Court Opinion

ID: 9481389
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:17:40.459049+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:17.283801
License: Public Domain

McMILLIAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent, and I would reverse and remand for resentencing.
Ark.Code Ann. § 5-4-605(4) (1987) specifies “the youth of the defendant” as a mitigating factor in assessing whether a sentence of death should be imposed. The statute does not define “youth.” The Arkansas Supreme Court has indicated that “[a]ny hard and fast rule as to age would tend to defeat the ends of justice, so the term youth must be considered as relative and this factor weighed in the light of varying conditions and circumstances.” Giles v. State, 549 S.W.2d 479, 483, 261 Ark. 413, 421 (banc) (1977) (upholding jury’s finding that defendant’s age of 19 or 20 was not a mitigating circumstance but *348rejecting its finding of no mitigating circumstances when evidence revealed defendant was an imbecile and suffered from organic brain syndrome).
The jury in this case was given a form for assessing the existence of mitigating circumstances that gives the jury four choices:
(1) Unanimous agreement that a factor exists.
(2) Agreement by one or more jurors that a factor exists.
(3) A finding that evidence regarding a factor was introduced but the jury unanimously agreed that factor did not exist at the time of the murder.
(4) No evidence of any mitigating factor.
Defendant introduced evidence that he was 18 at the time of the offense, and “youth” was among the mitigating factors which the jury was instructed to consider.
Appellant argues that if the jury had properly considered and rejected his mitigating evidence, it would have chosen option no. 3. Although option no. 3 is no model of clarity, it would have been a far better choice than the selection of option no. 4. Option no. 4 states there was “no evidence of any mitigating factor.” This is contrary to the undisputed evidence that appellant at the time of the offense was in fact 18 years of age. As noted above, the youth of a person is set out by statute as a mitigating factor to be considered in imposing the death sentence. Ark.Code Ann. § 5-4-605(4) (1987). The jury selection of choice no. 4 indicates that it impermissibly ignored or disregarded the mitigating evidence. A finding of “no evidence of any mitigating factor” is not the same thing as considering youth as a factor and then rejecting it. A finding of “no evidence” seems to say that the jury found appellant was not even a youth. I would have no quarrel if the jury had been permitted to find that appellant was a youth, but his youth did not excuse his conduct. Although it is true that a jury may reject evidence, it is not true that it may ignore or disregard evidence material to an issue.
Even if the Arkansas Supreme Court is willing to speculate by saying the jury choice of option no. 4 does not “necessarily indicate that the jury ignored evidence of appellant’s age,” in a death case, this I am unwilling to do.
Here, the jury checked the wrong box, and to affirm the decision of the district court requires this court to second guess the jury’s thought process. Consequently, I would reverse and remand for resentenc-ing on this issue, because I believe that the jury might have misunderstood what it could and could not consider.