Presnell v. Georgia

439 U.S. 14, 99 S. Ct. 235, 58 L. Ed. 2d 207, 1978 U.S. LEXIS 139

• Court: Supreme Court of the United States
• Decided: November 6, 1978
• Docket: 77-6885
• Status: Published

Opinions

Per Curiam.

Petitioner was indicted and found guilty by a jury of three capital offenses — rape, kidnaping with bodily injury, and murder with malice aforethought. Under Georgia law, a jury may impose the death penalty if it finds that the offender committed a capital felony under at least 1 of 10 statutorily enumerated aggravating circumstances. Ga. Code § 27-2534.1 (b) (1975). The only such circumstance relevant here is that

“[t]he [capital] offense . . . was committed while the offender was engaged in the commission of another capital felony . . . §27-2534.1 (b)(2).

At the penalty phase of petitioner’s trial, the jury was instructed that it could impose the death penalty (1) for rape if that offense was committed while petitioner was engaged in the commission of murder, (2) for kidnaping with bodily injury if that offense was committed while petitioner was engaged in the commission of rape, or (3) for murder if that offense was committed while petitioner was engaged in the commission of “kidnapping with bodily harm, aggravated sodomy.” The jury found that all three offenses were committed during the commission of the specified additional offenses, and it imposed three death sentences on petitioner.

On appeal, the Supreme Court of Georgia held that the first two death sentences imposed by the jury could not stand. 241 Ga. 49, 52, 64, 243 S. E. 2d 496, 501, 508 (1978). Both sentences depended upon petitioner’s having committed forcible rape, and the court determined that the jury had not properly convicted petitioner of that offense.¹

In addition, the Supreme Court of Georgia held that the State could not rely upon sodomy as constituting the bodily injury associated with the kidnaping.² Nonetheless, despite the fact that the jury had been instructed that the death penalty for murder depended upon a finding that it was committed while petitioner was engaged in “kidnapping with bodily harm, aggravated sodomy” (emphasis added), the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the third death penalty imposed by the jury. It did so on the theory that, despite the lack of a jury finding of forcible rape, evidence in the record supported the conclusion that petitioner was guilty of that offense, which in turn established the element of bodily harm necessary to make the kidnaping a sufficiently aggravating circumstance to justify the death sentence.

In Cole v. Arkansas, 333 U. S. 196 (1948), petitioners were convicted at trial of one offense but their convictions were affirmed by the Supreme Court of Arkansas on the basis of evidence in the record indicating that they had committed another offense on which the jury had not been instructed. In reversing the convictions, Mr. Justice Black wrote for a unanimous Court:

“It is as much a violation of due process to send an accused to prison following conviction of a charge on which he was never tried as it would be to convict him upon a charge that was never made. . . .

“To conform to due process of law, petitioners were entitled to have the validity of their convictions appraised on consideration of the case as it was tried and as the issues were determined in the trial court.” Id., at 201-202.³

These fundamental principles of procedural fairness apply with no less force at the penalty phase of a trial in a capital case than they do in the guilt-determining phase of any criminal trial. Cf. Gardner v. Florida, 430 U. S. 349 (1977). In light of these principles, the death sentence for the crime of murder with malice aforethought cannot stand.

Insofar as the petition for certiorari challenges the conviction for kidnaping with bodily injury⁴ and the imposition of the death sentence, it is granted along with petitioner’s motion to proceed in forma pauperis. The judgment of the Supreme Court of Georgia affirming the conviction for kid-naping with bodily injury and the death sentence for murder is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. Insofar as the petition challenges the convictions for murder, kidnaping, and statutory rape, it is denied.

It is so ordered.

1 Petitioner was indicted and found guilty by the jury of “rape.” Because the jury had been instructed both on forcible and statutory rape, but did not in its verdict specify which offense it had found, the Supreme Court of Georgia interpreted the “rape” conviction as one for statutory rape — an offense that includes no element of bodily harm. Moreover, there was no jury finding of forcible rape at the penalty phase of the trial.

2 Although the Georgia Supreme Court did not explain this holding, the holding itself is unambiguous. First, the Georgia court unequivocally stated:

“The only evidence of bodily injury, to support the crime of the kidnapping with bodily injury of the older child, is the bodily injury which resulted from the rape of that child.” 241 Ga., at 52, 243 S. E. 2d, at 501. Second, after concluding that the evidence of forcible rape could supply the bodily injury element of the crime of kidnaping, the Georgia court added:

“The state’s attempted reliance upon sodomy as constituting the bodily injury associated with the kidnapping of the older child is not ground for retrial.” Ibid., 243 S. E. 2d, at 502.

3 In the present case, when the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled on petitioner’s motion for rehearing it recognized that, prior to its opinion in the case, petitioner had no notice, either in the indictment, in the instructions to the jury, or elsewhere, that the State was relying on the rape to establish the bodily injury component of aggravated kidnaping:

“On motion for rehearing the defendant urges, among other things, that he was not on notice that evidence as to the older child’s injuries which resulted from her being raped would provide the evidence of her bodily injury to convict him of her kidnapping with bodily injury. He was on notice, however, that he was charged with forcible rape as well as kidnapping with bodily injury of the older child.

“Motion for rehearing denied." Id., at 67, 243 S. E. 2d, at 510.

4 Because the jury convicted petitioner of the same offense that it relied upon to find the statutory aggravating circumstances necessary to impose the death penalty — kidnaping with bodily injury, to wit, aggravated sodomy — the Georgia Supreme Court’s affirmance of that conviction on the basis of the bodily injury resulting from the rape is also unconstitutional under Cole v. Arkansas, 333 U. S. 196 (1948). Accordingly, under the dictates of that case, id., at 200, 202, the conviction must be reversed.