State of Tennessee v. Richard Odom, A/k/a Otis Smith

Summary

A Shelby County jury convicted Richard Odom of first-degree murder committed in the perpetration of rape and sentenced him to death on three aggravating circumstances. The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed the conviction — adopting the 'preponderance of the evidence' standard for appellate review of suppression rulings and upholding the admission of his confession — but vacated the death sentence because the heinous-atrocious-or-cruel aggravator, though constitutional as defined by the 1989 amendment, was unsupported by evidence of penile rape and three stab wounds; the escape-from-custody aggravator failed because the murder post-dated the completed escape; Dr. Hutson's mitigation testimony was wrongly excluded under Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-204(c); and the trial court failed to instruct on requested nonstatutory mitigating circumstances as § 39-13-204(e)(1) mandates. The cause was remanded for a new sentencing hearing. Chief Justice Anderson, concurring in part and dissenting in part and joined by Justice Drowota, agreed with the result but would have held the evidence sufficient to establish torture under the heinous-atrocious-cruel aggravator.