Opinion ID: 1751529
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 23

Heading: should the sentencing hearing be reversed because of the failure of the state to move to introduce the evidence adduced and heard by the jury in the guilt phase of the trial?

Text: At the conclusion of the guilt phase of the trial, and prior to going into the sentencing hearing, the State did not make a formal motion to have the jury consider all previous testimony and evidence adduced before the jury during the guilt phase. There was no question in either counsels' or the court's mind but that the State intended for the jury to consider such evidence in the sentencing phase of the trial. The district attorney informed the court, I would anticipate for the State that we are going to have a very short hearing in our part of this second phase, and we are going to ask the court to receive evidence that's already in court  that's already in evidence and it wouldn't be any question about it, but just certain items... . For making a clean and tidy record, it would have been preferable for the State to formally request the court for the jury to consider in the sentencing hearing all evidence heard by the jury in the guilt phase. Hill v. State, 432 So.2d 427, 441 (Miss. 1983). This technical omission could not possibly have affected the jury one way or another, however. The jury obviously knew in its deliberations that it was to consider all evidence introduced during the course of the trial. The sentencing instructions embraced evidence adduced in both phases of the trial. Mack's reliance on Young v. State, 507 So.2d 48 (Miss. 1987), is misplaced. In Young we held that failure of the State to offer into evidence previous convictions of other crimes at a sentence enhancement hearing following a conviction precluded his being sentenced as an habitual offender under Miss. Code Ann. § 99-19-81. In order for a person to be sentenced under the habitual offender statutes, Miss. Code Ann. §§ 99-19-81 and  83, it is incumbent upon the State to offer evidence of and for the court to consider evidence of other crimes separate and apart from the crime for which he was just convicted. While there are similarities in the sentencing hearing following a capital murder conviction and a habitual offender sentencing hearing, there are also marked differences. The outcome of the former is always in the hands of a jury, the latter invariably a circuit judge. Miss. Code Ann. § 99-19-101 (Supp. 1993); Nathan v. State, 552 So.2d 99, 106 (Miss. 1989); Hoover v. State, 552 So.2d 834, 836-37 (Miss. 1989); Keyes v. State, 549 So.2d 949, 951 (Miss. 1989); Hurt v. State, 420 So.2d 560, 561 (Miss. 1982); Adams v. State, 410 So.2d 1332, 1334 (Miss. 1992); Yates v. State, 396 So.2d 629, 631 (Miss. 1981); Wilson v. State, 395 So.2d 957, 959-60 (Miss. 1981).