Batson v. State

277 So. 2d 359, 50 Ala. App. 83, 1973 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1237
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedMay 1, 1973
Docket5 Div. 75
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 277 So. 2d 359 (Batson v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Batson v. State, 277 So. 2d 359, 50 Ala. App. 83, 1973 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1237 (Ala. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinion

CATES, Presiding Judge.

Robbery; sentence, life imprisonment.

This is a second appeal; see Batson v. State, 46 Ala.App. 610, 246 So.2d 677.

I

February 19, 1969, defendant and another entered the Dupriest grocery store on Highway 87 in Lee County. Defendant pulled a pistol on Mrs.' Dupriest and demanded money. She took approximately $20 in bills and change from a cash register and put it in a paper sack. The accomplice took the sack and began to leave.

At this point the defendant ordered Mrs. Dupriest to come from behind the counter. As she did he hit her over the head with a crowbar which he had picked up from the floor of the store. When she tried to get up he hit her again with the crowbar. A Coca Cola salesman later found her lying in a pool of blood. She did not regain consciousness for six days.

Thirty minutes before the estimated time of the robbery defendant and his accomplice had stopped at the store of one Mr. Hearn, about three and a half or four miles South of the Dupriest Store. They bought twenty-five cents of gas. Later, after time of the robbery, Hearn saw the same car headed away from the Dupriest store at a high rate of speed. The defendant was driving.

Hearn testified without objection that a customer whom he could not recall by name, but whom he knew, stopped and told him that Mrs. Dupriest had been robbed. (R. 58) Hearn saw that this was about twenty or thirty minutes after he had seen appellant drive away. He was asked, “What did you do after you heard that she had been robbed ?” The answer was, “Well, my brother George drove up and I told him to watch the store for me while I went up to Mrs. Dupriest’s.” Thereupon, Hearn gave the description of the defendant and his accomplice, as well as of the car license, to the officers.

This description was radioed to two Lee County deputy sheriffs who had left Lee County to go to Cobb Memorial County Hospital in Russell County, (Phenix City) to inquire about Mrs. Dupriest’s condition.

Getting near the hospital the deputies saw men fitting the suspects’ description driving on Opelika Road in Phenix City (i. e., about four miles from Lee County line.) On spotting them the deputies unsuccessfully tried to radio the sheriff of Russell County. They raised the Phenix City police, but the latter were unable to come.

The deputies stopped the car, arrested the suspects, and took them back to Lee County to the Dupriest store where they were identified by Mr. Hearn.

On stopping the suspects in Phenix City the deputies descried a crowbar on the floorboard between the front and back [85]*85seat, and a pistol on the floorboard in front of the front seat.

They were outside the car looking through the window. Nothing was put into or taken out of the car. They took the suspects and their car to the Lee County jail.

II

A trial, over defense objection, the State offered the crowbar and pistol in evidence. The Court sustained the objection. We think this ruling was erroneous under the evidence at the trial of instant concern because there was testimony that showed the bar and pistol were in plain view. What was said in Batson v. State, 46 Ala.App. 610, 246 So.2d 677, related only to the infirmity of a search warrant taken before an officer without statutory authority to issue it.

The error of excluding the bar and the pistol inured to appellant’s benefit and he cannot complain of the trial court’s ruling.

As to the introduction in evidence of the crowbar there might be some question as to whether it was introduced or whether it was merely exhibited before the jury. Ordinarily it is taken that if something is exhibited before the jury and seen by them then it can be treated as having been introduced in evidence. See Taylor v. State, 249 Ala. 130, 30 So.2d 256(7); Arrick v. Fanning, 35 Ala.App. 409, 47 So.2d 708(7); Long v. State, 39 Ala.App. 384, 101 So.2d 94(2); Freeman v. State, 46 Ala.App. 640, 247 So.2d 682(1).

At all events, in this case, we find witness Chapman being asked the following:

“Q I’d like to show you, Mr. Chapman, a crowbar here marked State’s Exhibit 1 and ask you to examine this crowbar.
MR. HAYGOOD: We object to any testimony he might give when he examines it.
THE COURT: Well, you’re objecting to it ?
MR. HAYGOOD: I’m objecting if he is fixing to testify.
THE COURT: Well, you object to the question ?
MR. HAYGOOD: I want to hear it first. I want Mr. Wright to ask the question so that I might have the opportunity to object.
THE COURT: All right. I understand what you mean. All right. Mr. Wright, do that.
“Q Have you examined it, the crowbar?
“A Yes, sir.
“Q Mr. Chapman, state whether or not you have seen that crowbar before.
“A I have.
“Q And whereabouts have you seen it?
“A On the right rear floor board of the ’64 white Chevrolet.
“Q How can you tell from your examination of the crowbar that that is the same one that you saw laying in the car ?
“A Because I took it out of there myself and scratched my initials on it standing there beside of the car.”

It is to be noted that no objection was interposed to the questions and the exhibition of this crowbar. Later (R. 78) the State made the formal motion of offering the crowbar in evidence. At this point defense counsel objected on the ground that there had been no showing of a search warrant to go into the car. The jury was withdrawn and the court heard testimony voir dire.

After a long colloquy the court concluded that the crowbar was inadmissible in evidence and specifically excluded it and the pistol. (R. 83.)

[86]*86III

Defendant was advised at least twice of his Miranda rights. First, when he was brought back to the Dupriest store; second, when he was interrogated in the Sheriff’s department in Opelika. There he read and signed a waiver.

Pr e-Miranda predicates were observed. After having been told that his accomplice, Vaughn, had given a statement to the officers and after having read that statement the defendant then dictated a statement which was typed up. He made corrections in the typed draft and initialed each correction, and then signed it.

The court overruled defense objection to the reception of this inculpatory statement of the defendant. The statement was then read in evidence. (R. 101-106.) When the State rested, defense counsel moved to exclude the State’s evidence on the ground that the State had not made out a prima facie case. The motion was overruled. (R. 108.) There was no error in this.

IV.

The appellant’s contention that the trial court erred in instructing the jury to pay no attention to the defense of not guilty by reason of insanity was without merit. This defense requires that the defendant prove it clearly to the satisfaction of the jury. Code 1940, T. 15, § 422. In the case at bar there was no evidence offered.

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Related

Langley v. State
373 So. 2d 1267 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1979)

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Bluebook (online)
277 So. 2d 359, 50 Ala. App. 83, 1973 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1237, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/batson-v-state-alacrimapp-1973.