West v. State

820 So. 2d 668, 2001 WL 1289086
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 25, 2001
Docket1999-KA-01706-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 820 So. 2d 668 (West v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
West v. State, 820 So. 2d 668, 2001 WL 1289086 (Mich. 2001).

Opinion

820 So.2d 668 (2001)

Tracy Lee WEST
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 1999-KA-01706-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

October 25, 2001.

*669 Jim Davis, Attorney for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General, by Dewitt T. Allred, III, Attorneys for Appellee.

Before McRAE, P.J., DIAZ and EASLEY, JJ.

EASLEY, J., for the Court:

¶ 1. Tracy Lee West ("West"), is back on appeal before this Court after his prior appeal was remanded to the trial court with instruction to provide sentencing options in a capital case. West had previously been found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death by the jury. West v. State, 725 So.2d 872, 895 (Miss.1998). The conviction for capital murder was affirmed by this Court, only the sentencing was remanded for a rehearing. In May 1999, the Harrison County Circuit Court held a trial on resentencing only. On May 27, 1999, the jury returned a verdict of life without parole. From this sentence West appeals to this Court.

FACTS

¶ 2. West was indicted in the Circuit Court of Harrison County for the murder of Azra Garriga Kiker, a convenience store clerk, during a robbery which occurred on or about December 16, 1992. West was indicted for the murder on March 23, 1993. This case was first appealed to this Court on the original conviction for capital murder and the sentence of a death penalty. This Court upheld the conviction for capital murder, but it overturned the sentence of death and remanded the case on the sentencing phase only. Id. This Court remanded the case for resentencing pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-21 on the basis that the jury should have been instructed on the sentencing options of life, life without parole or death. West v. State, 725 So.2d at 895.

STATEMENT OF ISSUES
I. Did the court err in allowing the prior testimony of the Defendant, Tracy West, to be introduced to the jury, particularly the testimony regarding other bad acts?
II. Did the court erred in its ruling on removing jurors for cause during the remanded sentencing phase?
III. Did the errors committed at sentencing, if not individually, cumulatively require reversal?

LEGAL ANALYSIS

I.

¶ 3. West alleges that the introduction of his previous testimony from the first trial constituted the introduction of other bad acts and affected his substantial right not to testify. West argues that, although a sentencing hearing is not a complete trial as to all the issues, it is still a trial, and as such, the defendant should be accorded all the constitutional protections he is entitled at any trial, including the right not to testify. However, this issue is without merit.

¶ 4. West had testified at the first trial that on or about December 15 or 16, 1992, he and two friends, Paul Rathe and Scott Cothren, left Pulaski, Tennessee, in a car that Rathe had stolen from a truck driver in Pulaski. West v. State, 725 So.2d at 876. They traveled to Alabama in the stolen car. Id. In Alabama, they robbed a convenience store, and Cothren murdered the store clerk. They then drove to Gulfport, Mississippi. Id. According to West's testimony, Cothren forced Rathe and West to rob another convenience store and kill the clerk. Id. Rathe and West robbed the *670 convenience store's cash drawer. Id. West shot the clerk, Azra Garriga Kiker, two times in the back of the head. Id.

¶ 5. West contends that admitting the prior testimony from the first trial into evidence by reading the transcript to the jury at the sentencing phase forced West to take the witness stand and testify. West specifically addressed the admission of the testimony concerning the murder in Alabama at the sentencing phase.

¶ 6. The State introduced evidence and exhibits from the previous proceedings at the 1999 sentencing rehearing. The State introduced West's entire testimony which was read into the record for the jury at the resentencing.

¶ 7. West, citing Lockett v. State, 459 So.2d 246, 253 (Miss.1984), argues that under Mississippi law it is well settled that proof of other crimes is inadmissible except where:

(1) the offense charged and that offered to be proved is so connected as to constitute one transaction, or
(2) where it is necessary to identify the defendant, or
(3) where it is material to prove motive and there is an apparent connection or relation between the act proposed to be proved and that charged, or
(4) where the accusation involves a series of criminal acts which must be proved to make out the offense, or
(5) where it is necessary to prove scienter or guilty knowledge.

¶ 8. West alleges that during the sentencing phase of a death penalty case that the State is only entitled to offer evidence that is relevant to the statutory aggravating circumstances. Miss.Code Ann. § 99-19-101(1) provides that at the sentencing hearing "evidence may be presented as to any matter that the court deems relevant to sentence, and shall include matters relating to any of the aggravating or mitigating circumstances." (emphasis added). The statute does not limit the evidence that can be presented at the sentencing phase to evidence relevant to the aggravating circumstances.

¶ 9. West cited as authority Walker v. State, 740 So.2d 873 (Miss.1999), to support his position. In Walker, this Court stated that, "during the sentencing phase of a death penalty case, the State is limited to offering evidence that is relevant to one of the aggravating circumstances included in [§ 99-19-101]". Id. at 886.

¶ 10. The case sub judice and the case of Walker have one vital distinction. In Walker, the guilt phase and the sentencing phase were tried to the same jury which had heard all the previous testimony at trial. In the case at hand, there are two different juries, one for the guilt phase and one for the sentence phase due to the remand for resentencing only. This Court in Walker was addressing additional evidence presented for the first time at the sentencing phase of a trial. Assuming arguendo that this case had not been sent back on remand for resentencing, the same jury which heard the West's testimony in the guilty phase of the trial would also be deciding the sentence to be imposed during the sentencing phase.

¶ 11. In Jackson v. State, 337 So.2d 1242, 1256 (Miss.1976) this Court stated as follows:

[A]t [the sentencing] hearing, the State may elect to stand on the case made at the first hearing, if before the same jury, or may reintroduce any part of the evidence adduced at the first hearing which it constitutes to be relevant to the particular question of whether the defendant shall suffer death or be sentenced to life imprisonment.
*671 In addition thereto, an accused's prior record of criminal convictions, if any, may be proven as an additional aggravating circumstance whether the defendant testifies in his own behalf or not.

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Bluebook (online)
820 So. 2d 668, 2001 WL 1289086, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/west-v-state-miss-2001.