Ex parte Williams
| Decision Date | 18 September 1987 |
| Citation | 556 So.2d 744 |
| Parties | Ex parte Roy WILLIAMS. (Re Roy Williams v. State of Alabama). 86-518. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Al Pennington of Pennington, McCleave & Patterson, Mobile, for petitioner.
Don Siegelman, Atty. Gen., and Rivard Melson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
We granted the petition for writ of certiorari in this capital case to review the conviction and the sentence. After careful consideration, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals as to the conviction, and reverse as to the sentence of death. 556 So.2d 737 (Ala.Cr.App.1986). The issue which requires our reversal and remand for a new sentencing hearing was addressed by the Court of Criminal Appeals as follows:
The defendant aptly states the issue as follows: "Whether allowing the jury to consider improper aggravating circumstances in recommending a sentence was more than harmless error."
The Court of Criminal Appeals reasoned that, because the trial court, as the ultimate sentencing authority, did not consider illegal evidence ("the incorrect aggravating circumstance") in the sentencing hearing, the trial court's error in permitting the jury to consider such evidence in arriving at its recommendation of the death sentence was harmless. The basic flaw in this rationale is that it totally discounts the significance of the jury's role in the sentencing process.
The legislatively mandated role of the jury in returning an advisory verdict, based upon its consideration of aggravating and mitigating circumstances, can not be abrogated by the trial court's errorless exercise of its equally mandated role as the ultimate sentencing authority. Each part of the sentencing process is equally mandated by the statute (§§ 13A-5-46, -47(e)); and the errorless application by the court of its part does not cure the erroneous application by the jury of its part. For a case consistent with our holding, see Johnson v. State, 502 So.2d 877 (Ala.Cr.App.1987). To hold otherwise is to hold...
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