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Maples v. State3/31/1999
o evidence of remorse.
"(7) That the crime was absent of any prolonged suffering or torture by either of the Decedents.
"While the defense presents this as a mitigating factor, the Court fails to be convinced by the testimony at trial that this is a mitigating factor.
"Weighing the Circumstances
"The court now proceeds to weigh the aggravating and mitigating circumstances to determine the appropriate sentence under the law. The Court has not merely tallied for the purpose of numerical comparison the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, but has marshalled and considered in an organized fashion all of the relevant circumstances.
"The evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of one statutory aggravating circumstance. The defense did prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the Defendant has no significant history of prior criminal activity. Insofar as the Defense attempted to assert the presence of several statutory mitigating circumstances, the facts failed to meet the definition of the circumstance or the evidence disproved the factual existence of the circumstance by at least a preponderance of the evidence. The court did weigh several non-statutory mitigating circumstances in addition to the one statutory mitigating circumstance, but found them weak and unpersuasive.
"The court is unable to find the kind of mitigating facts that would justify the imposition of a sentence of life imprisonment without parole despite the existence of one statutory aggravating circumstance. The statutory aggravating circumstance far outweighed the mitigating facts. The court considered the jury's recommendation as required by law. See Ala. Code 13A-5-47(e) (1994 repl. vol.). The court, though, understands the jury's verdict does not require this court to impose the sentence of death." (C.R. 560-565.)
The trial court allowed the appellant to present all of the mitigating evidence he wanted to present, and its sentencing order clearly indicates that it considered all of the mitigating evidence the appellant presented. Although the trial court did not give much weight to the non-statutory mitigating evidence, it did find that several of the circumstances mitigated the offense. "'While Lockett and its progeny require consideration of all evidence submitted as mitigation, whether the evidence is actually found to be mitigating is in the discretion of the sentencing authority.'" Ex parte Slaton, 680 So.2d 909, 924 (Ala. 1996), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 117 S.Ct. 742, 136 L.Ed.2d 680 (1997) (quoting Bankhead v. State, 585 So.2d 97, 108 (Ala. Cr. App. 1989)). See also Carroll v. State, 599 So.2d 1253 (Ala. Cr. App. 1992), aff'd, 627 So.2d 874 (Ala. 1993), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 1171, 114 S.Ct. 1207, 127 L.Ed.2d 554 (1994); Ex parte Harrell, 470 So.2d 1309 (Ala.), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 935, 106 S.Ct. 269, 88 L.Ed.2d 276 (1985). Although the trial court must consider all mitigating circumstances, it has discretion in determining whether a particular mitigating circumstance is proven and the weight it will give that circumstance. Carroll v. State, supra; Williams v. State, supra; Ex parte Harrell, 470 So.2d 1309 (Ala.), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 935, 106 S.Ct. 269, 88 L.Ed.2d 276 (1985). The trial court complied with Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978), and its progeny in evaluating the mitigating evidence offered by the appellant. Therefore, it did not improperly sentence the appellant to death.
VII.
The appellant's seventh argument is that the trial court improperly denied his discovery motions and improperly refused to view what he alleges were withheld documents in cam
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