Franklin v. State

263 S.E.2d 666, 245 Ga. 141, 1980 Ga. LEXIS 721
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJanuary 4, 1980
Docket35381
StatusPublished
Cited by111 cases

This text of 263 S.E.2d 666 (Franklin v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Franklin v. State, 263 S.E.2d 666, 245 Ga. 141, 1980 Ga. LEXIS 721 (Ga. 1980).

Opinion

Hill, Justice.

This is a death case. On the morning of January 17, 1979, Sergeant Burnis Campbell and Deputy Kenny King of the Cobb County Sheriffs Department transported four Cobb County jail inmates, one of whom was Raymond Lee Franklin, to Dr. Daniel Busch’s dental office for treatment. The inmates were secured together by means of a chain; each inmate had one wrist cuffed. Franklin was the second inmate sent into the dentist’s treatment room; when he returned, Deputy King released another inmate and while Sergeant Campbell escorted that inmate to the treatment room, Franklin, who had not yet been secured by the chain, seized Deputy King’s pistol. At Franklin’s direction, the other two inmates seized Deputy King’s key and released themselves, and then took King’s and Campbell’s wallets and Campbell’s pistol. At one point, Franklin commented that he was in for life and had nothing to lose.

Franklin obtained Dr. Busch’s car keys and forced Dr. Busch’s assistant, Carol Heitmuller, to leave with him. Franklin, Ms. Heitmuller, and two of the other inmates *142 left the office together. When Franklin was unable to unlock Dr. Busch’s car, he told Ms. Heitmuller they were going to run; he held Deputy King’s gun with the barrel in her side and they proceeded across a parking area and up a hill into some woods. They emerged into a clearing where they saw a Mr. Dempsey. Franklin yelled at him that he wanted a car; when Dempsey responded that he did not have a car, they went on and arrived at the Collie house. The house had a screen door and a wooden door with glass panes. When Franklin knocked, Claude Collie opened the wooden door. Franklin demanded his car and Collie slammed the door. Franklin then fired, fatally wounding Collie. 1 Ms. Heitmuller ran to a neighbor’s house.

Mrs. Collie was in the bedroom when she heard a shot. She returned to the living room where she saw her husband collapse after saying, "I’ve been shot.” She heard a second shot and called out to her daughter Gladys. Gladys Collie came into the living room and saw her father lying on the floor; she looked outside, saw Franklin by her car near the porch and shouted that he had killed her father. Franklin returned to the house, pointed the gun at Gladys’s head and cocked the hammer. Both mother and daughter ran into other rooms. Franklin found Mrs. Collie and, placing the gun to her head, asked for the car keys. She ran out of the house. Franklin then left on foot and hid during the day.

That evening, after unsuccessfully attempting to get into a car being driven by a woman outside a Wendy’s restaurant, he was seen running down the Canton Highway by two customers at Wendy’s. He was arrested shortly after 8 p.m. that night behind a shoe store. The pistol he had taken from Deputy King was found several feet from where he was captured. It had two spent shells. Ballistic comparisons showed it was the gun which killed *143 the victim. Franklin’s confession corroborated the testimony of the several witnesses. Franklin was convicted of kidnapping and murder and sentenced to 20 years and to death, respectively. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to support the verdict, a rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty of these crimes beyond a reasonable doubt.

1. Franklin filed timely challenges to the composition of the grand jury in Cobb County and the petit jury in Bibb County, alleging that each was selected in violation of Code Ann. § 59-112. 2 After hearing evidence, the trial court ruled against him; in his first two enumerations of error he appeals those rulings. His complaint is founded not on the Consititution but on alleged violations of the statute. 3

Code Ann. § 59-112 provides: "(a) The following persons are exempt from all jury duty, civil or criminal; the name of any such person shall not be included or continued in the jury box unless such person shall make a request therefor in writing to the board of jury commissioners or its clerk:

"1. Police and other law enforcement officers employed or appointed on a full-time basis, but not part-time or honorary peace officers.
"2. Officers and personnel of any court employed or appointed on a full-time basis, including attorneys at law...
"3. Officers, firemen and other personnel of any fire department employed or appointed on a full-time basis...
"4. Physicians, surgeons, medical interns, and medical technicians actively engaged as such. . .
*144 "5. Dentists and pharmacists, duly licensed, who are actively engaged in the practice of their profession.
"(b) Any other person who shows that he will be engaged during his term of required service in work necessary to the public health, safety, or good order, or that she is a housewife with children 14 years of age or younger may be excused by the judge of the court to which he has been summoned or by some other person who has been duly appointed by order of the chief judge to excuse jurors. Such a person may exercise such authority only after the establishment by court order of guidelines governing such excuses. Any such order of appointment shall provide that, except for permanently mentally or physically disabled persons, all excuses shall be deferred to a date and time certain within that term or the next succeeding term or shall be deferred as set forth in the court order. . .
"(d) Any teacher or principal of this State who does not desire to serve upon juries shall notify the jury commissioners of the county in which he or she resides in writing to that effect, and thereupon the jury commissioners shall not place the name of such teacher or principal in the jury box for said county.
"(e) Any person who is 65 years of age or older who does desire to serve upon juries shall notify the jury commissioners of the county in which such person resides in writing to that effect, and thereupon the jury commissioners shall place the name of such , person in the jury box for said county.” (Emphasis supplied.)

In support of his motion challenging the Cobb County Grand Jury, Franklin called as a witness the Clerk of the Superior Court of the Cobb Judicial Circuit, who also served as the clerk of the jury commissioners and as acting court administrator. He testified that the grand jury list was compiled by random selection from the 1977 list of registered voters. A computer selects 1,000 names (the "ready list”) and prints a notice which is sent to each individual advising them that they will be receiving a summons for jury service within the next ninety days. 4 *145 Along with the notice, each individual is sent instructions as to legal exemptions.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
263 S.E.2d 666, 245 Ga. 141, 1980 Ga. LEXIS 721, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/franklin-v-state-ga-1980.