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Appendix E: Statutory Aggravating and Mitigating Factors
Aggravating Factors, Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-13-204(i)
1) murder committed against a person less than 12 years of age and the defendant was
eighteen years of age, or older;
2) defendant was previously convicted of one or more felonies, other than the present charge,
whose statutory elements involve the use of violence to the person;
3) defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to two or more persons, other than the
victim murdered, during the act of murder;
4) defendant committed the murder for remuneration, or employed another to commit the
murder for remuneration, or the promise of remuneration;
5) murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel in that it involved torture or serious
physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death;
6) murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding, interfering with, or preventing a
lawful arrest or prosecution of the defendant or another;
7) murder was knowingly committed, solicited, directed or aided by the defendant, while the
defendant had a substantial role in committing or attempting to commit, or fleeing after
having a substantial role in committing or attempting to commit, and first-degree murder,
arson, rape, robbery, burglary, theft, kidnapping, aircraft piracy, or unlawful throwing,
placing or discharging of a destructive device or bomb;
8) murder was committed by the defendant while the defendant was in lawful custody or in a
place of lawful confinement or during the defendant’s escape from lawful custody or from a
place of lawful confinement;
9) murder was committed against any law enforcement officer, corrections officer,
corrections employee, emergency medical or rescue worker, emergency medical technician,
paramedic, or firefighter, who was engaged in the performance of official duties, and the
defendant knew or reasonably should have known that such victim was a law enforcement
officer, corrections official, corrections employee or emergency medical or rescue worker,
emergency medical technician, paramedic, or firefighter engaged in the performance or
official duties;
10) murder was committed against any present or former judge, district attorney general or
state attorney general, assistant district attorney general or assistant state attorney general due
to or because of the exercise of the victim’s official duty or status and the defendant knew
that the victim occupies or occupied said office;
11) murder was committed against a national, state, or local popularly elected official, due to
or because of the official’s lawful duties or status, and the defendant knew that the victim
was such an official;
12) defendant committed “mass murder” which is defined as the murder of three or more
persons within the State of Tennessee within a period of forty-eight months, and perpetrated
in a similar fashion in a common scheme or plan;
13) defendant knowingly mutilated the body of the victim after death;
14) victim of the murder was particularly vulnerable due to a significant handicap or
significant disability, whether mental or physical, and at the time of the murder the defendant
knew or reasonably should have known of such handicap or disability;
15) the murder was committed in the course of an act of terrorism.