## Facts

- Dale Robert Yates, Henry Davis, and David Loftis planned to rob a store and borrowed a gun from Yates’s brother.
- On February 13, 1981, Yates and Davis drove to Wood’s rural store with a pistol (for Yates) and a knife (for Davis); Loftis separated from them and later testified for the State.
- Yates and Davis entered the store intending armed robbery and took about $3,000 from the store operator, Willie Wood.
- During the robbery, Yates shot Willie Wood (nonfatally).
- Wood’s mother arrived; Yates fled with the money and gun while Davis remained inside and fatally stabbed Mrs. Wood.
- Willie Wood then killed Davis; Yates drove away, hid the money and pistol, and was later apprehended.
- Yates testified that he did not kill Mrs. Wood and claimed he intended to abandon the robbery without hurting anyone if victims did not cooperate.

## Issues

1. Whether a defendant who did not personally inflict the fatal wound may receive a death sentence when an accomplice kills during an armed robbery in which the defendant was an armed participant.
2. Whether the evidence supported the statutory aggravating circumstance that the murder was committed during the commission of an armed robbery.
3. Whether the death sentence was excessive or disproportionate under South Carolina’s capital sentencing review.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of South Carolina affirmed Yates’s convictions and death sentence.
- The court held that capital punishment was not categorically barred merely because Yates was not the actual killer.
- The court concluded the armed-robbery aggravating circumstance was supported by the evidence because the homicide occurred in the course of the planned and executed armed robbery.
- After reviewing the assignments of error, the court found the trial and sentencing determination sufficiently supported and the sentence not arbitrary or disproportionate.

## Legal Principles

- A felony-murder participant may be eligible for the death penalty even if an accomplice commits the killing, when the defendant is a major participant in the underlying violent felony and demonstrates a culpable mental state reflecting reckless or intentional disregard for human life.
- A murder committed during the commission of armed robbery constitutes a statutory aggravating circumstance permitting a death sentence when supported by the record.
- In proportionality and appellate review of a capital sentence, the reviewing court may uphold the sentence where the proceeding is fair, the evidence supports the aggravator, and the sentence is not arbitrary or excessive in comparable armed-robbery murder cases.

## Conclusion

The court upheld a death sentence for an armed-robbery participant who did not personally kill the victim, reasoning that his active, armed role and demonstrated disregard for human life supported felony-murder capital liability and the aggravating circumstance of murder committed during armed robbery.


State v. Yates, 310 S.E.2d 805 (S.C. 1982)