The Tennessee Supreme Court has reversed a Court of Criminal Appeals opinion and reinstated the convictions and death sentence Memphis gang member Gregory Robinson received for his role in a kidnapping and premeditated first degree murder.
"Upon review, we hold that the Court of Criminal Appeals erred in reversing the defendant's conviction and sentence," Chief Justice Frank F. Drowota, III, wrote in the decision filed Tuesday. Justices E. Riley Anderson, Janice M. Holder and William M. Barker joined the chief justice in the majority opinion.
In a separate concurring/dissenting opinion, Justice Adolpho A. Birch, Jr., agreed that Robinson's convictions should be reinstated for the 1997 kidnapping and murder of Vernon Green. However, Birch wrote, he would let stand the Court of Criminal Appeals decision reversing the death sentence. Birch based his dissent, in part, on the "lesser sentences imposed upon other defendants" in the case.
Green's murder was sparked by a fight between members of rival Memphis gangs - the Gangster Disciples and the Vice Lords. The victim was forced into an apartment after a member of the Gangster Disciples accused him of being a lookout for the Vice Lords, which Green denied.
"For one and one-half to two and one-half hours, the defendant, along with other gang members, beat and interrogated Green," Drowota wrote. "Eventually Green was taken from the apartment by six gang members and shot to death in Jessie Turner Park."
During Robinson's trial, several gang members, including others charged in connection with the crime, testified about the events surrounding Green's kidnapping and murder. Witnesses said they heard Robinson tell Gangster Disciple members, "Y'all know what to do" and "Take him fishing." A witness said he heard Robinson direct two gang members to select six Gangster Disciples to take the 23-year-old hostage from the apartment.
The six chosen gang members drove Green to the park where he was kicked and shot repeatedly as he lay on the ground and begged for his life, witnesses said.
Based on proof at the trial, the jury convicted Robinson of premeditated first degree murder and especially aggravated kidnapping, finding he was criminally responsible for the conduct of another. On appeal, Robinson claimed his conviction should be reversed because prosecutors offered inconsistent proof at his trial and the separate trials of other gang members. The Supreme Court rejected the claim.
"As a practical matter, discrepancies are commonly unavoidable when several individuals are prosecuted in separate trials for the same offense. Indeed, such trials present challenges because 'the truth is clouded by secret and elaborate gang rituals; the use of two and three code names for gang members; and the commission of crimes by groups,'" Drowota wrote, citing a 2001 Court of Criminal Appeals decision in a different case. ". . . Furthermore, as the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals noted, 'evidence of criminal conspiracies hardly ever comes from ministers and civic leaders.'"
Jurors who convicted Robinson next determined that statutorily defined aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigating evidence presented during the sentencing phase of his trial.
Aggravating circumstances found by the jury were 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 during a kidnapping. Mitigating evidence included testimony by Robinson's mother and two of his sisters, who described him as a "loving father" of seven children ranging in age from one to six years old. The 38-year-old defendant also testified, asking the jury to spare his life so he could see his children.
In the opinion reinstating Robinson's convictions and sentences, the Supreme Court set a May 11, 2005, execution date. Robinson has state and federal appeals remaining.