Opinion ID: 1770491
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Aggravator for Avoiding or Preventing an Arrest

Text: Mr. Isom claims that the circuit judge violated his Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights by allowing the submission of the aggravator that the capital felony murder was committed to avoid or prevent an arrest, because it failed to narrow the class of persons subject to the death penalty. According to Mr. Isom, the only way a defendant could rebut this aggravator would be to take the stand, admit to the killing, and say it had nothing to do with a desire to avoid arrest. He also invites this court to revisit its holding in Coulter v. State, 304 Ark. 527, 804 S.W.2d 348 (1991), because under that holding, the prosecution could always argue that the murder was committed to limit or eliminate eyewitness testimony. Our Criminal Code limits the use of aggravating circumstances to ten, including: The capital murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing an arrest or effecting an escape from custody. Ark.Code Ann. § 5-4-604(5) (Repl.1997). This court has held that this subsection is not unconstitutionally vague or overbroad and, further, that it does not fail to narrow and channel the jury's discretion in deciding the propriety of punishment. See, e.g., Bowen v. State, 322 Ark. 483, 911 S.W.2d 555 (1995), cert. denied, 517 U.S. 1226, 116 S.Ct. 1861, 134 L.Ed.2d 960 (1996); Coulter v. State, supra ; Whitmore v. Lockhart, 834 F.Supp. 1105 (E.D.Ark.1992), aff'd, 8 F.3d 614 (8th Cir.1993). In Hill v. State, 278 Ark. 194, 644 S.W.2d 282 (1983), this court expressly found that the aggravating circumstance in question was properly submitted to the jury and was not vague and overbroad where, under the facts of that case, the jury was justified in finding that the defendant shot the victim to increase his chances of avoiding arrest. We decline Mr. Isom's invitation to revisit Coulter v. State, supra . We have recognized that a consequence of every murder is the elimination of the victim as a potential witness. See Kemp v. State, 324 Ark. 178, 919 S.W.2d 943, cert. denied, 519 U.S. 982, 117 S.Ct. 436, 136 L.Ed.2d 334 (1996). However, we have added that avoiding arrest is not necessarily an invariable motive for killing. Id. Manifestly, there are multiple motives for murder. The jury in the instant case could readily have found that Mr. Isom sought to kill both Mr. Burton and Mrs. Lawson to eliminate them as witnesses and, thus, prevent his arrest. Whether the same holds true to other murder cases is irrelevant to this appeal and beyond the scope of our review. In addition, we disagree that this aggravator does not narrow the class of persons subject to the death penalty. The jury concluded that the aggravator applied, and the effect of that finding is to limit the class of people for which the death penalty may be appropriate. We affirm the circuit judge on this point.