Beck v. State

485 So. 2d 1196, 1982 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 3168
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedAugust 24, 1982
Docket7 Div. 909
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 485 So. 2d 1196 (Beck 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
Beck v. State, 485 So. 2d 1196, 1982 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 3168 (Ala. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinions

TYSON, Judge.

Gilbert Franklin Beck was indicted for and convicted of capital murder for the November 8, 1976, killing with a knife of retired veterinarian Roy Malone in rural Etowah County, Alabama. He was sentenced to death. This original conviction and subsequent sentence were affirmed by this court and the Alabama Supreme Court in Beck v. State, 365 So.2d 985 (Ala.Cr.App.), aff'd, 365 So.2d 1006 (Ala.1978). On appeal to the United States Supreme Court, however, that court in reversing and remanding the case for a new trial, determined that a death sentence could not be imposed after a jury verdict of guilt of a capital offense when the jury is not permitted to consider, through appropriate jury instructions, a verdict of guilt of a lesser included offense, when the evidence would have supported such a verdict. Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625, 100 S.Ct. 2382, 65 L.Ed.2d 392 (1980). On remand, the Alabama Supreme Court reviewed the Alabama Death Penalty Act and upheld it by severing its unconstitutional portions and by mandating new procedures for implementing it. Beck v. State, 396 So.2d 645 (Ala.1980). Pursuant to the remand from the United States Supreme Court and the directions that the new trial follow the requirements set forth by the Alabama Supreme Court in Beck, 396 So.2d 645, supra, this court remanded the cause for a new trial in Beck v. State, 396 So.2d 666 (Ala.Cr.App.1981).

A new trial in this cause was conducted, at the conclusion of which Gilbert Franklin Beck was again convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. It is from this second conviction and sentence of death that the appellant, Gilbert Franklin Beck, prosecutes this appeal.

It is undisputed that on November 8, 1976, the appellant and Roy Frank Clements went to the home of Roy Malone in rural Etowah County with the intention of robbing him, and that at some point during the robbery, Dr. Malone was killed. The details of this incident and of other events leading up to and following this robbery-homicide are sufficiently and accurately covered in our previous opinion reported as Beck v. State, 365 So.2d 985 (Ala.Cr.App.1978). Only those details pertinent to the issues involved in this second appeal will be therefore restated herein.

I

One of the appellant’s principal arguments on this appeal is that the trial court erred in dismissing prospective juror Mattie Terrell because of her expressed opposition to capital punishment. The appellant, citing Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968), contends that Mrs. Terrell could have been properly dismissed on this ground only if it was shown that she was “irrevocably committed, before the trial [had] begun, to vote against the death penalty regardless of the facts and circumstances that [emerged] in the course of the proceedings,” and that such a showing was not here made.

We agree with the appellant that this “irrevocably committed” language, taken from footnote 21 of the Witherspoon opinion, is the test which survived Witherspoon even though the holding, that “a sentence of death cannot be carried out if the jury that imposed or recommended it was cho[1198]*1198sen by excluding veniremen for cause simply because they voiced general objections to the death penalty or expressed conscientious or religious scruples against its infliction ” (emphasis added), was much broader. See Witherspoon, supra, and compare Boulden v. Holman, 394 U.S. 478, 89 S.Ct. 1138, 22 L.Ed.2d 433 (1969); Maxwell v. Bishop, 398 U.S. 262, 90 S.Ct. 1578, 26 L.Ed.2d 221 (1970); and Davis v. Georgia, 429 U.S. 122, 97 S.Ct. 399, 50 L.Ed.2d 339 (1976).

In accordance with the Witherspoon progeny, the rule in Alabama is that a prospective juror may be excused because of his opposition to capital punishment only if it is “sufficiently [shown] that he [or she] would automatically vote against the imposition of the death penalty no matter what the evidence introduced at trial might reveal.” Liddell v. State, 287 Ala. 299, 251 So.2d 601 (1971); Hill v. State, 371 So.2d 60 (Ala.Cr.App.1978), cert denied, 371 So.2d 64 (Ala.1979); Bracewell v. State, 407 So.2d 845 (Ala.1979), on remand, 407 So.2d 848 (Ala.Cr.App.1979). The similar language now codified in § 12-16-152, Code of Alabama 1975, is that it is a good cause of challenge if a person “would refuse to impose the death penalty regardless of the evidence produced.”

Having reviewed Mrs. Terrell’s answers on voir dire we are unable to determine whether or not, if she had been selected as a juror, she would have “automatically voted against the death penalty regardless of the evidence produced.” Her initial, unequivocal response on voir dire examination by the prosecution was recorded (R. 352) as follows:

“Q You would not under any circumstances nor conditions would you (sic) vote for death in the electric chair, if you were on a jury?
“A No.
“Q Okay, thank you.”

Because of this answer she was “challenged for cause” by the prosecution before any further inquiry. (R. 358). The trial court withheld its ruling on this challenge (and two others made at the same time) pending further examination.

After voir dire of several other prospective jurors, Mrs. Terrell was further examined on this issue of her opposition to capital punishment. She answered the defense attorney’s questions (R. 383) as follows:

“[Q] Now, Mrs. Terrell, again, back to this question. We are asking simply could you consider it, not that you would vote for it, not do you like it, but in this second hearing after looking at all of the facts and circumstances, weighing all of the evidence and listening to all of the arguments could you consider both the sentence of life without imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and the alternative?
“A You mean in this case?
“Q No, in general can you consider it?
“A I guess in cases I could.”

Her final response (R. 385) to the question of whether or not she could “vote for death in the electric chair under any circumstances” was:

“A I really don’t know. I believe I could if I had to, but I wouldn’t like to.”

Based on all of her responses, the trial court granted the prosecution’s challenge for cause of Mrs. Terrell.

From this record, however, we are not convinced that Mrs. Terrell “would automatically vote against the imposition of the death penalty, no matter what the evidence introduced at trial might reveal.”

In Williamson v. State, 370 So.2d 1054, 1059 (Ala.Cr.App.1978); Wilson v. State, 371 So.2d 932, 936 (Ala.Cr.App.1978), aff’d, 371 So.2d 943 (Ala.1979); Crawford v. State, 377 So.2d 145, 150 (Ala.Cr.App.), aff’d, 377 So.2d 159 (Ala.1979); Keller v. State, 380 So.2d 926, 931 (Ala.Cr.App.1979), and

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Related

State v. C.M.
746 So. 2d 410 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1999)
Beck v. State
507 So. 2d 1003 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1986)
Ex Parte Beck
485 So. 2d 1207 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1985)
Ex Parte State
485 So. 2d 1201 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1984)

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Bluebook (online)
485 So. 2d 1196, 1982 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 3168, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beck-v-state-alacrimapp-1982.