Opinion ID: 1122542
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Felony Murder; Enmund/Tison Hearing

Text: Defendant argues that the trial court did not make a finding sufficient to comply with Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782, 102 S.Ct. 3368, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1982), and, therefore, his death sentence must be vacated. We disagree. The trial court found on the record that the defendant knew or had reason to know that the deceased was dying or had suffered serious physical injuries. Under the United States Supreme Court's holding in Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 137, 107 S.Ct. 1676, 95 L.Ed.2d 127 (1987), when the defendant is convicted of felony murder, he can be sentenced to death only if he was a major participant in the crime and displayed reckless indifference to human life. The trial court's statement is sufficient under Tison. Aside from that, the jury's verdict here supplies the necessary finding to meet the more stringent Enmund requirement that defendant either killed, attempted to kill, or intended to kill the victim. See State v. Atwood, 171 Ariz. at 649-50, 832 P.2d at 666-67. In Atwood, this court held that when the case involves a single defendant who actually kills, the jury's verdict, based on instructions given them by the trial judge, supplies the necessary Enmund finding. Id. Here, the trial judge instructed the jury: A person commits first degree murder if such person acting alone or with one or more other persons commits or attempts to commit burglary and in the course of and in furtherance of such offense or immediate flight from such offense such person or another person causes the death of any person. Unlike Atwood, the instruction here theoretically allowed the jury to find defendant guilty of first degree murder upon the participation of another in the felony. However, the evidence in this case showed that no one else participated in the burglary. Therefore, the jury could only have reached its verdict if it found that defendant killed the victim. [5]