State of Nebraska v. Aubrey C. Trail

Summary

The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed Aubrey C. Trail’s convictions for first degree murder and conspiracy to commit first degree murder and his death sentence. The court rejected challenges to death qualification of the jury, joinder of the murder and conspiracy charges, sequestration of a witness, denial of a mistrial, and denial of a motion for a new trial. It also upheld Nebraska’s statutory death penalty scheme against constitutional challenges.

Holdings

1. The State does not violate the Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury by death-qualifying the jury before a capital trial when an alleged aggravator, if found by the jury, will make the defendant eligible for the death penalty.
2. Death qualification in this capital case did not violate equal protection.
3. Death qualification in a capital case did not violate the Eighth Amendment or article I, sections 9 and 15, of the Nebraska Constitution.
4. The district court did not abuse its discretion by denying severance of the murder and conspiracy charges.
5. The district court did not abuse its discretion by releasing the victim's mother from sequestration after she testified, and Trail failed to show prejudice.
6. The district court did not abuse its discretion by denying Trail's motions for a mistrial and a new trial after his verbal outburst and self-harm in front of the jury.
7. The Sixth Amendment requires a jury to determine the existence of an aggravating circumstance that makes a defendant death eligible, but does not require a jury to determine mitigating circumstances, weigh aggravating and mitigating circumstances, conduct proportionality review, or make the ultimate life-or-death selection decision.
8. The death sentence was not excessive or disproportionate to sentences imposed in similar cases.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the district court constitutionally could death-qualify the jury before trial.
2. Whether death qualification violated the Sixth Amendment, equal protection, or the Eighth Amendment and corresponding Nebraska constitutional provisions.
3. Whether the district court abused its discretion by denying severance of the murder and conspiracy charges.
4. Whether the district court erred by releasing the victim's mother from sequestration after she testified.
5. Whether Trail's courtroom outburst and self-harm required a mistrial.
6. Whether the same courtroom incident required a new trial.
7. Whether Nebraska's capital sentencing scheme violates the Sixth or Eighth Amendments by assigning judges, rather than juries, responsibility for determining mitigating circumstances, weighing aggravating and mitigating circumstances, and making the ultimate life-or-death selection decision.
8. Whether the death sentence was excessive or disproportionate in light of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances and comparable cases.

Disposition

affirmed