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Smith v. State12/22/2000
ss of its admissibility under the exclusionary rules of evidence, provided that the defendant is accorded a fair opportunity to rebut any hearsay statements"). "` ubject only to the loose evidentiary requirement of relevance, capital defendants have a right to offer any evidence they choose on character or record or circumstances of the offense.'" Clisby v. State, 456 So. 2d 99, 101 (Ala. Crim. App. 1983) (quoting Stanley v. Zant, 697 F.2d 955, 960 (11th Cir. 1983)). "It is readily apparent, therefore, that Alabama's sentencing scheme broadly allows the accused to present evidence of mitigating circumstances ...." Jacobs v. State, 361 So. 2d 640, 652-53 (Ala. 1978).
In arguing to the trial court that evidence pertaining to any of the appellant's family members was inadmissible, the prosecutor cited Knotts v. State, 686 So. 2d 431 (Ala. Crim. App. 1995), aff'd, 686 So. 2d 486 (Ala. 1996). In Knotts, this court found that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to admit into evidence, for sentencing purposes, various court, hospital, social-service, and mental-health records mostly concerning and/or stemming from two assaults on the appellant's sister by the appellant's father's. The court, rejecting the appellant's argument that "these records supply crucial mitigating evidence about the appellant's `abusive and deprived' family background," 686 So. 2d at 443, stated:
"A sentencer in a capital case may not refuse to consider or be `precluded from considering' mitigating factors. Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104 ... (1982) (quoting Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 604 ... (1978)). The capital defendant generally must be allowed to introduce any relevant mitigating evidence regarding the defendant's character or record or any of the circumstances of the offense, and consideration of such evidence is a constitutionally indispensable part of the process of inflicting the penalty of death. Ex parte Henderson, 616 So. 2d 348 (Ala.1992); Haney v. State, 603 So. 2d 368 (Ala.Cr.App. 1991), aff'd, 603 So. 2d 412 (Ala. 1992), cert. denied, 507 U.S. 925 ... (1993); California v. Brown, 479 U.S. 538 ... (1987).
"The records in question were offered in evidence by the appellant to show his home life and the fact that he was a product of a dysfunctional family. The state objected to the evidence on grounds of relevancy. The trial court sustained the state's objections and stated that all the records pertaining to the appellant would be admitted, but that the records pertaining to persons other than the appellant would not. The determination of the relevancy of evidence lies within the sound discretion of the trial court. Borden v. State, 522 So. 2d 333 (Ala.Cr.App.1988); C. Gamble, McElroy's Alabama Evidence, § 21.01(6) (4th ed. 1991). Here, the trial court was required to admit all relevant mitigating evidence of the appellant's character or record and any circumstances pertaining to the offenses. The question before us is whether the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to admit evidence pertaining to members of the appellant's family. We find that although the offered evidence may have had some slight probative value, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to allow its admission under the facts and circumstances existing here. The trial court admitted all records offered for purposes of mitigation pertaining specifically to the appellant.
"Furthermore, even if the trial court's ruling was erroneous, we do not believe the error injuriously affected the substantial rights of this appellant. Matters in the excluded records pertaining to the appellant's home and family were admitted in evidence through other records and through the testimony of
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