Opinion ID: 1637617
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: on motion to recall mandate

Text: LAURA DENVIR STITH, Judge. In 1994, a jury convicted Joseph Whitfield of first-degree murder, but could not agree on punishment during the penalty phase, voting 11 to 1 in favor of life imprisonment. [1] The judge then undertook the four-step process required by section 565.030.4 [2] for determining punishment. He found the presence of statutory and non-statutory aggravating circumstances, determined these circumstances warranted death, considered whether there were mitigating circumstances and found they did not outweigh the circumstances in aggravation, and decided under all the circumstances to impose a death sentence. This Court affirmed the convictions and sentences and denied post-conviction relief. State v. Whitfield, 939 S.W.2d 361 (Mo. banc 1997), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 831, 118 S.Ct. 97, 139 L.Ed.2d 52 (1997). [3] Last year, in Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002), the United States Supreme Court held that the Sixth Amendment entitles [c]apital defendants ... to a jury determination of any fact on which the legislature conditions an increase in their maximum punishment. Ring, 536 U.S. at 589, 122 S.Ct. 2428. Mr. Whitfield contends his right under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, as set out in Ring, was violated because the judge rather than the jury made the factual determinations on which his eligibility for the death sentence was predicated. This Court agrees. Section 565.030.4 requires that the trier of fact engage in a four-step process in determining whether a death sentence shall be imposed. As discussed below, the first three of these steps require factual findings be made in order to render the defendant eligible for the death penalty. Here, the jury deadlocked, and, as required by section 565.030.4, the judge rather than the jury made the requisite factual findings for imposition of a sentence of death. This violated Mr. Whitfield's right to have a jury determine the facts rendering him eligible for death. This Court therefore recalls its mandate affirming his conviction and applies Ring to invalidate his sentence of death because there is a conflict between this Court's affirmance of a court-imposed death sentence on Mr. Whitfield's direct appeal and the constitutional principles set out in Ring, under the test set forth in Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 14 L.Ed.2d 601 (1965), and Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967). Under section 565.040, the only possible sentence is life imprisonment. Accordingly, the Court's mandate is recalled, the sentence of death is reversed, and this Court sets aside the sentence of death and resentences the defendant to life imprisonment without eligibility for probation, parole, or release except by act of the Governor.