Opinion ID: 1057584
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 20

Heading: Jerry Hopper

Text: With respect to the death sentence imposed on Defendant for his murder of Jerry Hopper, we have held that one of the four aggravating circumstances found by the jurythat Defendant committed the murder to avoid apprehensionis not supported by sufficient evidence. We may uphold a death sentence in spite of the erroneous application of an aggravating circumstance when we are convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the jury would have imposed the same sentence absent its consideration of the invalid aggravator. See State v. Howell, 868 S.W.2d 238, 259 (Tenn. 1993). In conducting this inquiry, we must completely examine the record for the presence of factors which potentially influence the sentence ultimately imposed. These include, but are not limited to, the number and strength of remaining valid aggravating circumstances, the prosecutor's argument at sentencing, the evidence admitted to establish the invalid aggravator, and the nature, quality and strength of mitigating evidence. Id. at 260-61. Invalidation of the (i)(6) aggravator leaves three remaining aggravating circumstances found by the jury as to Defendant's murder of Jerry Hopper. The evidence in support of each of these three remaining aggravators is exceptionally strong. In contrast, the evidence supporting the (i)(6) aggravator was slight, and the prosecution did not stress this circumstance during its sentencing argument. The nature, quality and strength of the mitigating evidence was hotly contested with a battle of the experts. Our complete examination of the record reveals error in conjunction with Dr. Matthews's testimony; the exclusion of Defendant's parents's testimony at the sentencing hearing; and improper argument by the prosecution. Nevertheless, we have determined that these errors had no prejudicial impact on the jury's verdicts. In light of our analysis under Howell, we conclude that the jury's erroneous consideration of the (i)(6) aggravating factor was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt and that the jury would have imposed the death penalty on Defendant for his murder of Mr. Hopper even had it given no weight to the (i)(6) aggravating circumstance. Moreover, we also hold that a rational juror could easily have concluded that the three aggravating circumstances properly applied to Defendant's murder of Mr. Hopper outweighed the mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt.