Bailey v. State

302 S.W.2d 796, 227 Ark. 889, 1957 Ark. LEXIS 514
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMay 27, 1957
Docket4866
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 302 S.W.2d 796 (Bailey v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bailey v. State, 302 S.W.2d 796, 227 Ark. 889, 1957 Ark. LEXIS 514 (Ark. 1957).

Opinion

J. Seaborn Holt, Associate Justice.

Appellant, Luther Bailey, was convicted of the crime of rape and the death penalty was assessed, — § 41-3401 — 41-3402— 41-3403, Ark. Stats. 1947. From the judgment comes this appeal.

For . reversal appellant has assigned 31 alleged errors in his motion for a new trial.' The first three assignments question the sufficiency of the evidence. The prosecuting witness (a widow, 49 years of age, mother of two daughters and supervisor with the Independent Linen Company) testified that in the early morning (about 12:30 a.m.) of June 14, 1956, she was awakened by the barking of her neighbor’s dogs, heard noises in her house and got up to investigate. As she was going into the kitchen a man seized her, carried her into a bedroom where he forcibly and against her will, and holding a knife at her throat, had intercourse with her. There was actual penetration. Immediately following the first assault on her, he forced her to give him her purse, (later found in his car) containing about $190— cut the telephone wire — and while in her living room forcibly and against her will had intercourse with her again. He dropped his identification cards in her bedroom. He then left.

She immediately went to the home of a next door neighbor and reported what had happened. This neighbor, Mr. Pitts, testified that the prosecuting witness, at between 1:00 and 1:30 á.m. on June 14, “came hammering on my door . . . she was dressed in a gown and had a robe on and a pair of shoes . . . She was very upset . . . nervous and crying . . on her leg there was a bruise and on her throat scratches and cuts or some kind of lacerations and also her hands and arms were bruised.” He called the police and one of her daughters within five minutes ’ after she came in.He went with the police to her house, found it locked and entered by unlocking the back door. The light switch hád been turned off. They found a billfold with appel-: lant’s name on it on the floor of-her bedroom. A small window, in the pantry, some 6% feet from the ground* had been raised. There was a torn window screen on the ground. It had been on the window the day before. There was other evidence tending to corroborate the prosecuting witness. However, corroboration was not necessary to a conviction of rape. In Hodges v. State, 210 Ark. 672, 197 S. W. 2d 52, we said: “Headnote 1. Rape — Prosecuting Witnesses Need Not Be Corroborated. — In the prosecution of appellant on a charge of rape, it was not necessary that the testimony of the prosecuting witness be corroborated.” Also see McDonald v. State, 225 Ark. 38, 279 S. W. 2d 44.

Appellant admitted that he did have intercourse with the prosecuting witness, but stoutly insisted that she did not object but voluntarily submitted to him. This made a question of fact for the jury. We think there was ample substantial evidence to support the jury’s verdict. The jury is the sole judge of credibility of the witnesses and the weight to be given their testimony.

In Assignment 4, error is alleged because the court denied his motion to consolidate along with the charge of rape, the charges of robbery and burglary. The answer is that § 43-1010 Ark. Stats. 1947 provides specifically what offenses may be joined in any indictment, and no provision is made for the joining of rape, burglary and robbery.

In Assignment 5, appellant says the court erred in refusing to allow him to take an “oral deposition” of the prosecuting witness, relying on Act 335 of the Acts of 1953. We do not agree with this contention. We hold that Act 335 applies only to civil cases and that the legislature so intended. Reference is made repeatedly throughout the act to the “parties”, “a party”, or to any party — a defendant is not used. The applicable statute is § 43-2011 Ark. Stats. 1947 which provides: “Depositions/ — -The court, or judge in vacation, or a judge of the Supreme Court, may authorize a defendant to take the deposition of a material witness where there are reasonable grounds to apprehend that, before' the" trial, the witness will die or -.become mentally incapable of giving testimony, or physically incapable of attending the trial, or of becoming a nonresident of the state. The materiality of the testimony, and the reason for taking his deposition shall be shown by affidavit.” Here no showing by affidavit was made by appellant that the prosecutrix was about to die, would become mentally or physically incapable to testify, or was about to become a nonresident, or that she would not be available at the trial. Had the legislature intended Act 335 to apply to criminal cases (as well as civil) it could easily have so declared. Furthermore, the appellant, himself, introduced in evidence the statement that the prosecutrix made to Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jernigan.

In Assignments 6 and 7 appellant contends “that the court erred in not allowing the Jury Commissioners, for the March term 1952 to the March term 1956 inclusive, to testify, as these Jury Commissioners would have testified to the matters, allegations and other things set out in Luther Bailey’s motion to quash the regular and special jury panels for the March 1956 term; that the court erred in overruling defendant’s motion to quash the regular panel and the special panel of the petit jury.”

Mr. Louis Rosteck, Deputy Clerk of the Circuit Court, testified in effect that his record shows that two negroes were selected by the jury commissioners for the March 1952 term, out of a total of 24. It is the general procedure of this court to select 24 jurors on the regular panel and 12 alternates. These two negroes actually served. There was one negro on the jury panel for the September 1952 term. There were two negroes selected for the March 1953 term. Five negroes served during the September 1953 term; three were on the extra panel and two on the regular panel. For the special panel five jurors were selected out of 21. There is nothing to indicate on the record whether they were white or colored. There were two negroes on the March 1954 term. There were 24 persons on the special panel; only five were selected. The record does not indicate whether the remainder were colored or white. Two negroes were selected on the panel for the September 1954 term. There was a special panel for that term of 100 names; seven persons were selected; they were all white. He did not know whether the remaining people on the list were colored or white. Three negroes served on the March 1955 regular panel. One person was used from the special panel of 100 names. Four negroes were included in the 100. Only one person out of 100 was used on the September 1955 special panel. There were three negroes on the regular panel. Three negroes were selected on the regular panel for the March 1956 term. The first special panel selected has 150 names on it; it does not indicate colored and white. The first 100 on this list were ordered to report this morning; 27 of them are here; none are negroes; . . . “Record of Poll Tax receipts issued in Pulaski County for the years 1954 and 1955.

Total number colored

(1954) 10,180 14.8% (1955) 8,557 13.3%

Total number white

(1954) 58,484 85.2% (1955) 55,980 86.7%”

We think the court did not err in refusing to allow the jury commissioners to testify. They had not been subpoenaed to appear as witnesses and were not present.

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394 S.W.2d 135 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1965)
Kardy v. SHOOK, J.
207 A.2d 83 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1965)
Kurck v. State
362 S.W.2d 713 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1962)
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359 S.W.2d 432 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1962)
Bailey v. Henslee
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Bailey v. State
313 S.W.2d 388 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1958)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
302 S.W.2d 796, 227 Ark. 889, 1957 Ark. LEXIS 514, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bailey-v-state-ark-1957.