Opinion ID: 1936097
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 30

Heading: whether sentencing instruction s-3 is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad

Text: Sentencing Instruction S-3 provides as follows: The Court instructs the Jury that in considering whether the capital offense was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel; heinous means extremely wicked or shockingly evil; atrocious means outrageously wicked and vile; and cruel means designed to inflict a high degree of pain with indifference to, or even enjoyment of the suffering of others. An especially heinous, atrocious or cruel capital offense is one accompanied by such additional acts as to set the crime apart from the norm of murders  the conscienceless or pitiless crime which is unnecessarily torturous to the victim. If you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the Defendant utilized a method of killing which caused serious mutilation, that the Defendant inflicted physical or mental pain before death, that there was mental torture and aggravation before death, or that the lingering or tortious death was suffered by the victim then you may find this aggravating circumstance. Jackson contends that this instruction is overbroad and unconstitutionally vague, setting up a multiple choice questionnaire for jurors to contend with. A brief analysis of the instruction, however, shows that both this Court and the United States Supreme Court have found this language sufficient to limit the jury's consideration of the heinous, atrocious or cruel aggravating circumstance. In Shell v. Mississippi, 498 U.S. 1, 111 S.Ct. 313, 112 L.Ed.2d 1 (1990), the United States Supreme Court found that used alone, language identical to that used in the first paragraph of the instruction was not constitutionally sufficient. [6] However, language used in the first sentence of the second paragraph: An especially heinous, atrocious or cruel capital offense is one accompanied by such additional acts as to set the crime apart from the norm of murders  the conscienceless or pitiless crime which is unnecessarily torturous to the victim. was determined by the United States Supreme Court to be a proper limiting instruction to the Shell language in Clemons v. Mississippi, 494 U.S. 738, 110 S.Ct. 1441, 108 L.Ed.2d 725 (1990). Finally, in Hansen v. State, 592 So.2d 114 (Miss. 1991), we noted that when considering whether a crime could be considered especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, it had stated in Pinkney v. State, 538 So.2d 329, 357 (Miss. 1988), vacated on other grounds, 494 U.S. 1075, 110 S.Ct. 1800, 108 L.Ed.2d 931 (1990), that: barbarity sufficient to satisfy this aggravating circumstance can be demonstrated by showing that the defendant utilized a method of killing which caused serious mutilation, where there is a dismemberment of the corpse, where the defendant inflicted physical or mental pain before death, or where a lingering or tortuous death was suffered by the victim. Hansen, 592 So.2d at 152. Although this aspect of Pinkney was not addressed in the United States Supreme Court's review of the case, similar limiting language, also like that employed in the last sentence of Instruction S-3, was approved in Lewis v. Jeffers, 497 U.S. 764, 769-70, 110 S.Ct. 3092, 3096, 111 L.Ed.2d 606, 615-16 (1990) and Walton v. Arizona, 497 U.S. 639, 645-47, 110 S.Ct. 3047, 3053, 111 L.Ed.2d 511, 523-24 (1990). Accordingly, we find no merit to this assignment of error.