Davis v. State

247 S.E.2d 45, 241 Ga. 376, 1978 Ga. LEXIS 968
Supreme Court of Georgia·Decided May 16, 1978·No. 33012·Published·Cited by 49 cases

Opinions

Nichols, Chief Justice.

Curfew Davis, the appellant, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in a Troup County jury trial. The facts of the case are stated in the opinion of this court in Davis v. State, 236 Ga. 804 (225 SE2d 241) (1976). The Supreme Court of the United States in Davis v. Georgia, 429 U. S. 122 (97 SC 399, 50 LE2d 339) (1976), vacated the appellant’s death sentence because a juror opposing capital punishment was improperly excluded for cause. This court directed that the appellant be given a new trial as to sentence or else be sentenced to life [377] imprisonment. Davis v. State, 238 Ga. 295 (232 SE2d 565) (1977).

The trial court granted a new trial as to sentence. After a jury trial as to sentence, the death sentence was imposed.

Appellant is before this court on appeal and for review of the death penalty imposed.

The evidence offered did not differ materially from that offered in the first trial as reported in Davis v. State, supra. It will not be repeated here.

1. Appellant’s first enumeration of error alleges that "The Court erred in overruling the Appellant’s challenge to the array of the traverse jury. The jury pool contained an underrepresentation of black people, women, and young adults 18 to 30 years of age, because they were systematically, intentionally, and purposefully discriminated against in violation of Georgia laws, the Georgia Constitution, the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, and the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U. S. Constitution.”

This court consistently has held that 18 to 30 year old persons are not a cognizable class for the purpose of a challenge to the array of the traverse jury. See Barrow v. State, 239 Ga. 162, 164 (236 SE2d 257) (1977) and Hudson v. State, 240 Ga. 70, 71 (239 SE2d 330) (1977) and cits. There is no merit in the first enumeration of error to the extent that it alleges underrepresentation of persons of those ages.

This court will not consider the alleged exclusion of women from the 1973 traverse jury from which the petit jury that convicted the appellant was impaneled because that jury was impaneled long before January 21,1975, the date established by the Supreme Court of the United States for applicability of its decision in Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U. S. 522 (1975), holding that women as a class could not be excluded from jury service. See Daniel v. Louisiana, 420 U. S. 31 (1975); Young v. State, 239 Ga. 53, 55 (236 SE2d 1) (1977); Barrow v. State, 239 Ga. 162, 164 (236 SE2d 257) (1977). There is no merit in the first enumeration of error insofar as it relates to that issue.

Neither will this court consider the first enumeration [378] of error insofar as it attempts to present for decision a challenge to the array of the 1973 traverse jury based upon alleged racial underrepresentation. The mandate of the Supreme Court of the United States required this court to reverse the judgment of the trial court as to sentence but not as to conviction, and this court acted in accordance with that mandate. Davis v. State, 238 Ga. 295, supra. Matters relating to the guilt or innocence phase of these proceedings have been concluded and are not presently before this court inasmuch as the present appeal is from the judgment imposing the death sentence following new trial as to sentence. The evidence as to alleged racial underrepresentation in 1973 will be considered, however, for such value as it may have in establishing historic patterns of underrepresentation.

Our consideration of appellant’s allegation will therefore be limited to consideration of the alleged underrepresentation of blacks and women in the 1975 jury pool.

The test we must apply was set out in Pass v. Caldwell, 231 Ga. 192 (200 SE2d 720) (1973), based on Whitus v. Georgia, 385 U. S. 545 (87 SC 643, 17 LE2d 599) (1966), and applied in Barrow v. State, 239 Ga. 162, 164 (236 SE2d 257) (1977) and in Fouts v. State, 240 Ga. 39 (239 SE2d 366) (1977). There are two requirements for making out a prima facie case for discrimination. As defined in the Barrow case, they are, "First, the appellant must prove that an opportunity for discrimination existed from the source of the jury list, and, second, that the use of that infected source produced a significant disparity between the percentages found present in the source and those actually appearing on the grand and traverse jury panels.”

Evidence presented by the appellant indicated that the 1970 census reflects that 31.8 percent of the population of Troup County is black and 52.9 percent is female. Persons assisting the defense compared the traverse jury list and the computerized voters’ registration list. They testified that there were names that could not be located on the computerized list and that there were 84 names that could not be identified as to race hr sex. The state asserts that of those persons in Troup [379] County eligible for jury service, 28.2 percent are black.

Admittedly, hearsay was used by the defense to determine the sex and race of approximately 150 jurors on the 1975 traverse jury list and 300 to 400 on the 1973 traverse jury list. Based upon this hearsay, a defense assistant testified that blacks composed 13.7 percent of the 1973 and 1975 traverse jury pools and women made up 40.3 percent of the 1973 traverse jury pool and 34.5 percent of the 1975 traverse jury pool. Appellant’s attorney indicated there were 2,000 names in the 1973 traverse jury pool and 4,000 names in the 1975 traverse jury pool. An admitted reliance on hearsay to establish 15 to 20 percent of the 1973 pool seriously impairs the credibility of the representative percentages stated.

At the time of appellant’s new trial as to sentence, the jury commission of Troup County was made up of three men and three women. Two of the jury commissioners were black. It is clear that the jury commissioners of Troup County used the voter registration lists as their source for selecting jurors. Glenn Robertson, a black jury commissioner, testified that he had no knowledge of blacks being prohibited from voting in Troup County, that blacks had conducted voter registration drives in Troup County, and that blacks had no trouble in registering to vote in Troup County.

Eight persons who were either former or present jury commissioners of Troup County were called by the appellant. They testified in pertinent part as follows: C. H. Day picked every sixth name from the voter registration lists. Edward Hamilton struck every sixth name from the voter registration lists. Glenn Robertson picked every sixth name, unless he knew the persons on the list were dead or had moved out of the city. Ranee Sprayberry picked every sixth name and left off only those persons whom he knew to have a criminal record. Eleanor Cox, a black woman, followed the court’s instructions to go down the voter registration list and choose every sixth name. Nancy Durand picked every sixth name on the voter registration list. She deviated from this pattern only if the person had died or moved from the state.

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Davis v. State, 247 S.E.2d 45, 241 Ga. 376, 1978 Ga. LEXIS 968 (Ga. 1978).

247 S.E.2d 45 (Davis v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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