Corey Lee Walton v. State of Alabama

• Court: Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
• Decided: November 7, 2025
• Docket: CR-2022-1342
• Status: Published

Opinion

Rel: November 7, 2025

Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the advance sheets of Southern Reporter. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Alabama Appellate Courts, 300 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36104-3741 ((334) 229-0650), of any typographical or other errors, in order that corrections may be made before the opinion is published in Southern Reporter.

Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals OCTOBER TERM, 2025-2026 _________________________

CR-2022-1342 _________________________

Corey Lee Walton

v.

State of Alabama

Appeal from Tuscaloosa Circuit Court (CC-22-30)

After Remand from the Alabama Supreme Court

ANDERSON, Judge.

Corey Lee Walton appealed the Tuscaloosa Circuit Court's

judgment convicting him of reckless murder and sentencing him to 20

years' imprisonment. This Court affirmed the judgment of the circuit

court in an unpublished memorandum. Walton v. State (No. CR-2022- CR-2022-1342

1342, Aug. 23, 2024), ___ So. 3d ___ (Ala. Crim. App. 2024) (table). The

Alabama Supreme Court granted Walton's petition for a writ of

certiorari, concluded that the circuit court had "acted outside its

discretion by admitting evidence of Walton's prior crimes," reversed this

Court's judgment, and remanded the case "for further proceedings

consistent" with its opinion. Ex parte Walton, [Ms. SC-2024-0862, Aug.

29, 2025] ___ So. 3d ___, ___ (Ala. 2025).

Part of the Alabama Supreme Court's decision included its holding

that evidence of Walton's youthful-offender adjudications "was

unnecessary" and that "the introduction of the details of those prior

crimes by the State served only to prejudice the jury because there was

no fact that needed bolstering by this supporting information." Ex parte

Walton, ___ So. 3d at ___ (emphasis added). In this Court's view, that

aspect of the Alabama Supreme Court's decision forecloses any argument

on remand that the circuit court's error in admitting this evidence was

harmless or without injury to Walton's substantial rights.

Rule 45, Ala. R. App. P., applies in proceedings before the Alabama

Supreme Court. Thus, that court's decision necessarily included the

determination that the circuit court's error had "probably injuriously

2 CR-2022-1342

affected [Walton's] substantial rights." Id. Under the law-of-the-case

doctrine, " ' "the legal questions … determined by the appellate court will

not be differently determined on a subsequent appeal in the same case." ' "

Ex parte Woodard, 883 So. 2d 256, 258 (Ala. Crim. App. 2003) (quoting

State v. Whirley, 530 So. 2d 861, 863 (Ala. Crim. App. 1987), quoting in

turn 5 Am. Jur. 2d Appeal and Error § 744 (1962)). Because the Alabama

Supreme Court's resolution of the legal question governing the

admissibility of evidence of Walton's youthful-offender adjudications

necessarily included the determination that the circuit court's error

affected Walton's substantial rights, harmless-error analysis could not be

applied by this Court without offending the law-of-the-case doctrine.

Consequently, the judgment of the circuit court is reversed, and this

case is remanded to the circuit court for further proceedings.

REVERSED AND REMANDED.

Windom, P.J., and Kellum, Cole, and Minor, JJ., concur.