(DOWNLOAD) "State V. Morris" by In the Supreme Court of Tennessee at Jackson * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: State V. Morris
- Author : In the Supreme Court of Tennessee at Jackson
- Release Date : January 10, 2000
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 65 KB
Description
A jury convicted the defendant of two counts of premeditated first degree murder and one count of aggravated rape. The jury imposed the death penalty for one of the first degree murders after finding that evidence of two aggravating circumstances - that the murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel in that it involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death and that the murder was committed in the course of a first degree murder, rape, burglary or kidnapping - outweighed mitigating evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury imposed life without parole for the other first degree murder after finding that evidence of two aggravating circumstances - that the defendant knowingly created a risk of death to two or more persons other the victim murdered during the act of murder and that the murder was committed in the course of a first degree murder, rape, burglary or kidnapping - did not outweigh mitigating evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. The trial court imposed a 25-year sentence for aggravated rape to run consecutively to the sentence of life without parole. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the convictions and the sentences. We hold that the evidence was sufficient to support the convictions, that the defendant is not entitled to relief based on the constitutionality of death by electrocution, and that the evidence was sufficient to support the jury's determination that evidence of two aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigating evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. We also hold that the death sentence is not arbitrary, excessive or disproportionate as applied in this case.