Opinion ID: 1790946
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: whether the trial court erred in allowing the state to amend constructively the indictment.

Text: ¶ 22. Bishop argues that the circuit court improperly allowed the State to amend constructively the indictment by including the phrase without the authority of law in Jury Instruction 8 (capital murder), when the phrase was not used in the indictment. Bishop further asserts that, although there was no contemporaneous objection, we should review this issue under the plain error rule. ¶ 23. The phrase without authority of law, is an essential element of the capital murder statute. See Miss.Code Ann. § 90-3-19(2) (2000) (The killing of a human being without the authority of law ....) (emphasis added). The indictment charging Bishop with capital murder failed to include that precise phrase, using instead the term unlawfully: JESSIE DEWAYNE JOHNSON AND DALE LEO BISHOP in said County and State on the 10th day of December, A.D., 1998, did willfully, unlawfully and feloniously, with or without any deliberate design to effect death, kill and murder Marcus James Gentry, a human being, while they, the said JESSIE DEWAYNE JOHNSON and/or DALE LEO BISHOP were engaged in the commission of the crime of kidnaping Marcus James Gentry, in violation of Section 97-3-19(2)(e), Mississippi Code 1972, Annotated, as amended; contrary to the form of the statute in such cases made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the State of Mississippi. (Emphasis added.) ¶ 24. Jury Instruction No. 8, submitted by the State and given by the circuit court, includes the statutory element without authority of law, as follows: The Court instructs the Jury that the killing of a human being without the authority of law by any means or any manner shall be capital murder when done with or without any design to effect death by any person engaged in the commission of the crime of kidnaping. If you believe from all the evidence in this case, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant, Dale Leo Bishop, did, acting with another, willfully, unlawfully, feloniously, with or without deliberate design, kill Marcus James Gentry, a human being, without the authority of law, when engaged in the commission of the crime of kidnaping, then, if you do so believe from all the evidence in the case beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendant is guilty of capital murder. (Emphasis added.) ¶ 25. In Bell v. State, 725 So.2d 836, 855-56 (Miss.1998), citing to United States v. Adams, 778 F.2d 1117, 1123 (5th Cir. 1985), we held that we will reverse any case upon which a defendant was convicted on an element of the offense not contained in the indictment: A constructive amendment of an indictment occurs when the jury is permitted to convict the defendant upon a factual basis that effectively modifies an essential element of the offense charged. A constructive amendment of an indictment is reversible per se. Reversal is automatic because the defendant may have been convicted on a ground not charged in the indictment. Bell v. State, 725 So.2d 836, 855-56 (Miss.1998) (quoting United States v. Adams, 778 F.2d 1117, 1123 (5th Cir.1985)). ¶ 26. However, we have held that without the authority of law and unlawfully are interchangeable phrases: Replacing without the authority of law with unlawfully in the indictment did not fail to charge Turner with and essential element of the crime of depraved-heart murder as it is set out in Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-19(1)(b). A common sense analysis of the definition of unlawfully, similar to the analysis of `wilfully or willfully' and `intentionally' found in Lester v. State, 692 So.2d 755, 789-90 (Miss.1997), overruled on other grounds, Weatherspoon v. State, 732 So.2d 158, 162 (Miss.1999), shows that without the authority of law is synonymous with unlawfully and that they are interchangeable. Black's Law Dictionary defines []unlawful[] as not authorized by law; illegal. Black's Law Dictionary 1536 (7th ed.1999). Webster's defines []unlawful[] as not lawful: contrary to or prohibited by law: not authorized or justified by law: not permitted or warranted by law. Webster's Third New International Dictionary 2502 (1986). The word unlawfully and the phrase without the authority of law are interchangeable. Turner v. State, 796 So.2d 998, 1002 (Miss. 2001). ¶ 27. We find that Bishop was not convicted upon a factual basis which effectively modified an essential element of the offense. ¶ 28. This assignment of error is without merit.