Evans v. State

422 So. 2d 737
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 3, 1982
Docket53754
StatusPublished
Cited by310 cases

This text of 422 So. 2d 737 (Evans 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
Evans v. State, 422 So. 2d 737 (Mich. 1982).

Opinion

422 So.2d 737 (1982)

Connie Ray EVANS
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 53754.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

November 3, 1982.
Rehearing Denied December 15, 1982.

*738 Bell & Collins, James D. Bell, Jackson, for appellant.

*739 Bill Allain, Atty. Gen. by Amy D. Whitten, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

En banc.

ROY NOBLE LEE, Justice, for the Court:

Connie Ray Evans and Alfonso Artis were jointly indicted in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Honorable William F. Coleman, presiding, on a charge of capital murder. Evans entered a plea of guilty to the charge and the trial proceeded on the sentencing phase. After hearing the evidence, the jury found Evans guilty and sentenced him to death. He has appealed and assigns ten (10) errors in the trial below.

FACTS

Connie Ray Evans was twenty-one (21) years of age at the time of the homicide. On the night of April 7, 1981, he and Alfonso Artis, age twenty-four (24), met at the Alamo Theater on Farish Street in the City of Jackson, Mississippi, and planned to rob R.J.'s Food Center on Lynch Street. They considered the fact that gunplay might be involved in the robbery. About 6:30 the following morning, Artis went to the house where Evans lived with his mother and stepfather, and they left together for the R.J. Food Center. Upon arrival there, they walked by the store on two occasions but did not enter because customers were present. After waiting approximately one-half hour, they began the robbery. Artis went inside with a gun while Evans waited outside and watched for trouble. Artis drew the gun on Arun Pahwa, the store attendant, and forced him at gunpoint to get on his knees behind the counter. Evans entered the store, received the gun from Artis, held it on Pahwa and guarded him while Artis checked the cash register. Artis could not open the cash drawer, and Pahwa was made to get up from the floor, open the cash register and then was forced to kneel again. Artis collected money from the cash register and then searched and emptied Pahwa's pockets and wallet.

Evans shot Pahwa in the head as he knelt motionless behind the counter and the two ran out the door. They had obtained approximately one hundred forty dollars ($140.00) in the robbery. Artis took off his shirt and wrapped the gun in it as they ran. Later, he gave the gun to Evans, who wiped away some of the fingerprints, and they hitchhiked to appellant's brother's house where Evans hid the gun behind a clock. They left there, caught a bus to the downtown area, and spent most of the money on new clothes. That night, they went to a movie, drank beer at a local club, then separated and went home. Evans told Artis that he shot Pahwa because "I was cold hearted."

The police were notified of the robbery and murder and went to the scene where they found the cash drawer open and Pahwa lying behind the counter in a pool of blood. The cause of death was a gunshot wound in the head. As a result of the police investigation, Artis was apprehended on the night of April 8, 1981, and Evans was arrested seventeen (17) days later on April 25, 1981. He stayed on the streets during this time and finally telephoned his mother and decided to give himself up. Evans gave a written confession to the crime. Artis pled guilty to charges of armed robbery and manslaughter and received a sentence of twenty (20) years, with fifteen (15) years suspended. He testified for the State on the trial.

LAW

I.

Did the trial court err in striking for cause a juror who was irrevocably committed to vote against the death penalty regardless of the facts and circumstances presented?

On voir dire examination, a female juror stated that she had conscientious scruples against the infliction of the death penalty; and that she had strong feelings about sending somebody to jail or giving them the death penalty. She said:

*740 Q. I would assume that the lesser of the two would be to send someone to jail, so are you sure that you couldn't sentence someone to death?
A. I am positive.
Q. You are positive you couldn't return a verdict recommending the death penalty, is that correct?
A. Yes, sir.

The prospective juror qualified her feeling against the death penalty by saying that, if a person had killed several people she probably could vote for the death penalty. Also, she vacillated some when interrogated by the appellant's attorney. She responded further:

Q. I see. So a murder in the process of a robbery you could not vote for the death penalty under any circumstances, is that correct?
A. (Juror nodded)
* * * * * *
Q. No question in your mind about that? You could not follow the law if the law was that you are to consider the death penalty and you decide on whether or not it's a bad enough case, and you couldn't even consider it if it was just one person killed?
A. If someone killed someone else, like I said, out of fear because they had robbed a store, no.
Q. I'm not asking you in self-defense or anything like that. Self-defense we wouldn't be here. He wouldn't have pled guilty.
A. (Juror nodded negatively).
Q. Your answer is still no, you could not consider it?
A. (Juror nodded negatively).
Q. Under any circumstances?
A. (Juror nodded).

The principle involved here was stated in Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968). It has been followed many times, and recently in Edwards v. State, 413 So.2d 1007 (Miss. 1982), where the Court said:

First argument made relates to the exclusion of juror Hibler on the ground of "conscientious scruples" against the death penalty. Juror Hibler was asked by the circuit judge if she could follow the testimony and instructions of the court although the "verdict could result in the death penalty"; juror Hibler said, "I couldn't."
Upon this state of juror Hibler's voir dire examination, she was excused and the defendant urges reversible error under Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968). Having categorically stated that she couldn't follow the testimony and instructions of the court, we think that the juror was correctly excluded. The fact that upon questioning by defense counsel, Hibler stated she would try to be a "fair" juror did not qualify her in this case. Similar argument was made in Edwards v. State, supra, n. 1, but there the sentence was life imprisonment whereas here the sentence is death. Thus, the two cases are not precisely analogous. For an excellent explanation of the proper method of bringing the death penalty to the attention of the special venire in capital cases, see Armstrong v. State, 214 So.2d 589 (Miss. 1968). [413 So.2d at 1009].

See also Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1969); Boulden v. Holman, 394 U.S. 478, 89 S.Ct. 1138, 22 L.Ed.2d 433 (1969); Maxwell v.

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Bluebook (online)
422 So. 2d 737, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/evans-v-state-miss-1982.