Greene v. State

37 S.W.3d 579, 343 Ark. 526, 2001 Ark. LEXIS 164
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMarch 8, 2001
DocketCR 96-362
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 37 S.W.3d 579 (Greene v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Greene v. State, 37 S.W.3d 579, 343 Ark. 526, 2001 Ark. LEXIS 164 (Ark. 2001).

Opinion

ROBERT L. Brown, Justice.

This is the third appeal in this matter. In 1992, appellant Jack Gordon Greene was tried and convicted of the capital murder of Sidney Jethro Burnett and sentenced to death. On June 20, 1994, this court affirmed Greene’s conviction for capital murder, but we reversed his death sentence and remanded for resentencing. Greene v. State, 317 Ark. 350, 878 S.W.2d 384 (1994) (Greene I). We did so because the aggravating circumstance based on a judgment for a prior unrelated violent felony which had been relied on by the jury in sentencing Greene to death was reversed by the North Carolina Supreme Court. In 1996, Greene was again sentenced to death following a resentencing hearing. On November 5, 1998, this court considered Greene’s appeal from this second death sentence, and we again reversed the sentence and remanded for resentencing. See Greene v. State, 335 Ark. 1, 977 S.W.2d 192 (1998) (Greene II). We did so because (1) the State had not offered proof that Greene’s bad act in North Carolina constituted a felony under North Carolina law, and (2) Greene was entitled to a hearing relating to his objections to his mental evaluation.

On remand, Greene was again sentenced to death at a resentencing hearing that took place on June 30 and July 1, 1999. He now appeals and raises seven points for reversal. We hold that none of the points raised has merit, and we affirm the death sentence.

The facts leading to Greene’s conviction for capital murder were fully described in Greene I. Suffice it to say that in 1991, Sidney Jethro Burnett and his wife, Edna, worked to help needy families through an organization named Ministries Aflame and befriended Greene and his wife. Burnett provided work for Greene and a home for the couple as well as funds for needed surgery. The Greenes had marital problems, and Donna Greene left her husband and moved to North Carolina. Greene followed her. Later, he returned to Arkansas and appeared to blame Edna Burnett for his wife’s leaving him.

On July 23, 1991, Edna Burnett found her husband dead in her home in Johnson County. His hands and feet were tied, his mouth was taped, there was blood on his chest, and he was propped up against a couch. 1 It was subsequently determined by former medical examiner, Dr. Fahmy Malak, that he had been stabbed repeatedly, beaten on the head and back by a blunt instrument, shot in his chest and head, and his face was slashed from his ear to his mouth. Burnett had been shot by a .25 caliber pistol.

Three days later Greene was arrested in Oklahoma. He had a .25 caliber pistol in his possession. That pistol made the markings on the two shell casings found at the murder scene. Three days after his arrest, he was charged with capital murder for Burnett’s death. He told Johnson County Sheriff Eddie King, who had traveled to Oklahoma to bring Greene back to Arkansas: “I’m tired of being treated like shit. I was going to take out people that fucked with me. It’s like chaining up a dog and treating it like shit. Sooner or later it goes crazy.” The jury trials which resulted in the first two death sentences followed in 1992 and 1996.

After receiving his second death sentence in 1996, a series of motions from Greene dealing with his waiver of an appeal to this court and his mental competency to do so ensued. Greene v. State, 326 Ark. 179, 929 S.W.2d 157 (1996) (per curiam) (motion to waive appeal equivocal; denied); Greene v. State, 326 Ark. 822, 933 S.W.2d 392(1996) (per curiam) (following second motion to waive appeal, matter remanded for competency determination); Greene v. State, 327 Ark. 511, 939 S.W.2d 834 (1997) (per curiam) (remanded for. second competency hearing on basis first determination was insufficient); Greene v. State, 328 Ark. 218, 941 S.W.2d 428 (1997) (Greene’s motion to dismiss appeal denied because Greene refused to cooperate in his mental health evaluation); Greene v. State, 329 Ark. 491, 949 S.W.2d 894 (1997) (per curiam) (motion to withdraw appeal and for writ of habeas corpus denied). After his third resentencing hearing in 1999, where he again received a death sentence, this court affirmed the trial court’s determination that Greene was competent to waive appeal. State v. Greene, 338 Ark. 806, 1 S.W.3d 442 (1999) (per curiam).

We issued a writ of certiorari to the court reporter to prepare the record and the Arkansas Public Defender Commission petitioned as substitute counsel to present an appeal on Greene’s behalf pursuant to State v. Robbins, 339 Ark. 379, 5 S.W.3d 51 (1999).

I. Mitigating and Victim-Impact Evidence

For his first issue, Greene contends that the trial court erred in refusing to admit evidence offered by defense counsel as mitigating evidence or victim-impact evidence. The pertinent facts are that while on death row, Greene received a letter from Edna Burnett, the victim’s wife, expressing her forgiveness of Greene for the murder and her desire that he be given a life sentence rather than the death penalty. At the resentencing hearing in July 1999, defense counsel sought to introduce this testimony, either by actual letter or through the live testimony of Edna Burnett. The trial court ruled that the letter was inadmissible. The court also ruled that Mrs. Burnett could not testify in person that in her opinion Greene should be sentenced to life in prison or about her forgiveness of him for his crime.

a. Mitigating Evidence

Greene first urges that the State cannot prevent a jury from considering relevant mitigating evidence offered in support of a sentence less than death and cites us to Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104 (1982), for that principle. He further argues that his right to present relevant evidence to the jury, which could cause the jury not to impose the death penalty, is constitutionally guaranteed. See McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987). He emphasizes that the venire persons were asked in voir dire if forgiveness by the family would make a difference to them in determining the appropriate punishment, and four members of the panel, including two who became jurors, said that the victim’s family’s forgiveness would either be important or might matter to them. Finally, Greene directs our attention to Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-605 (Repl. 1997), for the proposition that the listed mitigating circumstances are not meant to be exclusive. He points us to our language in a recent case where we said there “are virtually no limits placed on the relevant mitigating evidence that a defendant may introduce.” Lee v. State, 327 Ark. 692, 703, 942 S.W.2d 231, 236 (1997).

We are not persuaded that Edna Burnett’s forgiveness and her opinion that life imprisonment is the appropriate penalty constitute relevant mitigating evidence. Lee v. State, supra. The apposite statute requires that “[MJitigation evidence must be relevant to the issue of punishment.” Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-602(4) (Repl. 1997); see also Simpson v. State, 339 Ark. 467, 6 S.W.3d 104 (1999). This court has observed that Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-602 does not “totally open the door to any and all matters simply because they might conceivably relate to mitigation [.]” McGehee v. State, 338 Ark.

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Bluebook (online)
37 S.W.3d 579, 343 Ark. 526, 2001 Ark. LEXIS 164, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greene-v-state-ark-2001.