Opinion ID: 1059169
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Polling Jurors

Text: In a pre-trial motion, Jackson asked that, if the jury imposed the death sentence based on the aggravating factor of vileness, the jury be polled as to which statutory element(s) established vileness, specifying at the time of polling one or more of torture, depravity of mind or aggravated battery. To that end, Jackson requested jury instructions and a verdict form that required unanimity on one or more vileness elements. Relying on Richardson v. United States, 526 U.S. 813, 119 S.Ct. 1707, 143 L.Ed.2d 985 (1999), Jackson argues that when imposing the death sentence, due process requires unanimity not only as to the aggravating factor of vileness but also to one or more of its composite elements. This Court has rejected the proposition that the jury must identify the element or elements of the vileness factor upon which it based its decision. Clark v. Commonwealth, 220 Va. 201, 213, 257 S.E.2d 784, 791 (1979). The Supreme Court's decision in Richardson does not require us to revisit our decision in Clark. Richardson involved a prosecution for engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise. As relevant here, conviction required proof that the defendant committed a specific federal offense and that the offense was part of a continuing series of offenses undertaken by the defendant in concert with five or more other persons. The trial court instructed the jury that it had to find unanimously that the defendant committed at least three federal narcotics offenses but did not have to agree as to the particular three offenses. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the several violations required for conviction were an element of the offense and thus the jury had to agree on the same three violations. Richardson, 526 U.S. at 819-20, 824, 119 S.Ct. 1707. The Supreme Court explained in Richardson that, for example, the jury must unanimously find force as an element of the crime of robbery, but whether the force is created by the use of a gun or a knife is not an element of the crime and therefore does not require jury unanimity. Id. at 817, 119 S.Ct. 1707. In this case, the element the jury was required to find unanimously to impose the death sentence was the aggravating factor of vileness, which requires the defendant's actions be outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman. Code § 19.2-264.2. Depravity of mind, aggravated battery, and torture are not discrete elements of vileness that would require separate proof but rather are several possible sets of underlying facts [that] make up [the] particular element. Richardson, 526 U.S. at 817, 119 S.Ct. 1707. Neither Clark nor Richardson, therefore, requires juror unanimity on these points. Accordingly, we reject this assignment of error.