Opinion ID: 1057701
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 36

Heading: Tennessee's Aggravating Circumstances' Compliance with the Narrowing Requirements of the Eighth Amendment

Text: In addition to the death penalty not being applicable to any crime that does not result in death, Tennessee narrowly circumscribes the homicide offenses to which the death penalty is applicable. A conviction for vehicular homicide, aggravated vehicular homicide, assisted suicide, reckless homicide, criminally negligent homicide, voluntary manslaughter, or second degree murder does not render a defendant death penalty eligible. Even persons convicted of first degree murder cannot become death penalty eligible until a jury finds unanimously that the State had proved beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of one of the fifteen aggravating circumstances enumerated in Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i). Mr. Banks argues, despite his concession that he has no evidence to support his argument, that most homicides that occur in Tennessee fall within the aggravating circumstances in Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(5), (6), & (7). He also argues that the concentration of capital cases in three aggravating factors proves that Tennessee's death penalty statutes fail to meaningfully narrow the class of defendants who are death penalty eligible as required by the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The United States Supreme Court has held that an aggravating circumstance must genuinely narrow the class of persons eligible for the death penalty and must reasonably justify the imposition of a more severe sentence on the defendant compared to others found guilty of murder. Zant v. Stephens, 462 U.S. 862, 877, 103 S.Ct. 2733, 77 L.Ed.2d 235 (1983). In addition to providing a public declaration of the state's policies regarding the offenses deemed to warrant the use of the death penalty, legislatively created guidelines can also serve to channel the discretion of jurors in determining whether the death penalty is appropriate in a particular case. Zant v. Stephens, 462 U.S. at 876-78, 103 S.Ct. 2733. Thus, they prevent the wanton and freakish imposition of the death penalty. Zant v. Stephens, 462 U.S. at 876, 103 S.Ct. 2733. Through its statutory definition of first degree murder and its statutory enumeration of aggravating circumstances, the Tennessee General Assembly has narrowed the class of defendants to whom the death penalty may be applied. We have repeatedly found that these aggravating circumstances meet the constitutional requirements of narrowing the class of death penalty eligible persons and channeling juror discretion. See, e.g., State v. Bane, 57 S.W.3d at 426-27; Terry v. State, 46 S.W.3d at 161-62; State v. Keen, 926 S.W.2d at 742. Mr. Banks's argument has not persuaded us that this determination is in error. E.