Freeman v. State

229 So. 2d 46, 45 Ala. App. 271, 1969 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 225
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedDecember 9, 1969
Docket6 Div. 43
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 229 So. 2d 46 (Freeman v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Freeman v. State, 229 So. 2d 46, 45 Ala. App. 271, 1969 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 225 (Ala. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

CATES, Judge.

Indictment: Count One, second degree burglary; Count Two, grand larceny of a television receiver; Count Three, grand larceny of a cooler with fan. Verdict: guilty of second degree burglary. Sentence: three years.

I

August 7, 1968, the Sheriff of Cullman County searched Freeman’s home. The Sheriff testified that Freeman was there and consented to the search. The Sheriff there saw and sequestered a television set and a cooler.

On cross, it was brought out that: a) Freeman was arrested August 3, for a different charge; b) on August 7, while under arrest, he signed “a waiver” after having been told of his rights. Without detailing the recital, which at the trial came in question, we shall characterize it as complying with Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694, 10 A.L.R.3d 974.

The waiver which Freeman signed apparently was to do away with the need for a warrant to search his house.

On August 8, Freeman acknowledged— under all the pre-Miranda predicates — that he had broken into one or two cabins in [273]*273Winston County, one of them near Houston; he was then drunk; it took him two “loads” to carry off the “stuff.”

The Sheriff found a fishing license in a stolen tackle box and through the licensee was able to put the Sheriff of Winston County onto tracing the house breaking and entering of which is of instant concern.

Mr. Howard Denson identified the cooler as his and the TV receiver as the property of his mother-in-law. Both had been- in her house before it was broken and entered in June or July, 1968. On cross, defense counsel elicited that the house in question was one mile west of Liberty Church, about five from Old Houston measured as the crow flies.

II

After the State rested, defense counsel moved for a mistrial on the ground that the confession of the defendant related to “another place,” hence, its reception was prejudicial. Whether “another place” was intended to refer to the discrepancy between Freeman’s admission that one of the cabins was “around Houston” and the testimony that the television and cooler came from a cabin about ten miles by road from Houston, is on this record unclear.

In view of the tendencies of the State’s proof that the property in question came from the house laid in the indictment, we consider that there was no error in the trial judge’s denying the motion. Long v. City of Opelika, 37 Ala.App. 200, 66 So.2d 126. Moreover, a motion for mistrial, as distinguished from a motion to exclude the State’s evidence, was in the state of proof not appropriate because there was still open the avenue of clarification of the exact locus in quo. A motion for mistrial basically is a claim of incurable error. See discussion in Thomas v. Ware, 44 Ala.App. 157, 204 So.2d 501.

The claim that there were contradictory implications in the testimony of some or one of the prosecution witnesses is not sufficiently cogent in the instant record. Cooper v. State, 31 Ala.App. 356, 18 So.2d 420; Miller v. City of Birmingham, 44 Ala.App. 628, 218 So.2d 281(3).

Basically, contradictions of the hypothetical magnitude to support a motion 'to exclude the prosecution’s entire proof would have to be mutually exclusive, and so self-cancelling as to add up to no proof at all. Moreover, after the prosecution has made a prima facie case beyond the scintilla rule (Ex parte Grimmett, 228 Ala. 1, 152 So. 263), the allegation of inherent contradiction raises by its very pronouncement a doubt as to what further proof might have been brought out by additional cross-examination.

hi

Self-explanatorily, Pinto v. Pierce, 389 U. S. 31, 88 S.Ct. 192, 19 L.Ed.2d 31 says:

“ * * * the trial court had heard in the presence of the jury testimony regarding the voluntariness of an incriminating statement sought to be introduced by the prosecution, * * *
“ * * * This Court has never ruled that all voluntariness hearings must be held outside the presence of the jury, regardless of the circumstances. Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 12 L.Ed.2d 908, 1 A.L.R.3d 1205 (1964), held that a defendant’s constitutional rights are violated when his challenged confession is introduced without a determination by the trial judge of its voluntariness after an adequate hearing. A confession by the defendant found to be involuntary by the trial judge is not to be heard by the jury which determines his guilt or innocence. Hence, because a disputed confession may be found involuntary and inadmissible by the judge; it would seem prudent to hold voluntariness hearings outside the presence of the jury. In this case, however, the confession was held voluntary and admitted as evidence suitable for consideration by the jury. In [274]*274addition, there is no claim that because the hearing was held in the presence of the jury it was inadequate or had any other unfair consequences for the respondent.
“Finally, it is clear that the respondent in this case did not object to having the voluntariness of his admission considered in the presence of the jury. At his trial the court asked defense counsel whether there was any objection to the testimony being taken in the presence of the jury. Defense counsel replied, ‘None whatsoever.’ * * * ” (footnotes omitted)

IV

Counsel for Freeman argues that the prosecution failed to prove that the cooler and television identified by Sheriff Cobb, Exhibits “A” and “B” “were the same two which Mr. Denson identified as being in the Courtroom.” Appellant’s Reply Brief, 1.

In deference to the earnestness of this argument, we extract below from the testimony of the two sheriffs and Mr. Denson:

“Q Now, I’ll ask you to state whether or not you got permission from Mr. Freeman to search this house before you did 'search it ?
“A Yes, sir, we did.
“Q Was Mr. Freeman present when you searched it?
“A Yes, sir.
“Q And who else was present when you searched it?
“A Myself, Sgt. Handcock, Investigator Clarence Harris, Chief Deputy Anderson.
“Q And Mr. Freeman?
“A Mr. Freeman, and Sheriff Cobb, [we interpolate; the'High Sheriff of Winston] and I believe, one of his deputies.
, “Q I’ will ask you if you have ever seen this cooler before (indicating) ?
“A Yes, sir.
“Q Where did you see this, Sheriff?
“A In Freeman’s house.
“Q MR. WEAVER: All right, we mark this cooler, this Chico Cooler as State’s Exhibit ‘1’ and mark it for identification. Now, did you see this television set over too ?
“A Yes, sir, I seen one like that, yes, sir.
“Q Have you got a record of the set you found over there?
“A No, I don’t believe so.

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Related

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268 So. 2d 868 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1972)

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Bluebook (online)
229 So. 2d 46, 45 Ala. App. 271, 1969 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 225, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/freeman-v-state-alacrimapp-1969.