Davis v. State

440 S.W.2d 244, 440 S.W.2d 344, 246 Ark. 838, 1969 Ark. LEXIS 1317
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMay 5, 1969
Docket5-5378
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 440 S.W.2d 244 (Davis 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
Davis v. State, 440 S.W.2d 244, 440 S.W.2d 344, 246 Ark. 838, 1969 Ark. LEXIS 1317 (Ark. 1969).

Opinion

Conley Byrd, Justice.

On January 19, 1967, appellant Allen Frank Davis shot and killed his estranged wife Sharon Davis with a 30-30 caliber rifle. The jury found him guilty of murder in the first degree without recommendation and he. stands before this court sentenced-to death by electrocution. IIis defense was not guilty by reason of insanity.

The record shows that appellant and his wife Sharon separated in August of 1966. Following the separation, appellant lived with his mother. On the date involved, appellant had caused his wife to be kept under surveillance by a friend. About quitting time appellant joined his friend across the street from where his wife worked. When he joined his friend he had with him a denim jacket described by his friend as being stiff enough to stand in the corner alone. While they were watching, his mother-in-law drove b}^ with his children to pick up his wife. Appellant told his friend that he hated his mother-in-law but-liked her cooking and, in parting, told him he was going to do something that he should have done a long time ago. His mother-in-law and Sharon proceeded to the Bed Bird Laundromat and Service Station on Central Avenue. Appellant followed. At the laundromat he exchanged some words with his wife before he shot her. He also shot his mother-in-Jaw when she ran into the laundromat for help. Witnesses testified that as lie drove away he brandished his shooting iron and shouted, “Sharon, how do you like that.” Appellant was arrested at his mother 7s home a few minutes later where he was sprawled out on a bed in a stupor after taking some pills. The 30-30 rifle was found wrapped in his denim jacket in a dog pen.

POINT 1. Appellant, in arguing that he was deprived of his rights under the fifth amendment of the United States Constitution hy virtue of the fact that he was tried and convicted upon an information, readily recognized that we have rejected this argument many times. Prosecution hy information is authorized hy Amendment 21 of our constitution. As we have pointed out many times the Federal Courts have not held that prosecution hy information is prohibited hy the United States Constitution. For this reason we hold appellant’s first point to he without merit.

POINT 2. Appellant contends here that the trial court erred, under the holding in Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510 (1968), in excluding jurors who had conscientious semipiés against capital punishment. A subsidiary argument is that the trial court insured the prosecution’s request for a conviction and death sentence hy excluding all prospective jurors who said they opposed the death sentence or had religious or conscientious scruples against the death penalty. We do not believe that the record sustains appellant’s argument.

As we read the record, the trial court followed the Witherspoon case, excluding Justice Douglas’s concurrence, and our own case of Athins v. State, 16 Ark. 568 (1855). In the latter case we pointed out:

"Whatever may he a man’s view of capital punishment as a question of policy, the jury box is not a proper place for him to consider such policy. There he is obliged, hy his oath, to try the guilt or innocence of the accused, according to law and evidence, and not to set up his own private opinion against the policy of the law, which he is hound, as a good citizen, to abide by and administer, so long as it is force, and until it is repealed by the constituted authority. See the authorities collected on this subject in Wharton’s Crim. Law 857, 858.”

To follow appellant’s argument to its logical conclusion would create a kind of anarchy in our system of government whereby the minority will always hold a veto over any established public policy. For instance, since the holding in Bloom v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 194 (1968), it would be almost impossible to enforce some provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, if a court were forced to accept jurors whose private opinions are contrary to the policy of the law. For these reasons wo find this point without merit.

POINT 3. ¥e find no merit in appellant’s argument that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting in evidence pictures taken by William Ralph Dever, Jr. The record shows that Mr. Dever is a commercial photographer and a mail man. He has a police radio receiver in his car. When he heard the call concerning the shooting he immediately went to the scene and took the pictures of which appellant complains. In permitting the pictures to be introduced, the trial court pointed out that they were taken within a reasonable time after the incident involved and that they helped explain the testimony as to what actually occurred, nothing more, nothing less.

In Stewart v. State, 233 Ark. 458, 345 S.W. 2d 472 (1961), we pointed out that it is within the sound discretion of the trial judge to permit the introduction of photographs to describe and to identify the premises which were the scene of the crime, to establish the corpus delicti of the crime charged, to disclose the environment of the (rime at the time it was committed and to corroborate testimony. See also, Reed v. McGibboney, 243 Ark. 789, 422 S.W. 2d 115 (1967).

Under this point appellant also argues that the pictures introduced info evidence concerning Mrs. Knight’s shooting and the bloodstained floor from which she was removed are not relevant, material or competent. Here, too, we find this was a matter within the discretion of the trial court. The record shows that at the time Mrs. Knight picked up appellant’s estranged wife, appellant expressed hatred for Mrs. Knight, his mother-in-law. Since the shootings were all one occurrence we are unwilling to say that the photographs could not be introduced for the purpose of showing malice.

POTNT 4. On the issue of insanity, appellant used two expert witnesses, Dr. Shelton Fowler, a psychiatrist on the Arkansas State Hospital staff, and Dr. Robert F. Shannon, a private psychiatrist. Dr. Fowler’s treatment was limited to his duties as an employee of the state hospital. Dr. Shannon was employed by appellant’s mother for purposes of testifying at the trial.

To rebut appellant’s expert testimony, the state called Dr. Tobe, a psychiatrist hired by G-arland County to examine' appellant for purposes of determining his sanity, and Dr. Robert Lewis, a psychiatrist originally employed by appellant’s mother for medical treatment and psychiatric evaluation immediately following appellant’s arrest. Appellant argues that the testimony of the latter two doctors is privileged within the meaning of Ark. Stat. Ann. § 28-607 (Repl. 1962). That statute provides:

“Hereafter no person authorized to practice physic or surgery and no trained nurses shall be compelled to disclose any information which he may have acquired from his patient while attending in a professional character and which information was necessary to enable him to prescribe as a physician or do any act for him as a surgeon or trained nurse.

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Bluebook (online)
440 S.W.2d 244, 440 S.W.2d 344, 246 Ark. 838, 1969 Ark. LEXIS 1317, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-state-ark-1969.