Davis v. State

255 So. 2d 916
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 29, 1971
Docket46466
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 255 So. 2d 916 (Davis v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. State, 255 So. 2d 916 (Mich. 1971).

Opinion

255 So.2d 916 (1971)

John DAVIS
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 46466.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

November 29, 1971.
Rehearing Denied January 10, 1972.

Anderson, Banks, Nichols & Leventhal, Jackson, for appellant.

A.F. Summer, Atty. Gen. by Timmie Hancock, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

*917 SUGG, Justice:

This is the second conviction of the appellant on the charge of rape, the first conviction having been reversed by the United States Supreme Court in Davis v. Mississippi, 394 U.S. 721, 730, 89 S.Ct. 1394, 1399, 22 L.Ed.2d 676, 683 (1969), where the Court stated that the only issue before it was whether fingerprints obtained from the petitioner should have been excluded from the evidence as a product of a detention which was illegal under *918 the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

A footnote to the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Stewart stated:

At the original trial the victim of the rape, under oath, positively identified the petitioner as her assailant. There now exists, therefore, ample probable cause to detain him and take his fingerprints.

After a mandate was issued by the United States Supreme Court, appellant was indicted by the Grand Jury of Lauderdale County, Mississippi in May of 1970. Thereafter, he was lawfully arrested and fingerprints were taken after his arrest for purpose of comparison with fingerprints and a palm print found on the window and the window ledge of the victim's home.

The victim reported the crime immediately after its occurrence and was carried to the hospital where she was examined by Dr. Lowry Rush, Jr., who stated that his examination was made at 8:00 P.M. on December 2, 1965; that she had numerous scratch marks about her face and neck; that he took six smears from her vaginal introitus and had these examined for sperm; that Dr. C.B. Mitchell, a pathologist, examined the smears in the presence of the witness, and the witness, personally, along with Dr. Mitchell, found sperm in five of the six smears.

L.L. Scarborough, a City Detective, was the first officer arriving at the home of the victim and he noticed a screen off the right front window of the home and proceeded to examine the window and window sill for fingerprints. He was joined by L.A. Willoughby, another City Detective, at about 7:00 P.M. and these officers lifted fingerprints from the window and a palm print from the ledge on the inside of the house.

A comparison of the prints found at the home of the victim and the appellant's prints taken on June 2, 1970 after his subsequent indictment was made by William F. Cloud, a fingerprint examiner with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who had twenty-two years experience with the Bureau, and on the basis of this comparison, it was determined that the prints found on the window and window ledge of the victim's home were the appellant's.

The victim made a positive in-court identification of the appellant at the first trial and testified that she knew the appellant because he had worked for her on two occasions and brought a check to her home on another occasion. The victim testified that she saw the face of appellant in the light of a flashlight that was covered by a fascinator (a crocheted head covering) when the light moved across the appellant's face.

The appellant introduced Everett Keller, a juvenile officer for the City of Meridian, Mississippi, who testified that he carried the appellant to the hospital on two occasions and the victim did not identify her assailant on either occasion. He further testified that he carried the appellant to the home of the victim and that appellant did not put his hands on the front window of the victim's house where the prints had been found by the officers on December 2, 1965.

The appellant's defense was an alibi and he introduced his sister, Virdie Bell Davis, who testified that the appellant arrived home before 5:30 on the afternoon of December 2nd; that he remained home for not more than ten minutes and went to a store located about a block from the home to get some cookies; that he was gone on this trip for approximately ten minutes and did not leave home thereafter. Appellant also introduced Bilbo Trussell, a friend, who testified that he was with the appellant on December 2nd; that the appellant told him he was going to work for Buddy Scruggs in the afternoon and that he went to appellant's home about ten minutes before 6:00 P.M. This witness testified that the appellant did not leave the home during his visit which lasted until about 7:30 or 8:00 P.M. and that the appellant was asleep when he arrived.

*919 The appellant testified in his own behalf and stated that he worked for Buddy Scruggs on the afternoon of the crime until "that evening", topping trees; that he was not certain when he quit work; that when he arrived home he worked on his bicycle in the back yard, went to the store for some cookies and then remained in the house for the balance of the night. Appellant also stated that he had worked for the victim about a month and a half or two months before the crime and that he had been in her house on two occasions and at another time found a check that belonged to victim and carried it to her house.

He testified that Everett Keller took him to the home of the victim on December 12th and that he was carried to the home again on December 13th when he put his hands on the windows in the presence of the police.

On cross-examination he stated that he did not know where Buddy Scruggs lived at the time of the trial and when asked where he was cutting trees for him, his answer was "somewhere in the Northwood area".

Appellant assigns as error the following:

1. The court erred in failing to sustain appellant's motion to exclude prior testimony.

2. The court erred in failing to sustain appellant's motion to quash the indictment or grant alternative relief.

3. The court erred in failing to grant appellant's post argument motion for mistrial.

4. The court erred in refusing to exclude prospective jurors challenged by the defense for cause.

5. The court erred in failing to sustain appellant's motions to dismiss for failure of the State to meet its burden of proof.

Appellant contends by his first assignment of error that his motion to exclude the prior recorded testimony of the victim should have been sustained. The first ground of the motion states that the victim was informed by the State that defendant had made a "confession" prior to her "identification" of him as her assailant; said confession was illegally obtained and irredeemably taints the identification in violation of defendant's rights under the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. The second ground in the motion was that the defendant was illegally arrested, exhibited to the witness, finger-printed and forced to confess and the identification by the witness is both the fruit of and tainted by these illegal acts in violation of defendant's rights under the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

After hearing testimony on this motion the court overruled the motion with the exception that the statement of the victim to the effect "and he confessed it all" was to be excluded.

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Bluebook (online)
255 So. 2d 916, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-state-miss-1971.