United States v. Basham

A jury sitting in the District of South Carolina sentenced Brandon Leon Basham to death for the carjacking and kidnapping resulting in the death of Alice Donovan in 2002. In this appeal, Basham raises six claims of error relating to both the guilt and penalty phases of his capital trial: (1) the district court abused its discretion in failing to grant Bashams motion for a new trial or a new sentencing proceeding after learning that the jury foreperson contacted several news media outlets during the trial; (2) the district court abused its discretion in disqualifying Bashams appointed counsel prior to trial; (3) the district court abused its discretion in admitting prior acts as "intrinsic" to the charged crimes; (4) the district court abused its discretion in its evidentiary rulings during the penalty phase; (5) the district court erred in omitting the "catchall mitigator," 18 U.S.C.A. § 3592(a)(8) (West 2000), from the special verdict form; and (6) his death sentence was rendered under "the influence of passion, prejudice, or any other arbitrary factor" in violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 3595(c)(2)(A) (West 2000). For the following reasons, we reject Bashams contentions and affirm.