 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
BUSH v. STATE12/1/1995
pellant's contention that the trial court refused and/or failed to consider as mitigation his alleged "unusually low intelligence," we have found nothing to factually support his allegation. Although he dropped out of school in the seventh grade, this is no indication of a low intelligence. We further note that he received "technical" education while serving time in a federal prison in Texas.
We find it noteworthy that, while the trial court found as a mitigating factor that while in prison the appellant had shown remorse for his crime, during the trials of this case, as we have previously stated, he contended that his confessions were obtained by coercion and he attempted to cast suspicion for commission of the charged crime on Cornelius Pringle, a person who has not been connected in any manner with the offense. We also note the following statement by the appellant during his sentencing hearing, when the court asked him if he had anything to say before his sentence was imposed:
"Yeah, I have a number of things to request of you, Judge, the Court. For the last 10 or 11 years I've been accused of this crime, robbery and murder. For the last 7 or 8 years I've been telling y'all I'm not guilty, I haven't did this crime. So, in other words, the only eyewitness in this case have came forward on several occasions and say I wasn't the one, he say he know who shot and robbed; but it also turned around he said that the District Attorney and the police said if he said Bush did this here, they'd get the reward money. The way I look at it, if this happened they know I'm not guilty, why do they keep on bringing the only eyewitness forward telling him to say I'm the one who did that, they will get the reward money. I'm not guilty. I'm innocent of this case."
The appellant's contention that the trial court should have found the fact that his accomplice was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole sentence to be a mitigating circumstance has no merit. The appellant was the confessed triggerman.
In summary, the appellant's contentions concerning the court's consideration and findings in reference to the mitigating circumstances do not rise to the level of plain error.
IV.
The appellant contends that the trial court erred in relying on his 1970 robbery conviction to prove the aggravating circumstance that " he defendant was previously convicted of another capital offense or a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person, § 13A-5-49(2)." He argues that the state failed to prove that the guilty plea underlying the conviction was knowingly and
voluntarily entered and that he was represented by counsel at the guilty plea proceedings.
We note that, in the prior two trials, the state relied on this prior conviction as an aggravating circumstance, that the state proved it in the same manner as it was proved in the third trial, and that the trial court found it to be an aggravating circumstance. No objection was ever made to the state's manner of proving this conviction in any of those prior proceedings, nor has the issue been raised in the prior appeals. When the court record was offered into evidence to prove the conviction in this case, the appellant did not object to its admission. Moreover, the appellant did not object to the trial court's instruction to the jury in the sentencing phase that it could consider in its deliberations the aggravating circumstance that " he defendant has been previously convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person." Finally, he did not object to the inclusion of the prior robbery conviction in the presentence report. Because this issue of the court's r
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 Alabama DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|