Opinion ID: 2063555
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Request for Mitigation Specialist

Text: While the case was awaiting resentencing on the murder conviction, Jackson moved the trial court for funds to engage a mitigation specialist and a clinical psychologist. The court denied his request, and Jackson contends this was error. This Court outlined the principles pertinent to the appointment of experts in Scott v. State (1992), Ind., 593 N.E.2d 198. Among other things, we observed that the argument for providing experts at public expense is strongest in cases involving the most severe penalties. Indeed, on one recent occasion we concluded that refusal to provide an expert in a capital case was reversible error. Castor v. State (1992), Ind., 587 N.E.2d 1281 (error to refuse appointment of expert where expert made preliminary determination that statutory mitigator applied to capital defendant). Castor is not compelling authority here, of course, because while the State initiated this murder prosecution as a capital case, by the time of Jackson's resentencing it no longer was a capital case. Because it had been a death penalty case, however, the original sentencing proceeding was necessarily more extensive than it would have been if the death penalty had never been sought. Jackson asked that the evidence from that original sentencing be admitted for consideration on remand, and it was. The trial court relied on the evidence presented by both sides at the former hearing, including the following. A representative of the Ohio company which employed Jackson testified at length about Jackson's good employment record. Two of Jackson's cousins testified favorably about Jackson's life experiences. Jackson's brother testified about his efforts at building a family. Jackson's aunt testified about acts of kindness she had observed. Jackson's brothers and a co-worker also testified favorably about him. Finally, the Sheriff of Franklin County testified that Jackson had been a good prisoner while in jail awaiting trial. Although the trial court prohibited the State from presenting any evidence during resentencing, it allowed Jackson to provide new testimony and additional reports. Jackson's mother testified that her son was handling himself very well in prison. Asked whether any circumstances had changed in Jackson's life since the last sentencing hearing, she noted that he was now in prison and said: I don't know how they could change. His brothers testified about their continued relationship with him and his adjustment to prison. The Franklin County Sheriff testified that Jackson had not been any problem during his return to the jail for resentencing. Jackson also called Stacey Michael, a mitigation specialist, who appeared notwithstanding the trial court's denial of funds to pay her. She presented a psychologist's report on Jackson from the Indiana State Prison. She also offered a favorable letter written by the warden of an Ohio penitentiary in which Jackson had been incarcerated for aggravated robbery shortly before his participation in the Seagraves murder. Finally, Jackson himself testified. Altogether, then, Jackson was able to present the trial judge with a voluminous record, both from the earlier proceeding and the current one, describing the kind of person Donald Jackson has been. The judge acted within his discretion and the dictates of Scott v. State when he denied the request for funds to hire a mitigation specialist and a psychologist to prepare additional information.