Anderson v. State

413 So. 2d 725
Mississippi Supreme Court·Decided May 5, 1982·No. 53096·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

413 So.2d 725 (1982)

John Henry ANDERSON a/k/a June Anderson
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 53096.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

May 5, 1982.

*726 T.H. Pearson, Clarksdale, for appellant.

Bill Allain, Atty. Gen. by Billy L. Gore, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

EN BANC:

DARDEN, Justice, for the Court:

John Henry Anderson was convicted in the Circuit Court of Coahoma County on a charge of uttering a forgery and was sentenced to a term of twelve years in the Department of Corrections. We affirm.

The testimony of three of the state's witnesses showed that John Henry Anderson went into a family grocery store with a check and that he presented certain purported identification to the store manager and that the check was cashed. He had been in earlier and the manager refused to cash the check because he did not then have any identification. The check was a Social Security check which was the property of Eddie M. Williams and the testimony of two of the witnesses was that Anderson endorsed it with Williams' name. The third witness saw Anderson give the check to the store manager but did not state whether or not she saw him endorse the check. A fourth witness for the state identified Anderson as having come into the store at the time the alleged utterance of the forgery took place but stated that she did not see the check, the identification, nor hear any of the transaction relating to the check itself.

Anderson did not deny being in the store when the check was presented for cashing to the manager. His version of the event was that he had picked up another person, whom he knew by the name of Boone and that Boone was the one who had the check and who was showing the purported identification. Anderson said he then left the store "to shield myself out of it." The man Boone came out of the store and undertook to get a further ride with Anderson but Anderson turned him down and Boone paid Anderson two dollars for having brought him to the store from another neighborhood.

It was reported to the police that Eddie Williams' Social Security check was missing and she testified she had not written the endorsement of her name on the check, which was taken without her permission. The police went to the grocery store where Anderson purportedly uttered the forged endorsement, and inquired about whether they had the check. The store manager told him that they did. He asked for a description of Anderson which was given to him and he subsequently took what was called a mug book, that is to say a book of pictures, to the store and the manager and her son, who was present at the time that the check was delivered to the store manager, identified Anderson from the mug book and said they would prefer to see him in person to make the identification positive.

On the next morning Anderson was arrested on a warrant which the police officer had obtained and was taken to the jail. He was given his Miranda rights, according to the police officer, both at his residence where he was arrested and later at the jail *727 to which he was taken. He denied that he was "read his rights." He was fingerprinted and specimens were taken of his handwriting apparently for comparison with the endorsement on the check. At that time he demanded that he be given a lineup. He was asked if he had an attorney or wanted one and he said that he wanted his mother to get in touch with an attorney but that he wanted an immediate lineup. The police then arranged for a lineup using persons of the general description of Anderson both in height and coloration and brought in the store manager and her son, both of whom identified Anderson by the number that he held. There were five persons in the lineup, four besides Anderson, and the identification was made positively, and the testimony indicates separately, by the store manager and her son and the testimony showed without contradiction that there was no prompting or effort on the part of the police officers to identify Anderson in the lineup, or otherwise influence those viewing the suspect.

Anderson told the police officers, according to his testimony, that he had picked up the man that actually delivered the check to the store manager and that he knew his name and address but he would not disclose that information to the police officers unless they would promise to release and exonerate him. They told him that that was impossible since he was the one who was named in the warrant. It was only after he was instructed by the court to answer the question that he finally gave that information on the stand during the course of his trial.

At the trial counsel moved for the suppression of the identification of Anderson on the grounds that he was not represented by counsel at the time the lineup was held and that in court identification of Anderson by those persons who had viewed him in the lineup was improper. Neither the customer who had seen Anderson deliver the check to the store manager nor the one who testified that she had seen Anderson in the store, but did not testify as to the delivery of the check, participated in the lineup identification at the police station. The court overruled the defendant's motion to suppress the testimony of the persons who participated in the lineup as to the identification of Anderson and permitted incourt identification over objection of Anderson by those persons who had seen him at the lineup.

On appeal Anderson assigns four errors. The third and fourth of which are that the court erred in refusing defendant's requested instruction No. 1 and defendant's requested instruction No. 2. We deal with these two assignments now because the other aspects of the case present more serious questions. Instruction No. 1 undertakes to give a definition in the abstract of reasonable doubt. It was properly refused by the court. In Isaacks v. State, 337 So.2d 928 (Miss. 1976), it was stated that the Court properly refused to give an instruction on reasonable doubt since the term defines itself. The Court noted:

The court has spoken a number of times on the giving or failure to give jurors a definition of `reasonable doubt.' Boutwell v. State, 165 Miss. 16, 143 So. 479 (1932). In Boutwell, we held that the court correctly refused to give such an instruction because `reasonable doubt' defines itself and needs no definition by the court.
In Simmons v. State, 206 Miss. 535, 40 So.2d 289 (1949), the appellant argued that the trial judge erred in telling prospective jurors on voir dire examination that `reasonable doubt must be of the type that you can give a reason for when you get back in the jury room and discuss the matter... .' There the court cited Boutwell and pointed out that courts should not attempt to define `reasonable doubt.' We said in Boutwell that the definition given (similar to the definition now before us) was erroneous and, even if the definition were correct, jurors need no definition of `reasonable doubt.' The instruction as given in effect tells jurors that they should be able to state a reason why they have a doubt. Such an instruction is erroneous because, in our jurisprudence, jurors are never required to articulate *728 any explanation of their decision although they are to consult with each other. Cannon v. State, 190 So.2d 848 (Miss. 1966). Such a rule is not peculiar to this state — in most jurisdictions the rule seems to be that instructions which attempt to define `reasonable doubt' are erroneous. 23A C.J.S. Criminal Law § 1280

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Anderson v. State, 413 So. 2d 725 (Mich. 1982).

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