Court Opinion

ID: 9712252
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:50:03.373653+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:11.084233
License: Public Domain

*378DeBRULER, Justice,
dissenting.
It is now more apparent than at the time of our initial opinion in this case, Brewer v. State (1981), 275 Ind. 338, 417 N.E.2d 889, (DeBruler, J. Dissenting) that the judicial process employed in arriving at this sentence of death is flecked with constitutional defects. It is now manifest on this record, by reason of the accomplice instruction in the case of the jury, and by reason of the reliance upon the resulting and hopelessly ambiguous verdict of guilty of intentional murder in the case of the sentencing court, Brewer, supra, at 901, fn. 3, that there has been no determination made by court or jury that Brewer himself killed, attempted to kill or intended that killing take place or that lethal force be employed. That finding is a requirement of the Eighth Amendment which must be met before death can be imposed. Enmund v. Florida (1982), 458 U.S. 782, 102 S.Ct. 3368, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140. I vote to grant post-conviction relief.