Tison v. Arizona

481 U.S. 137 (1987)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Gary Tison was sentenced to life imprisonment as the result of a prison escape during the course of which he had killed a guard. After he had been in prison a number of years, Gary Tison's wife, their three sons Donald, Ricky, and Raymond, Gary's brother Joseph, and other relatives made plans to help Gary Tison escape again. The Tison family assembled a large arsenal of weapons for this purpose. Plans for escape were discussed with Gary Tison, who insisted that his cellmate, Randy Greenawalt, also a convicted murderer, be included in the prison break. The three Tison brothers entered the Arizona State Prison at Florence carrying a large ice chest filled with guns. The Tisons armed Greenawalt and their father, and the group, brandishing their weapons, locked the prison guards and visitors present in a storage closet. The five men fled the prison grounds in the Tisons' Ford Galaxy automobile. No shots were fired at the prison. They proceeded on to an isolated house in a white Lincoln automobile that the brothers had parked at a hospital near the prison. At the house, the Lincoln automobile had a flat tire; the only spare tire was pressed into service. As the group traveled on back roads and secondary highways through the desert, another tire blew out. The group decided to flag down a passing motorist and steal a car. Raymond stood out in front of the Lincoln; the other four armed themselves and lay in wait by the side of the road. One car passed by without stopping, but a second car, a Mazda occupied by John Lyons, his wife Donneld, his 2-year-old son Christopher, and his 15-year-old niece, Theresa Tyson, pulled over to render aid. The Lyons family was forced into the backseat of the Lincoln. The two cars were parked trunk to trunk, and the Lyons family was ordered to stand in front of the Lincoln's headlights. The Tisons transferred their belongings from the Lincoln into the Mazda. They discovered guns and money in the Mazda which they kept, and they put the rest of the Lyons' possessions in the Lincoln. Gary Tison then told Raymond to drive the Lincoln still farther into the desert. Raymond did so. Gary fired his shotgun into the radiator, presumably to completely disable the vehicle. The Lyons and Theresa Tyson were then escorted to the Lincoln and again ordered to stand in its headlights. Ricky Tison reported that John Lyons begged, in comments 'more or less directed at everybody,' 'Jesus, don't kill me.' Gary Tison said he was 'thinking about it.' John Lyons asked the Tisons and Greenawalt to 'give us some water . . . just leave us out here, and you all go home.' Gary Tison then told his sons to go back to the Mazda and get some water. Randy Greenawalt and Gary Tison stayed at the Lincoln guarding the victims. Raymond recalled being at the Mazda filling the water jug 'when we started hearing the shots.' Ricky said that the brothers gave the water jug to Gary Tison who then, with Randy Greenawalt went behind the Lincoln, where they spoke briefly, then raised the shotguns and started firing. They agree they saw Greenawalt and their father brutally murder their four captives with repeated blasts from their shotguns. Neither made an effort to help the victims, though both later stated they were surprised by the shooting. The Tisons got into the Mazda and drove away, continuing their flight. Physical evidence suggested that Theresa Tyson managed to crawl away from the bloodbath, severely injured. She died in the desert after the Tisons left. Donald Tison was killed in a shoot-out. Gary Tison escaped into the desert where he subsequently died of exposure. Raymond and Ricky Tison and Randy Greenawalt were captured and tried jointly for the crimes associated with the prison break itself and the shootout at the roadblock; each was convicted and sentenced. Each was tried for capital murder of the four victims as well as for the associated crimes of armed robbery, kidnapping, and car theft. The capital charges were on felony-murder law providing that a killing occurring during the perpetration of robbery or kidnapping is capital murder and that each participant in the kidnapping or robbery is legally responsible for the acts of his accomplices. Arizona law provided for a capital sentencing proceeding, to be conducted without a jury, to determine whether the crime was sufficiently aggravated to warrant the death sentence. The judge found three statutory aggravating factors: (1) the Tisons had created a grave risk of death to others (not the victims); (2) the murders had been committed for pecuniary gain; (3) the murders were especially heinous. The judge specifically found that the crime was not mitigated by the fact that each of the petitioners' 'participation was relatively minor.' The judge found three nonstatutory mitigating factors: (1) the petitioners' youth - Ricky was 20 and Raymond was 19; (2) neither had prior felony records; (3) each had been convicted of the murders under the felony-murder rule. Both were sentenced to death. The Arizona Supreme Court affirmed. Tison (Ds) then collaterally attacked their death sentences in state post-conviction proceedings alleging that Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782 (1982) required reversal. The court reaffirmed. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.