Opinion ID: 761794
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Punishment Phase Jury Instructions

Text: 25 Trevino argues that the trial court erred in refusing his request to instruct the punishment-phase jury that it could consider his social history and background, age, immaturity, or any other extenuating circumstances in determining his appropriate sentence. Trevino also claims that the jury instructions improperly precluded the jury from considering mitigating factors in determining the proper punishment. Specifically, Trevino objects to a portion of the jury instruction, which read, During your deliberations, you shall not consider or discuss what the effect of your answer to the above issues may be. 26 The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found that this claim had no merit, adopting the trial court's finding that the punishment phase jury instruction did not prevent the jury from giving effect to any potentially mitigating testimony. The court found that the trial judge specifically told the jury before the punishment-phase deliberations: You are instructed in answering the issues submitted to you, you may take into consideration all of the facts shown by the evidence admitted before you in the full trial of this case. The state habeas court reasoned that this instruction, together with the jury instruction taken as a whole, allowed the jury to consider any evidence admitted in the trial--including any evidence concerning Trevino's age, his social history and background, his immaturity, or any other extenuating circumstances. In addition, the court noted that the instruction given to the jury in this case was similar to the instruction upheld by the Supreme Court in Johnson v. Texas, 509 U.S. 350, 368, 113 S.Ct. 2658, 125 L.Ed.2d 290 (1993); in each, the jury was explicitly told it could take into consideration any evidence admitted in the trial. The state court concluded that the jury instruction did not prevent consideration of any mitigating factors in fashioning an appropriate sentence, and that the jury instructions were therefore not deficient. 27 We find that Trevino has not made a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right on this issue. The relevant question, as the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals noted, is  'whether there is a reasonable likelihood that the jury has applied the challenged instruction in a way that prevents the consideration of constitutionally relevant evidence.'  Johnson, 509 U.S. at 367-68, 113 S.Ct. 2658 (quoting Boyde v. California, 494 U.S. 370, 380, 110 S.Ct. 1190, 108 L.Ed.2d 316 (1990)). The state court's conclusion that, given the trial court's explicit instruction to consider all evidence in determining the proper sentence and the instruction taken as a whole, there was no reasonable likelihood that the jury was foreclosed from considering any mitigating evidence is not contrary to, or an unreasonable application of, clearly established federal law as determined by the Supreme Court. See Green v. Johnson, 160 F.3d 1029, 1043-44 (5th Cir.1998) (denying certificate of probable cause to applicant seeking to appeal district court's denial of habeas relief on jury instruction issue because applicant did not demonstrate any likelihood that jury was prevented from considering mitigating evidence during punishment-phase sentencing); Tucker v. Johnson, 115 F.3d 276, 281-82 (5th Cir.1997) (denying certificate of probable cause on jury instruction issue because jury was not foreclosed from considering mitigating evidence). We therefore decline to issue Trevino a COA on this issue.