Opinion ID: 170350
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sufficiency of Proof of Aggravator

Text: Other than the circumstances of the murders themselves, the government's case on future dangerousness was not particularly strong, but those circumstances were significant. This was not a crime provoked by victim-specific or unique situational factors, such as a sudden confrontation, a score, to settle, or fallout from a personal relationship, that might indicate such violence would not likely recur. On the contrary, this was a coldly calculated murder of strangers who could have been anyone, carried out for money or no particular reason at all, with evidence that the killer had no remorsenone of which suggests an inherently one-time occurrence. And evidence that the modus operandi had been developed over a period of time also does not suggest an abrupt isolated course of conduct to which the defendant would not return. While the particulars of Fields' stalk-and-snipe plan would obviously not directly translate to a prison setting, neither would such a setting deny future occasions for acting out the dangerous personal characteristics that the plan and its execution reflected. Fields argues for a contrary interpretation of his conduct and character and, hence, the threat he posed to others. But advancing a different assessment of the evidence or urging conflicting inferences therefrom does not demonstrate a legal inadequacy in the government's proof. Rather, when reviewing a jury finding, we are obliged to consider the evidence and available inferences in the light most favorable to the government, Jenkins, 175 F.3d at 1215. Fields' challenge to the future dangerousness finding is meritless.