State of Tennessee v. Gregory Robinson

Summary

The Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the Court of Criminal Appeals' reversal and reinstated Gregory Robinson's convictions for premeditated first degree murder and especially aggravated kidnapping and his sentence of death. It held the trial court properly declined to instruct on solicitation and facilitation because the evidence supported only the completed offenses or Robinson's innocence, properly allowed the medical examiner to display the victim's reconstructed skull and admit contested post-mortem photographs, properly denied a mistrial after striking a witness's identification testimony, and correctly treated defense-elicited identification hearsay as invited error; it further found the prosecution advanced consistent theories in Robinson's and co-defendant Prentiss Phillips's separate trials, disposed of an indictment-charging challenge to the death sentence, adopted vicarious application of the heinous-atrocious-cruel aggravator, and concluded the sentence is not disproportionate. Justice Birch concurred in affirming the convictions but dissented from the death sentence, deeming the comparative proportionality protocol inadequate and the disparity between Robinson's fate and his co-defendants' lesser sentences arbitrary.