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State v. Morris2/5/1999
ck on Erica Hurd, shot and killed Charles Ragland. Moreover, there is no dispute that, while the appellant was brutally stabbing the fifteen year old girl to death, Angela Ragland was confined in an adjoining bedroom. After Erica's murder, the appellant returned to the bedroom where he repeatedly raped Angela Ragland. We have already determined that the proof is more than sufficient to establish both the premeditated murder of Erica Hurd and the premeditated murder of Charles Ragland. See supra. The appellant's forceful entry into the Raglands' residence is sufficient to establish the offense of aggravated burglary. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-14-402 (a)(3) (1991); Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-14-403(a) (1991). The appellant's forceful and knowing confinement of Angela Ragland is sufficient to establish the offense of kidnapping. Finally, we conclude that the proof is likewise sufficient to establish his subsequent aggravated rape of Angela Ragland. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-502(a)(1) (1992 Supp.). Thus, the capital homicide and the collateral felonies occurred at the same time and at the same place; sufficient to support application of the (i)(7) aggravating factor. Hall, 958 S.W.2d at 693. This issue is without merit.
b. Narrowing of Factor (i)(7)
The appellant contends that aggravating circumstance (i)(7), "committed while engaged in committing or fleeing a first degree murder, rape, burglary, or kidnapping" violates the principles of State v. Middlebrooks and fails to properly narrow the class of defendants subject to the death penalty. Specifically, he asserts that the application of the aggravator of other felonies is vague, did not require election by the jury as to which other felonies were committed, and fails to properly narrow the class of persons eligible for the death penalty or give the jury proper decision making guidance. Thus, the imposition of death from this factor would violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and Article One, Section Sixteen of the Tennessee Constitution.
In State v. Middlebrooks, 840 S.W.2d 317, 346 (Tenn. 1992), our supreme court held that, when a defendant is convicted of felony murder, the aggravating circumstance set out in Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(7) does not narrow the class of death eligible murderers sufficiently under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, §16 of the Tennessee Constitution "because it duplicates the elements of the offense." See Hall, 958 S.W.2d at 692 (emphasis in original). "Implicit in this statement is the recognition that the circumstance properly may be applied if a defendant is convicted of premeditated first degree murder." Hall, 958 S.W.2d at 692 (emphasis added). In the present case, the evidence sufficiently supports the jury's finding that the premeditated murder was committed during the appellant's burglary of the Ragland residence, his murder of Charles Ragland, and his kidnapping and rape of Angela Ragland. Id. at 697. Moreover, we fail to find the wording of the aggravating circumstance vague or that the court's failure to require an election of offenses was error. See Blanton, 975 S.W.2d at 280. Accordingly, we conclude that factor (i)(7) sufficiently narrows the death eligible class of defendants by ensuring reliability and requiring particularization in the determination that death is the appropriate punishment in a specific case. The appellant's challenges to aggravating circumstance (i)(7) are without merit.
iii. Weighing of Aggravating and Mitigating Circumstances
With regard to the jury's finding that the aggravating circumstances in the murder of Erica Hurd outweighed any applicable mitigating circumstances, our
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