Brager v. State

380 So. 2d 401, 1980 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1145
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedFebruary 5, 1980
Docket7 Div. 685
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 380 So. 2d 401 (Brager 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
Brager v. State, 380 So. 2d 401, 1980 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1145 (Ala. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

TYSON, Judge.

The indictment charged Norman L. Brag-er, alias, with the first degree murder of Homer Willis Pearson “by shooting him with a pistol.” The jury found the appellant guilty of murder in the first degree and fixed punishment at life imprisonment. The trial court set sentence in accordance with the verdict.

Inasmuch as a complete statement of the facts is not necessary to an understanding of the issues in this case, and, moreover, because no motion to exclude the evidence was made, no request for the affirmative charge, nor a motion for a new trial challenging the weight and sufficiency of the evidence, a succinct statement of the evidence will be hereinafter set forth.

This cause arose from a shooting which occurred late Saturday evening on June 24-25, 1978, outside a casino belonging to one Robert Thompson near Kymulga in Tallade-ga County, Alabama.

The State’s witnesses established that the deceased, Homer W. Pearson, rode to Thompson’s club with one Robert Ballard on the night of Saturday, June 24, 1978, arriving there between 10:00 and 11:00 o’clock p. m. A crap game was in progress just outside the club and both Ballard and Pearson engaged in shooting dice with others in the proximity of the club. Later Pearson, according to the appellant, Brager, and two other witnesses became irritated when the appellant, Norman Brager, attempted to enter the crap game and, according to the appellant, recover some loss[402]*402es which he had sustained earlier that day in another crap game. Finally, Homer Pearson obtained a shotgun and stated, “I will take care of him,” referring to Brager. Several witnesses interceded with the result that Pearson went back to his automobile and put up the shotgun, then returned a short time later and continued to shoot dice. A few minutes thereafter, Brager reappeared with pistol in hand and fired at Pearson, stating, “I am.going to kill you.” All except one witness testified that Pearson was unarmed at the time of the shooting. Two friends picked up Pearson and drove his body to the Sylacauga hospital where he was subsequently pronounced dead. Appropriate evidence put on by the State of Alabama established that the deceased died of a pistol shot on the night of June 24-25, 1978, while engaged in the crap game outside Thompson’s casino in Tallade-ga County.

I

The appellant contends on appeal that the State of Alabama violated the appellant’s constitutional. rights by failing to provide access to grand jury testimony which might have been used by counsel for the appellant in cross-examining certain of the State’s witnesses. The appellant’s attorney cites us to Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963); and Mooney v. Holohan, 294 U.S. 103, 55 S.Ct. 340, 79 L.Ed. 791 (1935).

In Napue v. Illinois, 360 U.S. 264, 79 S.Ct. 1173, 3 L.Ed.2d 1217 (1959), the United States Supreme Court extended the tests formulated in Mooney v. Holohan by stating, “The same result obtains when the State, although not soliciting false evidence, allows it to go uncorrected when it appears.”

Moreover, the holding in Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), reads as follows:

“We now hold that the suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused upon request violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution.”

Appellant’s counsel refers us to his cross-examination of State’s witness Lorenzo Teague (Volume I, R. pp. 155-173):

In his testimony on direct, witness Teague had placed the parties at the scene of the crap game and referred to the fact that when Norman Brager reappeared he did so with pistol in hand and he approached the deceased, who was then engaged in shooting dice.

During the cross-examination of Teague, the scene outside the casino at the parking lot was described, as well as the position of several automobiles parked in the lot (this was also described by several other witnesses) as well as the fact that after the initial firing of the pistol by the appellant, Brager, the owner of the club, Robert Thompson also appeared and fired his pistol in an apparent attempt to “break up the shooting.”

The colloquy between defense counsel and the court reads as follows (Volume I, R. pp. 167-171):

“Q. Did you go before the Grand Jury and testify in this case?
“A. Did I go?
“Q. Did you go before the Grand Jury in this case and testify?
“A. Uh ...
“Q. Did you come up here before eighteen people on an earlier date and answer some questions in response to the District Attorney’s questions?
“A. Yes.
“Q. Your Honor, at this time we make a motion to produce those Grand Jury notes.
“MR. LOVE: I object to that. I don’t want to go to jail for that. The Code provides what that _ (INTERRUPTED)
“Q. We make a motion to produce those, Your Honor. Yesterday those notes were used to show a prior inconsistent statement.
“MR. RUMSEY: Your Honor, Your Hon- or, before ... (INTERRUPTED)
[403]*403“MR. DENSON: I want to make a motion to have those produced.
“MR. RUMSEY: Can we have the jury taken out, Your Honor?
“THE COURT: Mr. Denson, the Code of Alabama provides that the only time that the Grand Jury testimony can in any way be used is to impeach a witness by reason of an inconsistent statement or prosecute them for perjury and otherwise to produce those in open court would be in violation of the laws and put all of us guilty of a misdemeanor. Therefore, I have to sustain the objection.
“MR. DENSON: Your Honor, may I read an exception into the record?
“THE COURT: Certainly.
“MR. DENSON: We respectfully take an exception to the ruling of the Court denying us the opportunity to have available the copy of the Grand Jury’s testimony as this man testified to, and we take exception _
“THE COURT: This man testified to _ this man testified to the Grand Jury?
“MR. DENSON: Yes, Your Honor.
“THE COURT: Was it anything other than ... (INTERRUPTED)
“MR. RUMSEY: Your Honor, he testified before, the November Term, 1978 Grand Jury.
“THE COURT: I understand, but there’s been testimony today — (INTERRUPTED)
“MR. LOVE: No, sir.
“MR. RÜMSEY: No, sir.
“THE COURT: Did I misunderstand you? Okay, overrule.
“MR. DENSON: I’m looking for an inconsistency, Your Honor.

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Related

McConico v. State
458 So. 2d 743 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1984)
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432 So. 2d 17 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1983)
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417 So. 2d 241 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1982)

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Bluebook (online)
380 So. 2d 401, 1980 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1145, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brager-v-state-alacrimapp-1980.