Opinion ID: 475441
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: instructions on mitigating circumstances and constitutionality of tex.code crim.proc.ann. art. 37.071

Text: 18 Riles unsuccessfully raised the insanity defense at trial. Riles now argues that even if the psychiatric evidence presented at trial was insufficient to convince the jury he was insane when he murdered Henry, it may have been sufficient to show he was mentally ill. Mental illness, according to Riles, is a mitigating factor which would have diminished his criminal responsibility in the penalty phase of the trial. Even though he did not request an instruction on this mitigating factor during the penalty phase, it is Riles's belief that the trial court erred by failing to bring it to the jury's attention. 7 19 A defendant will be barred from raising his claim about the absence of a mitigating circumstance instruction if there is no request for such an instruction at trial or if a contemporaneous objection to the court's charge on this ground is not made. O'Bryan v. Estelle, 714 F.2d 365, 385 (5th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 465 U.S. 1013, 104 S.Ct. 1015, 79 L.Ed.2d 245 (1984). See also Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 53 L.Ed.2d 594 (1977), and Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. arts. 36.14, 36.15 (Vernon Supp.1986). Under Sykes, Riles was required to establish cause for the procedural default, and he has not done this. Id. at 90-91, 97 S.Ct. at 2508. 20 Riles also asserts a constitutional challenge to Article 37.071, stating that, as applied to his case, it prevented the jury from considering his mental illness as a mitigating factor. In a case factually similar to this one, this Court has found article 37.071 in compliance with the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Granviel v. Estelle, 655 F.2d 673, 675 (5th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 1003, 102 S.Ct. 1636, 71 L.Ed.2d 870 (1982). The Texas statute has previously withstood constitutional attack in the Supreme Court. Jurek v. Texas, 428 U.S. 262, 276, 96 S.Ct. 2950, 2958, 49 L.Ed.2d 929 (1976). In fact, the Supreme Court held that [b]y authorizing the defense to bring before the jury at the separate sentencing hearing whatever mitigating circumstances relating to the individual defendant can be adduced, Texas has ensured that the sentencing jury will have adequate guidance to enable it to perform its sentencing function. Id. 21 The trial court never prevented Riles from re-urging evidence of mental illness to mitigate the penalty. Indeed, the trial court instructed the jury that they could consider all evidence submitted during both phases of the trial when answering the penalty issues. Record at 140. Moreover, there is nothing in the record which indicates the jury failed or refused to consider any of the considerable evidence in the guilt phase record with respect to mental illness. Failure of the trial court to give a specific instruction on mental illness did not rise to a constitutional error.