Opinion ID: 1868654
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Miss. Code Ann. ง 99-19-101(5)(d): Kidnaping Aggravator

Text: Williams contends this aggravator was submitted to the jury without any explanation as to the elements of kidnaping and that the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the murder occurred during the commission of a kidnaping. Williams thus claims the evidence submitted to the sentencing jury was insufficient as a matter of law to establish the (5)(d) aggravator. Williams argues that the State failed to prove the elements of Miss. Code Ann. ง 97-3-53 (1972). ง 97-3-53. Kidnaping; capital punishment authorized. Any person who shall without lawful authority forcibly seize and confine any other person, or who shall inveigle or kidnap any other person with the intent to cause such person to be secretly confined or imprisoned against his or her will... . Williams also argues that the State did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended to confine or imprison the victim against her will. However, the first jury in the original case heard sufficient evidence to make this determination. Williams, 544 So.2d at 790. Following a jury trial, Williams had been convicted on December 14, 1983, of capital murder, which is murder while engaged in the commission of the crime of kidnaping. The jury at that time was fully instructed on the statutory elements of kidnaping by instructions S-2 and S-5 in DP-56. Williams' conviction was affirmed by this Court in 1987. When Williams raised the issue on appeal, this Court specifically held that [t]he record contains certain circumstantial evidence which supports the verdict finding a kidnaping. Williams, 544 So.2d at 789. The Court found that: it is conceivable that a reasonable juror could have found that Karon Pierce was inveigled, i.e., enticed or tricked, with intent to secretly confine her against her will. As kidnaping is not a specific intent crime, it is sufficient that the circumstances resulted in such a manner as to effect a kidnaping as opposed to an actual intent to kidnap, i.e. it is not necessary to establish the mental state of intent by direct evidence. Id. at 790. While it would have been the optimum situation to include such an instruction, the jury in the resentence-determining phase did not have to be instructed on the elements of capital murder, murder and kidnaping in this case, in order to make a finding beyond a reasonable doubt of the existence of this aggravating circumstance. Williams is not being charged in the resentencing hearing as he was in his first trial. In Conner v. State, the defendant, Conner, claimed that an instruction on a lesser-included offense of simple murder should have been given. Conner v. State, 632 So.2d 1239, 1255 (Miss. 1993), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 115 S.Ct. 314, 130 L.Ed.2d 276 (1994). The jury instruction given informed the jury that it could find Conner guilty of capital murder only if it found Conner to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of every element of the capital murder charge. Id. at 1255. This Court held in Conner that this potential error was cured by the jury's verdict which by necessary implication found Conner guilty of the lesser included offense of simple murder. Id. In the case at bar, the jury in the guilt phase found Williams guilty of capital murder. The omission of the kidnaping instruction in the resentencing phase was cured by that first jury's conviction of murder and kidnaping, which by necessary implication allowed the resentencing jury to consider whether Williams was guilty of the underlying felony of kidnaping for aggravator purposes. In order to find Williams guilty of capital murder, the first jury made the determination that Williams was guilty of murder while in the commission of kidnaping. This capital murder verdict was not in issue in this resentencing case. The only issue was the manner of punishment that Williams should receive. Mississippi case law states that in an appeal from a resentencing trial for capital murder, the issue of guilt is res judicata. Irving v. State, 441 So.2d 846, 851-52 (Miss. 1983), cert. denied., 470 U.S. 1059, 105 S.Ct. 1774, 84 L.Ed.2d 834 (1985) abrogated on other grounds, Willie v. State, 585 So.2d 660 (1991). Irving held that: In that the conviction by the first jury was not disturbed on appeal, the present sentencing jury was prohibited by the doctrine of res judicata from relitigating the issue of guilty [sic]. Rather, the second jury's function was to accept the first jury's finding that Irving was guilty of felony-murder involving robbery and then to determine sentence. Irving, 441 So.2d at 849. The first jury, in 1983, had to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Williams was guilty of murder while engaged in the commission of kidnaping. This jury did not have to re-find the elements of murder and/or kidnaping, the underlying offense. This second jury, the George County jury, was to determine the sentence and could rely upon the prior finding made by the Lauderdale County jury during the guilt-finding phase. The United States Supreme Court has also approved of the overlap between a finding of guilt in an underlying felony supporting a capital offense, and the reuse of that felony to prove an aggravator in the sentencing phase. Lowenfield v. Phelps, 484 U.S. 231, 241-46, 108 S.Ct. 546, 552-55, 98 L.Ed.2d 568 (1988). Williams challenged the kidnaping issue, including the actual testimony regarding the kidnaping, the sufficiency of the evidence to support the aggravating circumstance of the kidnaping, and the lack of a kidnaping instruction in the resentencing phase. During Evans' testimony, Evans basically repeated that to which he had testified during the first trial. The jury heard testimony that Pierce requested to go back to the lounge to get her purse and shoes, and that her request was denied. The jury heard that Williams tackled Pierce and took her to the woods. The jury heard that Pierce's legs were not moving consistently with the way someone normally walks. Williams argued that Miss. Code Ann. ง 99-19-105(3)(b) requires this Court to review whether or not there was sufficient basis to support the aggravating circumstances. In considering the kidnaping aggravator, this Court must decide whether the jury heard enough evidence to make a determination. In addition to Evans' testimony above, the jury knew that Williams had already been convicted of capital murder and the underlying felony of kidnaping. The jury read the S-1 sentencing instruction, which included the procedure for applying the aggravators and the mitigators, complied with the procedure, and found that three of the aggravators applied to this case. The trial court did not include an instruction for kidnaping in this resentencing phase, even though one was given in the guilt phase of the trial. No instruction on kidnaping was offered by either the State or Williams. More importantly, Williams did not contemporaneously object at trial or in the motion for a new trial to this lack of a kidnaping instruction. This Court has established a line of cases, including death penalty cases, where the failure to object at trial waives the issue on appeal. Shell v. State, 554 So.2d 887, 893 (Miss. 1989), rev'd in part on other grounds, 498 U.S. 1, 111 S.Ct. 313, 112 L.Ed.2d 1 (1990); Cole v. State, 525 So.2d 365, 369 (Miss. 1987), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 934, 109 S.Ct. 330, 102 L.Ed.2d 348 (1988), post-conviction relief granted on other grounds, 666 So.2d 767 (Miss. 1995) (holding that applicability of the contemporaneous objection rule is not diminished in a capital case); Lockett v. State, 517 So.2d 1317, 1333 (Miss. 1987) cert. denied, 487 U.S. 1210, 108 S.Ct. 2858, 101 L.Ed.2d 895 (1988) (holding that where there is no indication in the record of such an instruction ever being requested by the defense, such failure serves as a bar to raising the point on appeal); See Stringer v. State, 500 So.2d 928 (Miss. 1986); Irving v. State, 498 So.2d 305 (Miss. 1986), cert. denied, 481 U.S. 1042, 107 S.Ct. 1986, 95 L.Ed.2d 826 (1987). Unlike other aggravating circumstances, such as the heinous and cruel aggravator, which until the proper limiting instruction was added had been overturned because it was not constitutionally sufficient, this kidnaping element was proven in the guilt phase of the trial. In Lowenfield v. Phelps, 484 U.S. 231, 241-46, 108 S.Ct. 546, 554, 98 L.Ed.2d 568 (1988), the Supreme Court reiterated that to pass constitutional muster, a capital sentencing scheme 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.' (quoting Zant v. Stephens, 462 U.S. 862, 877, 103 S.Ct. 2733, 2742, 77 L.Ed.2d 235 (1983)). The use of aggravating circumstances is not an end in itself, but a means of genuinely narrowing the class of death eligible persons and thereby channeling the jury's discretion. We see no reason why this narrowing function may not be performed by jury findings at either the sentencing phase of the trial or the guilt phase. Lowenfield, 484 U.S. at 245, 108 S.Ct. at 554. With its no reason language, Lowenfield allows a resentencing jury to rely on what was found in the original trial in deciding whether or not an aggravator would apply. In the case at bar, the sentence in the first trial was vacated by this Court due to the mention of appellate review in the closing argument, but the conviction during the guilt phase of the underlying felony of kidnaping was affirmed. The United States Supreme Court in Lowenfield concluded: [t]he narrowing function required for a regime of capital punishment may be provided in either of these two ways: The legislature may itself narrow the definition of capital offenses, as Texas and Louisiana have done, so that the jury finding of guilt responds to this concern, or the legislature may more broadly define capital offenses and provide for narrowing by jury findings of aggravating circumstances at the penalty phase... . Here, the narrowing function was performed by the jury at the guilt phase when it found defendant guilty of three counts of murder under the provision that the offender has a specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm upon more than one person. The fact that the sentencing jury is also required to find the existence of an aggravating circumstance in addition is no part of the constitutionally required narrowing process, and so the fact that the aggravating circumstance duplicated one of the elements of the crime does not make this sentence constitutionally infirm. Lowenfield, 484 U.S. at 246, 108 S.Ct. at 555. In the present case, the jury in the guilt phase returned a conviction for capital murder with the underlying felony of kidnaping. Irving v. State clearly holds that the resentencing jury could not relitigate the issue of guilt, [r]ather the second jury's function was to accept the first jury's finding that Irving was guilty of felony-murder involving robbery and then to determine [the] sentence. Irving, 441 So.2d at 849. Here, the second or resentencing jury accepted the first jury's finding. Lowenfield approved the Texas and Louisiana law which allowed this. Mississippi, like Louisiana, defines various types of murder, with capital murder being the most serious. The provisions of Miss. Code Ann. ง 97-3-19, which define capital murder, are similar to the Louisiana Code ง 14:30 A first-degree murder definition. Mississippi has in place a narrowing scheme like Louisiana and Texas. Thus, in Williams' case, the first jury's finding of guilt with the capital murder instruction was constitutionally sound because it narrowed the class of persons eligible for the death penalty. Williams asserted that a defendant is never collaterally estopped from introducing mitigating evidence. We would agree. However, the distinction here is between introducing mitigating evidence in the penalty phase and thereby attempting to create residual doubt to mitigate and between introducing evidence that challenges the guilty verdict. Williams simply challenges the prior guilty verdict. To allow the prior verdict to be challenged is to recognize that this is really a totally new trial, except that the jury has knowledge that the defendant was previously convicted of capital murder. It also flies in the face of this Court's prior affirmance of Williams' conviction. The Supreme Court in Delo v. Lashley, 507 U.S. 272, 113 S.Ct. 1222, 122 L.Ed.2d 620 (1993) held that the trial court properly refused to give an instruction in the punishment phase concerning Lashley's alleged lack of significant history of prior criminal activity, and that Lashley was not entitled to punishment phase instruction that he was presumed innocent of other crimes. Delo, 507 U.S. at 274, 113 S.Ct. at 1223. The United States Supreme Court reiterated that the sentencer must be allowed to consider in mitigation any aspect of a defendant's character or record and any of the circumstances of the offense that the defendant proffers as a basis for a sentence less than death. Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 604, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 2965, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978) (plurality opinion) (emphasis added). But, the United States Supreme Court has never suggested that the Constitution requires a state trial court to instruct the jury on mitigating circumstances in the absence of any supporting evidence. Delo, 507 U.S. at 275, 113 S.Ct. at 1224. The Supreme Court said, nothing in the Constitution obligates state courts to give mitigating circumstance instructions when no evidence is offered to support them. Id. at 277, 113 S.Ct. at 1225. In the case at bar the resentencing jury could reuse the capital murder conviction to establish the aggravator that the offense was committed while Williams was engaged in the commission of kidnaping. The issue at the resentencing hearing was not the initial elements of the crime, but rather the sentence to be imposed upon a defendant who had been found guilty by a prior jury. Williams places great weight on the testimony by Evans on cross at the resentencing trial in which Evans stated that he could not see for sure whether or not Williams dragged Pierce into the woods, or whether her legs were moving to indicate that she was walking. Williams labels this a drastic change in testimony. However, Evans had testified on direct that Pierce's legs were moving in such a way that was inconsistent with the way people normally walk. Also, being dragged into the woods is just one among several instances of kidnaping that the prosecution argued at the first trial. The prosecutor argued that several instances of kidnaping occurred: first, when Pierce was taken from the Scoreboard Lounge in the truck; second, when she requested to go get her shoes and was not returned to the Lounge; third, because of her intoxicated condition; and fourth, when she was dragged or carried into the woods from the truck. Williams, 544 So.2d at 790. In other words, the sufficiency of the proof as to the kidnaping has already been decided and is not to be challenged de novo by Williams at a resentencing hearing. Equally problematic for Williams was Evans' testimony that he observed Williams tackle Pierce when she attempted to run away. Such action was more than sufficient for the jury to consider as proof of the underlying felony of kidnaping. Even though Williams' own instructions contained the 5(d) felony aggravator, Williams failed at trial to raise a claim concerning the elements of kidnaping and did not offer an instruction embodying those elements. Nor did he request the trial judge grant any such instruction. The cases to which Williams cites address this point in an original trial as to the guilt-finding phase, not as to the resentencing phase with a different jury. In this posture, Williams argument is procedurally barred. This Court has applied the procedural bar in death penalty cases. Shell v. State, 554 So.2d 887, 893 (Miss. 1989), rev'd in part on other grounds, 498 U.S. 1, 111 S.Ct. 313, 112 L.Ed.2d 1 (1990); Cole v. State, 525 So.2d 365, 369 (Miss. 1987), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 934, 109 S.Ct. 330, 102 L.Ed.2d 348 (1988), post-conviction relief granted on other grounds, 666 So.2d 767 (Miss. 1995) (holding that applicability of the contemporaneous objection rule is not diminished in a capital case); Lockett v. State, 517 So.2d 1317, 1333 (Miss. 1987) cert. denied, 487 U.S. 1210, 108 S.Ct. 2858, 101 L.Ed.2d 895 (1988) (holding that where there is no indication in the record of such an instruction ever being requested by the defense, such failure serves as a bar to raising the point on appeal); See, Stringer v. State, 500 So.2d 928 (Miss. 1986); Irving v. State, 498 So.2d 305 (Miss. 1986), cert. denied, 481 U.S. 1042, 107 S.Ct. 1986, 95 L.Ed.2d 826 (1987). This Court holds that Williams is procedurally barred from raising this issue because he did not do so at trial. See also, Davis v. State, 660 So.2d 1228 (Miss. 1995); Foster v. State, 639 So.2d 1263 (Miss. 1994); Box v. State, 610 So.2d 1148 (Miss. 1992). Our death penalty scheme is silent with respect to certain resentencing proceedings upon retrial, and this Court has not had the occasion to offer guidance. The case of State v. Biegenwald, 106 N.J. 13, 524 A.2d 130, 158-61 (1987), contains some ground rules applicable in the state of New Jersey. The Supreme Court of New Jersey opined that [s]ince the retrial is limited to resentencing, the only admissible evidence is that relevant to the issue, namely, evidence of aggravating and mitigating factors. Retrial of issues relevant only to guilt is not permitted. Biegenwald, 524 A.2d at 160. That Court found that if both the State and the defense were free to present new evidence, the new jury may reach conclusions concerning aggravating factors and mitigating factors different from and inconsistent with the findings at the original sentencing proceeding. Id. at 161. On appeal, the New Jersey Court further clarified stating that with regard to aggravating factors, other than the use of a defendant's previous murder conviction which is addressed by statute, only in extremely rare cases will the State be allowed to submit evidence of a new aggravating factor, and only on proof that such evidence was unavailable to the State at the time of the original trial. State v. Biegenwald, 110 N.J. 521, 542 A.2d 442, 453 (1988). The defendant may submit any new evidence on mitigating factors previously found and any evidence of any new mitigating factor. The State then has the opportunity to rebut, but cannot present rebuttal evidence in such a way that it becomes a new aggravating factor. State v. Biegenwald, 110 N.J. 521, 542 A.2d 442, 453 (1988). We hold as in Biegenwald, that retrial is limited to resentencing and the only admissible evidence is that relevant to the issue, namely, evidence of aggravating and mitigating factors. Retrial of issues only to guilt is not permitted. Biegenwald, 524 A.2d at 158-61.