Opinion ID: 158381
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Failure to Give Requested Mitigation Instructions

Text: 67 Bryson argues the trial court erred in refusing to give his requested mitigation instructions. Bryson requested an instruction that the jury consider the following mitigating factors: 1) one or both of the co-defendants exerted considerable influence over him; 2) Marilyn Plantz led him to believe that the victim was beating and raping her; 3) he acted in defense of his lover; and 4) Marilyn Plantz provided alcohol and crack cocaine to him. Recognizing that the jury could consider all of the evidence it heard, Bryson argues that without specific reference to the four alleged mitigating circumstances the jury may have believed that it could only consider the factors listed in the instructions. Bryson argues that failure to allow the jury to consider all mitigating evidence is not harmless error. On direct appeal, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals held that the instructions allowed the jury to consider fully any relevant mitigating evidence. See Bryson, 876 P.2d at 257, 258. The district court, on habeas, agreed. 68 It is settled that a jury may not be precluded from considering any constitutionally relevant mitigating evidence. Buchanan, 522 U.S. at 276; see Johnson v. Texas, 509 U.S. 350, 361 (1993). [T]he state may shape and structure the jury's consideration of mitigation so long as it does not preclude the jury from giving effect to any relevant mitigating evidence. Buchanan, 522 U.S. at 276; see Johnson, 509 U.S. at 362. In shaping consideration of mitigating evidence, a jury instruction may list specific mitigating circumstances if it also indicates that the jury may consider any other mitigating evidence. See Blystone v. Pennsylvania, 494 U.S. 299, 307-08 (1990). 69 These standards were met in this case. Instruction No. 15 listed, among others, the following mitigating circumstances: 1) the age of Bryson at the time of the offense; 2) his age when he first met Marilyn Plantz; 3) the crime was the idea of a co-defendant; 4) Bryson had been consuming alcohol and crack cocaine before the murder; 5) Bryson had a neuropsychological deformity made worse by drug use; 6) Bryson's emotional and intellectual development made him susceptible to the suggestions of an older person; and 7) Bryson was less able than an emotionally and chronologically mature adult to make responsible decisions and consider consequences. Additionally, Instruction No. 13 directed the jurors that they were to determine the mitigating circumstances under the facts and circumstances of the case. 70 The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals and the district court correctly determined that the instructions sufficiently encompassed Bryson's first requested mitigating circumstance that one or both of his co-defendants exerted considerable influence over him. Those courts also correctly determined that no evidence supported the third requested mitigating circumstance that Bryson was acting in defense of his lover at the time of the murder. 71 Instruction No. 15 did not specifically mention the alleged rape and abuse of Marilyn Plantz by the victim or that it was Marilyn Plantz who provided alcohol and crack cocaine to Bryson. There was, however, evidence presented to support these alleged mitigating circumstances. Even though these mitigating circumstances were not listed in the jury instructions, the jurors were instructed that they were to determine the mitigating circumstances under the facts and circumstances of the case. The instructions therefore did not foreclose the jury's consideration of this or any other mitigating circumstances. See Buchanan, 522 U.S. at 277. 72 Although it may have been preferable for the trial court either to have listed these two as mitigating circumstances or to have specifically instructed the jury that it could consider mitigating factors other than those listed in Instruction No. 15, the instructions as a whole, considered along with the trial record, did not preclude the jury from giving effect to any mitigating circumstances. Cf. Estelle v. McGuire, 502 U.S. 62, 72 (1991) (ambiguous instruction considered in context of instructions as whole and trial record). It cannot be concluded that there is a reasonable likelihood that the jury applied the mitigating instructions such that they prevented consideration of constitutionally relevant evidence. See Boyde v. California, 494 U.S. 370, 380 (1990). Thus, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals decision was not contrary to, or did not involve an unreasonable application of, clearly established federal law. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1).