Opinion ID: 523156
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: the trial court's failure to instruct the jury on the

Text: INAPPLICABILITY OF THE LAW OF PARTIES 45 (SUPPLEMENTAL PETITION, GROUND TEN) 46 McCoy asserts that he was entitled to an instruction that the law of parties may not be considered by the jury in assessing punishment or in answering the special issues in a capital case. The case on which he relies, Nichols v. State, 754 S.W.2d 185, 199 (Tex.Crim.App.1988), states only that such an instruction may be given upon request. Nichols expressly holds the court is not obliged to so charge the jury. Assuming for present purposes that McCoy's counsel expressly requested such an instruction, and that it was erroneously denied by the trial court, we nevertheless find no constitutional violation from this omission. This court has previously held that the special issues submitted to the jury in Texas capital punishment cases sufficiently focus on the defendant's personal conduct and culpability for his crime. Thompson v. Lynaugh, 821 F.2d 1054, 1063 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 483 U.S. 1035, 108 S.Ct. 5, 97 L.Ed.2d 794 (1987); Skillern v. Estelle, 720 F.2d 839, 847-48 (5th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 873, 105 S.Ct. 224, 83 L.Ed.2d 153 (1984). See also Kirkpatrick v. Blackburn, 777 F.2d 272, 286-88 (5th Cir.1985) (even though co-defendants are involved, when a defendant personally intends to inflict great bodily harm and succeeds in producing death, his personal involvement and individual culpability is sufficiently established that the capital sentence is not cruel and unusual), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1178, 106 S.Ct. 2907, 90 L.Ed.2d 993 (1986).