Opinion ID: 1494252
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 14

Heading: whether there are ambiguities and inconsistencies in the sentencing verdicts requiring appellant's death sentence to be vacated

Text: Appellant argues that the combination of the contents of the third jury note, the trial judge's response to the note, and the inclusion of the statement [l]ife imprisonment without parole is sufficient under Section IV, part 8(b) of the sentencing form demonstrates that the jury arbitrarily imposed a sentence of death in this case, requiring that the sentence be vacated. The facts of this case place appellant's criminal conduct within the framework of Maryland's capital punishment statute. His conviction for the first-degree murder of Edward Atkinson was based on the felony murder rule. See Code, Art. 27, § 410 (1957, 1996 Repl.Vol.). [18] At trial, the jury determined that appellant was a principal in the first-degree in the murder. The aggravating factor found by the jury in its sentencing deliberations was that appellant committed the murder while he was robbing Mr. Atkinson. See Code, Art. 27, § 413(d). [19] With regard to mitigating circumstances, the jury unanimously found that appellant had not previously committed a crime of violence. See § 413(g)(1). Under Section IV, part 8(b), some of the jurors listed four additional mitigating circumstances: chaotic, disruptive, and violent childhood[;] accepts full responsibility for act and shows remorse[;] life imprisonment without parole is sufficient[;] mercy shown to defendant. The jury unanimously voted to impose a death sentence. We have held the felony murder rule embodied in Section 413(d)(10) to be a constitutional aggravating factor. See Metheny v. State, 359 Md. 576, 615, 755 A.2d 1088, 1109 (2000); Calhoun v. State, 297 Md. at 629, 468 A.2d at 77. Not all crimes defined as felonies under the Maryland Code are included within those offenses enumerated under the felony murder statute. See Code, Art. 27, § 410. The felony murders qualifying as an aggravating factor pursuant to Section 413(d)(10) are a select group derived from Section 410, thus narrowly restricting the class of death-eligible felony murders to those felonies deemed most serious by the Legislature, and to those convicted as principals in the first-degree. See Calhoun, 297 Md. at 625-626, 468 A.2d at 75. Thus, reading all relevant portions of the statute, the death penalty may only be imposed in Maryland in a narrow class of cases. See id. at 624, 468 A.2d at 74. The circumstances surrounding the murder of Edward Atkinson fall within that narrow class of criminal activity eligible for the death penalty under Maryland law. In capital cases, the Maryland sentencing scheme requires the jury to carefully weigh the aggravating and mitigating circumstances such that a death sentence shall only be imposed where a unanimous jury finds that the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances. See Code, Art. 27, § 413(h), (i). The statute contemplates a weighing of the gravity of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, not merely a numerical tally of whether the mitigating circumstances listed on the sentencing form outnumber the aggravating circumstances. See Thanos v. State, 330 Md. 77, 83, 622 A.2d 727, 729-730 (1993)(affirming imposition of a death sentence where the trial court found the existence of a single aggravating factor under Section 413(d)(10) outweighed the mitigating circumstance of Section 413(g)(4) that defendant could not appreciate the criminality of his conduct due to mental incapacity and five additional mitigating circumstances under Section 413(g)(8)); Stebbing v. State, 299 Md. 331, 473 A.2d 903 (affirming death sentence and finding that sentencing authority was not required to find statutory mitigating circumstances despite defendant's age at time of crime (19), extensive proof of defendant's history of substance abuse, mental illness and other cognitive impairment, and defendant's apology and promise that she would never do anything again which would result in her imprisonment). The record before us supports the jury's conclusion that the statutory aggravating circumstance in Section 413(d)(10), the defendant committed the murder while committing... a robbery ... outweighed the mitigating circumstances. Thus, we do not find any ambiguities or inconsistencies in the sentencing verdict.