King v. State, 2005-DP-00419-SCT.

Decision Date31 May 2007
Docket NumberNo. 2005-DP-00419-SCT.,2005-DP-00419-SCT.
Citation960 So.2d 413
PartiesMack Arthur KING v. STATE of Mississippi.
CourtMississippi Supreme Court

Office of the Attorney General, by Marvin L. White, Jr., attorney for appellee.

EN BANC.

SMITH, Chief Justice, for the Court.

¶ 1. This case comes to this Court from Mack Arthur King's resentencing trial for the August 3, 1980, capital murder of Lela Patterson. On December 5, 1980, Mack Arthur King was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death. On October 27, 1982, the Court affirmed both the conviction and the sentence. King v. State, 421 So.2d 1009 (Miss.1982). A timely petition for rehearing was filed and later denied by this Court on December 1, 1982. Id. On May 2, 1983, the United States Supreme Court denied King's petition for writ of certiorari. King v. Mississippi, 461 U.S. 919, 103 S.Ct. 1903, 77 L.Ed.2d 290 (1983). We denied his subsequent Application For Leave to File a Petition for Writ of Error Coram Nobis in the Circuit Court of Lowndes County but later ordered that court to conduct a hearing regarding King's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. See King v. Thigpen, 441 So.2d 1365 (Miss.1983); King v. Thigpen, 446 So.2d 600 (Miss.1984). The circuit court conducted a hearing on the matter and found that counsel had rendered effective assistance. We affirmed the trial court's denial of relief on February 18, 1987. King v. State, 503 So.2d 271 (Miss. 1987). King then filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus with the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. The district court denied relief. On August 25, 1993, the Fifth Circuit vacated the sentence of death and remanded the case with instructions to return to the state court for reconsideration of the sentence of death in light of Clemons v. Mississippi, 494 U.S. 738, 110 S.Ct. 1441, 108 L.Ed.2d 725 (1990). King v. Puckett, 1 F.3d 280 (5th Cir.1993).

¶ 2. This Court vacated the sentence of death and remanded for a new sentencing trial. King v. State, 656 So.2d 1168 (Miss. 1995). On April 9, 1998, King was again sentenced to death. On July 1, 1998, King's motion for new trial was denied, from which he appealed to this Court. On April 19, 2001, this Court reversed the death sentence and remanded for a new sentencing hearing on the ground that the trial judge committed reversible error by commenting that the jury should disregard, in toto, sympathy in its deliberations. King v. State, 784 So.2d 884 (Miss.2001). On March 23-28, 2003, the trial court held the resentencing hearing which is the subject of this appeal. The jury returned a sentence of death. From that judgment King now appeals, raising eleven assignments of error which we recite verbatim.

I. THE TRIAL COURT IMPROPERLY DENIED KING'S MOTION FOR FUNDS TO OBTAIN EXPERT ASSISTANCE.

II. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED BY FAILING TO FOLLOW CONSTITUTIONALLY REQUIRED PROCEDURES TO DETERMINE WHETHER KING WAS MENTALLY RETARDED.

III. THE TRIAL COURT COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR IN DENYING KING'S MOTION TO CHANGE VENUE.

IV. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING MR. KING'S MOTION TO EXCLUDE THE DEATH PENALTY AS A SENTENCING OPTION BECAUSE KING'S INDICTMENT WAS DEFICIENT.

V. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING KING'S MOTION TO EXCLUDE THE DEATH PENALTY BECAUSE OF (A) 22-YEAR INCARCERATION ON DEATH

ROW AND (B) UNAVOIDABLE JURY BIAS.

VI. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED BY STRIKING JURORS BASED UPON THEIR VIEWS OF THE DEATH PENALTY.

VII. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING KING THE OPPORTUNITY TO PRESENT EVIDENCE AND CHALLENGE THE STATE'S EVIDENCE REGARDING THE IDENTITY OF LELA PATTERSON'S ACTUAL KILLER.

VIII. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN ALLOWING IMPERMISSIBLE VICTIM IMPACT TESTIMONY HIGHLY PREJUDICIAL TO KING AT THE RE-SENTENCING HEARING.

IX. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN INSTRUCTING THE JURY ON THE AGGRAVATOR "ESPECIALLY HEINOUS, ATROCIOUS OR CRUEL," AND THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE OF THE AGGRAVATOR, IN VIOLATION OF THE UNITED STATES AND MISSISSIPPI CONSTITUTIONS AND THIS COURT'S SPECIFIC MANDATE.

X. THE TRIAL COURT'S JURY INSTRUCTIONS WERE IN ERROR.

XI. THE AGGREGATE OF THE ERRORS IN THIS CASE REQUIRES REVERSAL OF THE DEATH SENTENCE.

¶ 3. After a thorough review of these issues, we find no error and accordingly affirm the trial court.

FACTS

¶ 4. The undisputed facts of this case were clearly and succinctly set forth by this Court in King v. State, 421 So.2d 1009, 1010-1011 (Miss.1982). This Court's opinion was stated as follows:

About 10:30 a.m. on August 3, 1980 Mrs. Lelia1 Patterson was found dead in a bathtub in her home. An investigation revealed that the screen on a door had been cut, the telephone wires outside the house had been severed, articles were scattered throughout the house, and dresser drawers had been emptied on the floor. A fingerprint and palmprint were found on two file folders in a box located in the house. The prints matched known fingerprints and palmprints of [King]. [King]'s residence was searched two days later and several items which belonged to Mrs. Patterson were found. [King] was arrested on August 6th and denied that he had been at Mrs. Patterson's house on August 3rd. The officers interviewed [King]'s girlfriend, Barbara Jordan and on the basis of information received from her, [King]'s residence was searched a second time and additional items from Mrs. Patterson's home were found.

[King] was questioned after the second search and admitted that he entered the house of Mrs. Patterson on Saturday night, August 2nd, burglarized the house, saw Mrs. Patterson, but did not kill her. In his second statement he said he was accompanied by Willie Porter who remained outside while [King] burglarized the house, that Mrs. Patterson was alive when he left the house, and that Willie Porter entered the house as he was leaving. [King] also said he saw Willie later in the morning of August 3rd and Willie told him that he, Willie, had taken some articles from Mrs. Patterson's house.

After signing the second statement, [King] agreed to another search of his premises and told the officers where to find additional items stolen from Mrs. Patterson which were hidden near his house.

According to Barbara Jordan, [King] showed her some of the articles he had stolen but did not tell her where they came from. She testified that [King] was wearing green pants on Saturday, August 2nd and Sunday, August 3rd which were confiscated by the police. On Tuesday [King] washed the pants after refusing to let the witness wash them as was customary. Human blood was found on the pants but not in a sufficient amount to ascertain the blood type.

The pathologist who performed the autopsy on Mrs. Patterson's body testified that she had multiple bruises about her neck, face, and arms, a laceration on the back of her head, and water in her lungs. In the opinion of the pathologist Mrs. Patterson had been manually strangled, struck on the back of the head with such force that it caused edema of the brain, and had been under water while she was either conscious or unconscious. He was unable to ascertain the order in which the events occurred, but stated if the manual strangulation took place first, then the victim could have regained consciousness, but if the trauma to the skull occurred first, she possibly never regained consciousness. Mrs. Patterson's death could be attributed to either strangulation, a blow to the head, or drowning. The findings of the pathologist show conclusively that Mrs. Patterson was brutally murdered.

Id.

DISCUSSION

¶ 5. "On appeal to this Court, convictions of capital murder and sentences of death must be subjected to what has been labeled `heightened scrutiny.' Under this method of review, all bona fide doubts are to be resolved in favor of the accused because what may be harmless error in a case with less at stake becomes reversible error when the penalty is death." Balfour v. State, 598 So.2d 731, 739 (Miss.1992).

I. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT IMPROPERLY DENIED KING'S MOTION FOR FUNDS TO OBTAIN EXPERT ASSISTANCE.

¶ 6. King asserts that the trial court committed error when it improperly denied his Motion For Funds To Obtain Expert Assistance without providing legal or factual reasoning. King relies on United States Supreme Court decision Ake v. Oklahoma, 470 U.S. 68, 76, 105 S.Ct. 1087, 1093, 84 L.Ed.2d 53, 62 (1985) to support his assertion that the trial court's refusal to grant his motion rendered his trial fundamentally unfair, thereby depriving him of due process of law. The State counters that King's reliance on Ake is misplaced, as Ake requires the provision of psychiatric assistance to a capital defendant when the State is going to use psychiatric evidence against him in the sentence phase of the trial or when the insanity defense is raised, neither of which occurred in this case.

¶ 7. In Ake, the United States Supreme Court stated:

We recognized long ago that mere access to the courthouse doors does not by itself assure a proper functioning of the adversary process, and that a criminal trial is fundamentally unfair if the State proceeds against an indigent defendant without making certain that he has access to the raw materials integral to the building of an effective defense. Thus while the Court has not held that a State must purchase for the indigent defendant all the assistance that his wealthier counterpart might buy, see Ross v. Moffitt, 417 U.S. 600[, 94 S.Ct. 2437, 41 L.Ed.2d 341] (1974), it has often reaffirmed that fundamental fairness entitles indigent defendants to "an adequate opportunity to present their claims fairly within the adversary system," id., at 612.

. . . .

when a defendant demonstrates to the trial judge that his sanity at the time of the offense is to be a significant factor at trial, the State must, at a minimum, assure the defendant access to a competent psychiatrist who will...

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