Opinion ID: 697321
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Jury Instruction Claims

Text: 26 Jones next argues that instruction number 20, which required the jury to determine [w]hether the murder ... involved torture or depravity of mind and as a result thereof it was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman was constitutionally defective. The district court found this assertion to be procedurally barred because Jones failed to reassert the claim in his attempts at post-conviction relief. The state has apparently waived any bar on appeal, however, by addressing solely the merits of this claim. Accordingly, we also direct our attention to the merits. 27 Standing alone, the aggravating factor of depravity of mind is impermissible. Battle, 19 F.3d at 1562; see Sidebottom, 46 F.3d at 755. So too, standing alone, is an aggravating factor finding the offense outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible and inhuman. Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420, 428-29, 100 S.Ct. 1759, 1764-65, 64 L.Ed.2d 398 (1980); see Maynard v. Cartwright, 486 U.S. 356, 363-64, 108 S.Ct. 1853, 1858-59, 100 L.Ed.2d 372 (1988). In this instance, however, the instruction contained the additional element of torture. See Battle, 19 F.3d at 1562. A finding of torture is sufficient to properly narrow the class of persons eligible for the death penalty. LaRette, 44 F.3d at 686. The instruction as written, however, includes this limiting factor in the alternative. Accordingly, a jury could conceivably have found some inchoate notion of depravity of mind without a finding of torture. The jury, however, did make a specific finding as to the torture of the victim in this case, as evidenced by the strangulation of neck, broken ribs, various bruises and contusions to body previous to death. Jones, 705 S.W.2d at 21. This specific finding eliminates any taint that might otherwise have resulted from the complained-of factor because the jury's decision was based on a valid aggravating factor. See Sidebottom, 46 F.3d at 756; LaRette, 44 F.3d at 686-87. Additionally, the Missouri Supreme Court's review, which found the evidence to support the jury's finding of torture, cured any error in the ... instruction. LaRette, 44 F.3d at 687.
28 Jones also argues that instruction number 22 erroneously required the jury's findings on mitigating circumstances to be unanimous. Notwithstanding Jones's procedural default with respect to this claim, which is not overcome by the effect of Missouri's mandatory review scheme as discussed in section III.B.2, supra, we find this argument foreclosed by our recent decisions in Griffin v. Delo, 33 F.3d 895, 905-06 (8th Cir.1994), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 1981, 131 L.Ed.2d 869 (1995), and Battle, 19 F.3d at 1560-62. Taken as a whole, the instructions did not require unanimity.