Court Opinion

ID: 9574377
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:04:28.929948+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:44:27.951987
License: Public Domain

Clarke, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent to Division 5 and the judgment.
In the previous appearance of this case before this court, we affirmed the conviction and held that the evidence met the standard of Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). I agree with that holding and believe that the evidence in this case, viewed in a light most favorable to the verdict, authorized a trier of fact to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. My problem, however, rests not on the question of lack of reasonable doubt but rather on the question of the presence of residual doubt.
A residual doubt is less than a reasonable doubt and is not enough to reverse a conviction. Nevertheless, I believe a jury must be allowed to consider residual doubt in its deliberation on a question of whether a defendant shall be put to death.
We have noted before:
“The fact that jurors have determined guilt beyond a reasonable doubt does not necessarily mean that no juror entertained any doubt whatsoever. There may be no reasonable doubt — doubt based upon reason — and yet some genuine *111doubt exists. It may reflect a mere possibility; it may be but the whimsy of one juror or several. Yet this whimsical doubt — this absence of absolute certainty — can be real.
“The capital defendant whose guilt seems abundantly demonstrated may be neither obstructing justice nor engaged in an exercise in futility when his counsel mounts a vigorous defense on the merits. It may be proffered in the slight hope of unanticipated success; it might seek to persuade one or more to prevent unanimity for conviction; it is more likely to produce only whimsical doubt. Even the latter serves the defendant, for the juror entertaining doubt which does not rise to reasonable doubt can be expected to resist those who would impose the irremedial penalty of death.” Cook v. State, 255 Ga. 565, 586 (340 SE2d 843) (1986).
See Smith v. Balkcom, 660 F2d 573, 580-581 (Unit B, former 5th Cir. 1981).
Because the jury may consider the strength or weakness of the evidence in determining the sentence in a death penalty case, I would hold that the charge that “you will not be considering the issue of guilt or innocence” rises to the level of harmful error in such cases.
I am authorized to state that Justice Weltner joins in this dissent.