Ex Parte Broadnax

I concur in the result of affirming the adjudication of the defendant's guilt. I respectfully dissent from the affirmance of the death sentence. I will write to only two of the reversible errors in the penalty phase of the trial.

First, the trial court misinstructed the jury on the burden of proof and, worse, the placement of the burden of proof, on mitigating circumstances. The main opinion minimizes this error by quoting only one of the six erroneous parts of the erroneous instruction. The Court of Criminal Appeals, to its credit, recites most of the erroneous instruction in its opinion, see…