Opinion ID: 1060393
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: instruction on identity of the defendants

Text: Dellinger and Sutton argue that they were denied due process because the trial court did not instruct the jury that the identity of the defendants in the prior convictions must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Section 39-13-204 of the Tennessee Code Annotated requires proof of any statutory aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt. Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(f)(1), (i). The State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant in the conviction used for the (i)(2) aggravating circumstance is the same person as the defendant in the current case. Cf. Lowe v. State, 805 S.W.2d 368 (Tenn.1991) (discussing the improper shifting of the burden of proof to the defendant based upon an incorrect jury instruction). In this case, the trial court properly instructed the jury that the State carried the burden of proving the aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt. The instruction implicitly required proof beyond a reasonable doubt of the identity of Dellinger and Sutton as those persons previously convicted. The jury is presumed to have followed the trial court's instructions. Stout, 46 S.W.3d at 715. As the Court of Criminal Appeals noted in its opinion in Williams, the trial court's instructions in that case specifically addressing the State's burden of proof for establishing the identity of the defendants under the (i)(2) aggravator were very adequate. Williams, 1996 WL 146696 at . We do not hold the specific instruction necessary, however, when a general instruction is given on the State's burden of proving each aggravating factor beyond a reasonable doubt. INSTRUCTION ON MITIGATING FACTOR THAT THE DEFENDANTS ARE HUMAN BEINGS Dellinger and Sutton argue that the trial court erred in denying their request to include as one of the mitigating factors in the jury instruction that the defendants are human beings. Section 39-13-204 of the Tennessee Code Annotated requires the trial court to instruct the sentencing jury to weigh and consider any mitigating circumstances raised by the evidence, including, but not limited to, the mitigating factors enumerated in subsection (j). Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(e)(1). At the time of the commission of the offense, § 39-13-204(e)(1) further required that no distinction be made between the statutorily-defined mitigating circumstances and the non-statutory mitigating circumstances requested by the defendant or the State. [5] Dellinger and Sutton maintain that the requested mitigating factor instruction was raised by the testimony of prison guard Kevin Eisenhower. Eisenhower agreed with defense counsel that, based upon Dellinger's behavior as an inmate, he is deserving of respect as a human being. According to Dellinger and Sutton, the trial court's failure to instruct on this mitigating factor violated their Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The primary concern in the Eighth Amendment context has been that the sentencing decision be based on the facts and circumstances of the defendant, his background, and his crime. Clemons v. Mississippi, 494 U.S. 738, 748, 110 S.Ct. 1441, 108 L.Ed.2d 725 (1990). In Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978), the United States Supreme Court held that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments require that the sentencer in a capital case be allowed to consider, as a mitigating factor, any aspect of a defendant's character or record and any of the circumstances of the offense that the defendant proffers as a basis for a sentence less than death. Lockett, 438 U.S. at 604, 98 S.Ct. 2954. The Court noted, however, that courts retain the authority to exclude irrelevant evidence not bearing on the defendant's character or prior record, or the circumstances of the offense. Id. at 605 n. 12, 98 S.Ct. 2954. [T]he rule in Lockett is the product of a considerable history reflecting the law's effort to develop a system of capital punishment at once consistent and principled but also humane and sensible to the uniqueness of the individual. Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 110, 102 S.Ct. 869, 71 L.Ed.2d 1 (1982). Requiring the consideration of relevant mitigating factors recognizes that a consistency produced by ignoring individual differences is a false consistency. Id. at 112, 102 S.Ct. 869. The fact that Dellinger and Sutton are human beings is not relevant mitigating evidence. All criminal defendants are human beings. That fact, therefore, does not relate to the uniqueness of the individual defendant. Moreover, the species of the defendants does not bear on their character or prior record, or the circumstances of the offense. Nor did the prosecutor in any way question the fact that the defendants are human beings. Cf. State v. Bates, 804 S.W.2d 868, 881 (Tenn.1991) (prosecutor's references to defendant as a rabid dog were patently improper). The instruction that the defendants are human beings was not relevant to mitigation and therefore was properly refused by the trial court.