvenile record which began at age eleven and included multiple assaults and batteries. Though the defendant had not completed high school, he attended school through the eleventh grade and was suspended for being disrespectful to a teacher. There is no evidence that he suffered from a mental disease or defect. 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 mitigation beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Barber, 753 S.W.2d 659, 669 (Tenn. 1988). We are of the opinion that the evidence is sufficient to support the jury's finding that the aggravating circumstance outweighed mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt.