Opinion ID: 1057701
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the indictment and trial

Text: In March 2003, a grand jury in Shelby County returned a four-count indictment against Mr. Banks. The indictment charged Mr. Banks with (1) the premeditated and intentional killing of Mr. Al-Maily; [5] (2) the killing of Mr. Al-Maily in the perpetration of robbery; [6] (3) the attempted first degree murder of Mr. Atilebawi; [7] and (4) the especially aggravated armed robbery of property over the value of ten thousand dollars from Mr. Atilebawi. [8] One month later, on April 7, 2003, Mr. Banks filed a motion to require the State of Tennessee to announce whether it intended to seek the death penalty or another enhanced punishment. On April 10, 2003, the State announced its intention to seek the death penalty. In accordance with Tenn. R.Crim. P. 12.3, the State also notified Mr. Banks that it intended to rely upon the following two aggravating circumstances: first, that the murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding, interfering with, or preventing a lawful arrest or prosecution, [9] and second, that the murder was committed while Mr. Banks was engaging in committing a first degree murder or robbery. [10] Mr. Banks's trial began on April 4, 2005. After three days of voir dire, the State presented numerous witnesses over the course of three days of testimony. These witnesses included Mr. Atilebawi, the neurologist who treated Mr. Atilebawi, neighbors and friends who knew the parties, the police officers and forensic witnesses who had been involved in the investigation, the pathologist who performed Mr. Al-Maily's autopsy, and the store manager from whom Mr. Banks had purchased the rims and tires for the Jeep. After Mr. Banks indicated that he did not desire to testify, the defense rested without presenting any evidence. The jury began its deliberations on Friday, April 8, 2005, and on Saturday, April 9, 2005, returned a verdict finding Mr. Banks guilty on all four counts of the indictment. The penalty phase of the trial began on Saturday, April 9, 2005, after the guilt phase of the trial concluded. The State called Mr. Atilebawi and his partner, Mary Hughes, to testify regarding the impact of Mr. Banks's crimes on the victims. Mr. Banks did not testify during the punishment phase; however, he called eleven mitigation witnesses. These witnesses presented a positive and sympathetic image of Mr. Banks. The implicit, and at times explicit, undercurrent of their testimony was the youth of Mr. Banks who was only nineteen years old when he murdered Mr. Al-Maily. Five employees of the Office of the Shelby County Sheriff testified about his conduct in prison and his efforts to rehabilitate himself. They described Mr. Banks as a model prisoner who had two minor blemishes on his disciplinary record and reported that he had participated in programs involving religious studies, anger management, drug and alcohol abuse, and other skills programs. Three members of the Leewood Baptist Church also testified about Mr. Banks's commitment to his church and his church-related activities. Several of these witnesses expressed disbelief that Mr. Banks could have committed the crimes for which he had been convicted and pleaded with the jury to spare his life. Three members of Mr. Banks's immediate family, his mother, an older sister, and his oldest brother, also testified during the sentencing phase of the trial. They described Mr. Banks's home life when he was growing up, including the challenges of being one of ten children of a mother who was in and out of prison because of various forgery convictions and whose fathers were generally absent. They also portrayed Mr. Banks as a gentle child who enjoyed cooking, playing with cars, writing poetry, and drawing pictures. In addition, they described the difficulties that Mr. Banks experienced when, at the age of sixteen, he learned that he was HIV positive. These family members testified that they loved and missed Mr. Banks and that they intended to continue to correspond with and visit Mr. Banks while he was incarcerated. Through cross-examination of Mr. Banks's witnesses, the State established that Mr. Banks had been assigned to a prison unit where the prisoners were afforded special privileges and that, while Mr. Banks's disciplinary history compared favorably to the general inmate population, the number of his disciplinary offenses was high when compared with the offenses of other prisoners on the unit. The State also established that Mr. Banks had been supported during his youth by a loving grandmother, older siblings, and members of his church and that his older siblings did not mistreat him. The State presented to the jury that Mr. Banks's criminal record included assault, battery, and domestic violence. In addition, the State called Ms. Thompson, Mr. Banks's former girlfriend, as a rebuttal witness. Ms. Thompson painted a starkly different picture from the one painted by his family and church friends. She testified that Mr. Banks never told her that he was HIV-positive and that she learned about his medical condition from another one of his former girlfriends. She also testified that Mr. Banks regularly abused her physically and verbally, and she described an incident when Mr. Banks pointed a gun to her stomach when she was eight months pregnant. The jury returned its verdict on Monday, April 11, 2005. It concluded that the State had proved the existence of both aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt. [11] The jury also found unanimously and beyond reasonable doubt that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances. Accordingly, the jury unanimously sentenced Mr. Banks to death. At a later sentencing hearing, the trial court merged the first two counts of the indictmentthe two capital convictions and sentenced Mr. Banks to death. It imposed a twenty-five year sentence for the attempt to commit first degree murder conviction and a twenty-five year sentence for the especially aggravated robbery conviction and determined that Mr. Banks should serve these sentences consecutively to each other and to the merged capital conviction. Mr. Banks appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals, raising numerous challenges to his convictions and sentences. On July 6, 2007, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Mr. Banks's convictions for first degree murder and the resulting sentence of death. State v. Banks, No. W2005-02213-CCA-R3-DD, 2007 WL 1966039, at  (Tenn.Ct.App. July 6, 2007). The court also affirmed Mr. Banks's convictions for especially aggravated robbery and criminal attempt to commit premeditated murder, as well as their resulting sentences. State v. Banks, 2007 WL 1966039, at . The affirmance of Mr. Banks's capital convictions and death sentence triggered an automatic review by this Court in accordance with Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-206(a)(1) (2006). Mr. Banks raises numerous arguments related to his convictions and sentences which we will address in turn.