Opinion ID: 1728613
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: defining the death-eligible class

Text: Review of a case in which the defendant has been sentenced to death logically begins with the definition of the class of death-eligible defendants under the United States Constitution. Under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, death is a disproportionate punishment in all cases except where a defendant kills, attempts to kill, or intends that a killing take place, or that lethal force will be imposed, or where a defendant's personal involvement in the underlying felony is substantial and who exhibits a reckless disregard or indifference to the value of human life. Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 137, 157-158, 107 S.Ct. 1676, 1688, 95 L.Ed.2d 127 (1987); Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782, 797, 102 S.Ct. 3368, 3377, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1982); State v. Branam, 855 S.W.2d 563, 570-71 (Tenn. 1993); State v. Middlebrooks, 840 S.W.2d 317, 338 (Tenn. 1992). Superimposed upon this defined group of defendants are additional constitutional and statutory limitations. The federal constitution does not permit all murderers in this death-eligible class to be executed. The process fashioned by the United States Supreme Court for selecting those who ultimately will be executed was summarized in State v. Middlebrooks as follows: As a constitutionally necessary first step under the Eighth Amendment, the Supreme Court has required the states to narrow the sentencers' consideration of the death penalty to a smaller, more culpable class of homicide defendants than the pre- Furman class of death-eligible murderers. See Pulley v. Harris, [465 U.S. 37, 104 S.Ct. 871, 79 L.Ed.2d 29 (1984)]. A state, however, must not only genuinely narrow the class of death eligible defendants, but must do so in a way that reasonably justifies the imposition of a more severe sentence on the defendant compared to others found guilty of murder. Zant v. Stephens, [462 U.S. at 877, 103 S.Ct. at 2742]. A proper narrowing device, therefore, provides a principled way to distinguish the case in which the death penalty was imposed from the many cases in which it was not, Godfrey v. Georgia, [446 U.S. 420, 433, 100 S.Ct. 1759, 1767, 64 L.Ed.2d 398 (1980)], and must differentiate a death penalty case in an objective, even-handed, and substantially rational way from the many murder cases in which the death penalty may not be imposed. Zant [462 U.S. at 879, 103 S.Ct. at 2744]. As a result, a proper narrowing device insures that, even though some defendants who fall within the restricted class of death-eligible defendants manage to avoid the death penalty, those who receive it will be among the worst murderers  those whose crimes are particularly serious, or for which the death penalty is peculiarly appropriate. See Gregg v. Georgia, [428 U.S. 153, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976)]. 840 S.W.2d at 343. Thus, this Court has recognized that the United States Constitution defines the class of death-eligible defendants but also requires further narrowing by statute or court review. The State of Tennessee has by constitution and statute further limited those who are death-eligible. As noted in the dissent in State v. Black : Tennessee constitutional standards are not destined to walk in lock step with the uncertain and fluctuating federal standards and do not relegate Tennessee citizens to the lowest levels of constitutional protection, those guaranteed by the national constitution. Indeed, the General Assembly has clearly indicated that when a defendant's life is at stake, citizens of Tennessee are entitled to greater protections than those guaranteed by the United States Constitution. Recognizing higher standards than the United States Supreme Court has found in the federal constitution and reflecting a higher contemporary standard of decency in Tennessee, the legislature has forbidden the execution of persons who are under the age of eighteen, T.C.A. § 37-1-134(a)(1), and who are mentally retarded, T.C.A. § 39-13-203. Compare Stanford v. Kentucky, [492 U.S. 361, 109 S.Ct. 2969, 106 L.Ed.2d 306 (1989)] (Eighth Amendment is not violated by imposition of death on sixteen and seventeen year olds); Penry v. Lynaugh, [492 U.S. 302, 109 S.Ct. 2934, 106 L.Ed.2d 256 (1989)] (Eighth Amendment does not prohibit subjecting mentally retarded defendant to death penalty). 815 S.W.2d at 193. The Court, since Black, has also narrowed the group of death-eligible defendants by finding death to be a disproportionate penalty. In State v. Branam, 855 S.W.2d 563 (Tenn. 1993), the Court found in a unanimous decision that, under the circumstances of that case, death was disproportionate punishment for an accomplice who was not the triggerman in a felony murder. The Court found in State v. Hale, 840 S.W.2d 307 (Tenn. 1992), that death was disproportionate punishment for misdemeanor child abuse causing the death of the child. The most significant decision by the Court was State v. Middlebrooks, 840 S.W.2d 317 (Tenn. 1992), which addressed the use of aggravating circumstances to narrow the death-eligible class to those defendants for whom imposition of the death penalty is most appropriate. In Middlebrooks the Court held that because the felony murder aggravating circumstance, T.C.A. § 39-2-203(i)(7) (1982) [now XX-XX-XXX(i)(7) (Supp. 1993)], essentially duplicated the elements of the offense of first degree felony murder, T.C.A. § 39-2-202(a) (1982) and T.C.A. § 39-2-202(a)(1) (Supp. 1988), it failed to narrow the population of death-eligible felony murder defendants as required by the Eighth Amendment and Article I, Section 16. Middlebrooks , by eliminating felony murder as an aggravating circumstance in first-degree felony murder prosecutions, has accomplished two significant results. It adds a new category of defendants who are immune from the imposition of the sentence of death in those cases where defendants are charged with first-degree felony murder and the only aggravating circumstance is the felony; and, it eliminates felony murder as an aggravating circumstance in selecting those death-eligible defendants who are most deserving of the sentence of death in those cases where other aggravating circumstances are present. However, Middlebrooks accomplished only a partial solution. My concurrence and dissent in that case stated: This holding based on Article I, Section 16 of the Tennessee Constitution is a step toward limiting the jury's discretion in imposing capital punishment to a demonstrably smaller and more blameworthy class of murderers. Maynard v. Cartwright, [486 U.S. 356, 108 S.Ct. 1853, 100 L.Ed.2d 372 (1988)]. However, even with the felony murder aggravating circumstance eliminated, the Tennessee sentencing statute still includes in the class of death-eligible defendants accidental and unintentional murderers whose culpability is minimal. It still allows convictions for first degree felony murder of persons who killed accidentally or unintentionally and those who did not kill, did not intend to kill and did not intend that any person suffer any physical harm. The statute still does not effectively limit the class of death-eligible defendants (which is a group different from those actually executed) to those most deserving of death as punishment and, therefore, it violates the Tennessee constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. 840 S.W.2d at 350 (Reid, C.J., concurring and dissenting). I further criticized the majority's reasoning because: The result ... is illogical: an aggravating circumstance that fails to narrow the class because it duplicates the elements of the offense is unconstitutional, but aggravating circumstances that fail to narrow the class for other reasons are not unconstitutional. The logical conclusion from the majority Opinion's analysis would be that any provision of the statute that fails to accomplish the constitutional imperative to narrow the class is invalid. Id. at 352. On the authority of Middlebrooks , the Court subsequently reversed the sentence of death and remanded for resentencing in State v. Bane, 853 S.W.2d 483 (Tenn. 1993), in which the aggravating circumstances found by the jury were T.C.A. § 39-13-204(i)(5), the murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, and (i)(7), felony murder; State v. Evans, 838 S.W.2d 185 (Tenn. 1992), in which the aggravating circumstances were (i)(6), the murder was committed to avoid lawful arrest and (i)(7) felony murder; and State v. Smith, 857 S.W.2d 1 (Tenn. 1993), in which the aggravating circumstances were (i)(2), previous felony convictions, and (i)(7), felony murder. The defendant in Smith was not, in my view, death-eligible, because the record did not show that the killing was deliberate or intentional or accompanied by a conscious purpose of producing death or a conscious realization that death likely would occur. See Middlebrooks, 840 S.W.2d at 353. In summary, the federal constitution allows the prosecution to seek a sentence of death for any defendant who himself kills, attempts to kill, or intends that a killing take place or that lethal force will be imposed, or for any defendant whose personal involvement in the underlying felony is substantial and who exhibits a reckless disregard or indifference to the value of human life. However, T.C.A. § 39-13-203 prohibits the imposition of death upon any mentally retarded person; T.C.A. § 37-1-134(a)(1)(A) prohibits the imposition of death upon any person less than 18 years of age; State v. Branam, 855 S.W.2d at 570, raises the level of participation required of a defendant who did not personally wield the lethal agent and may be read to exclude such persons from the death-eligible group; and State v. Hale, 840 S.W.2d at 314, excludes any person who caused the death of another by the commission of an act which is not a felony. Middlebrooks excludes any person charged with felony murder and not charged with some aggravating circumstance other than T.C.A. § 39-13-204(i)(7), felony murder. Nevertheless, the class still includes some defendants who killed accidentally or unintentionally and those who did not kill, did not intend to kill, and did not intend that any person suffer physical harm. I would limit the felony murderers eligible for the imposition of the death penalty to those defendants in cases, like the present, in which the proof shows the killing was deliberate or intentional or accompanied by a conscious purpose of producing death or a conscious realization that death will likely occur. The record in this case shows the defendant is a member of the death-eligible class under both the federal and state constitutions. The defendant's own statement shows the killing was deliberate or intentional.