Keith v. State

197 So. 2d 480, 1967 Miss. LEXIS 1529
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedApril 10, 1967
DocketNo. 44410
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 197 So. 2d 480 (Keith 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
Keith v. State, 197 So. 2d 480, 1967 Miss. LEXIS 1529 (Mich. 1967).

Opinion

RODGERS, Justice:

This is an appeal by Gerald Olin Keith from a conviction in the Circuit Court of Lafayette County, Mississippi, on a charge of possessing burglary tools. The defendant was sentenced to serve a term of five years in the Mississippi State Penitentiary. The defendant’s conviction grew out of the following facts.

On August 27, 1966, a highway patrolman learned that one Buddy Malone Mc-Collum was wanted in Fayette County, Tennessee, on a felony charge, and a warrant had been issued for his arrest. The patrolman saw an automobile near Wyatt Crossing in Lafayette County, Mississippi. Upon inquiry, he discovered that Buddy Malone McCollum was an occupant in the automobile. He arrested Buddy Malone McCollum and shackled him. He then requested that he be permitted to search the automobile, said to belong to the defendant, Gerald Olin Keith. He searched the front of the automobile, but discovered that the trunk of the automobile was locked. The defendant readily gave permission for the search, but requested that the officer not break the lock. The keys to the trunk of the automobile could not be found. At the time the officer arrested McCollum, the automobile was occupied by McCollum, the defendant Keith, defendant’s wife, Peggy Keith, his children, and Nancy Little McCollum. When the Sheriff, Boyce Brat-ton, arrived at the place where the highway patrolman was in the process of searching the automobile, and discovered that the trunk could not be opened, he requested defendant to go to Oxford, the county seat, for the purpose of opening it. He advised defendant that he could get a search warrant to search the car, if it were necessary. Apparently the defendant willingly agreed to go to Oxford and to permit the officer to open the trunk of the automobile. The deputy sheriff rode in the automobile with defendant some twenty or twenty-five miles to Oxford, Mississippi. The officers went to the county jail, and, finally, late at night, a locksmith made a key and opened the trunk of defendant’s automobile. The defendant and his wife had been detained about four and a half hours. The officers found suitcases containing clothing belonging to defendant’s wife and children. They found several tools wrapped in a blanket. These tools were described as, a sledge hammer with shortened handle, a punch, ordinary screw drivers, a wrecking bar, a chisel, a utility bar and a handy man crowbar. Defendant said he did not know the tools were in the automobile. The sheriff was asked: “(A)fter you found all of those tools in the back of Keith’s car, what, if anything, did you do?” and he answered: “I placed him under arrest, all of them.” He said later, however, that he did not arrest Mrs. Keith.

While an effort was being made to open the automobile trunk, the sheriff repeatedly asked defendant if he wanted him to get a search warrant. Finally, defendant said: “I am scared; I want a lawyer.” The sheriff then handed defendant a telephone book containing names of lawyers, and he was advised that he could call an attorney but he did not do so. However, defendant’s [482]*482wife called a lawyer late that night, and he went to the jail the following Sunday morning and talked to the defendant. Memphis police officers, J. H. Wright and Lieutenant J. B. Cave, arrived at the jail in Oxford early in the afternoon, and defendant was immediately taken into a small room where he was confronted by them. They testified that he was advised of all of his constitutional rights and that, at first, he refused to talk to them, but later he agreed to talk. They testified that defendant told them that he had purchased a number of tools at Cat's in Memphis for Buddy McCollum, and that the old tools had been “picked up” from another place at his request. An officer also testified that defendant told him: “(T)hese tools were going to be used by Buddy McCollum to break in places but he wasn’t going to be a party to it. He wasn’t going to be a party to it, that he was putting himself out for Buddy Mc-Collum, and that he wasn’t going to get anything out of any of the places; that Buddy McCollum was going to use these tools.”

During the trial, attorneys for defendant objected to the testimony with reference to the alleged confession. The trial judge retired the jury and heard testimony as to admissibility of the confession. When the State had concluded the introduction of its testimony, in the absence of the jury, the trial judge asked the defendant’s attorneys: “Anything in rebuttal, gentlemen?” The defendant’s counsel then said: “That’s all.”

In defense of the charge, the defendant introduced evidence showing that he was a handy man, and he not only had a regular job but did odd jobs after work hours, and the tools found in his automobile were such as were ordinarily used by a handy man or carpenter. The defendant did not testify. In rebuttal, the State then offered proof by one of the Memphis policemen, as an expert witness, that, in his opinion — based upon his long experience — the tools exhibited to the jury were of the type that a burglar would use

The appellant filed twenty-one assignments of error alleged to have been committed in the trial of this case. Some of these assignments have become moot. The assignments of error essential to the determination of this appeal will be discussed in the order of their importance.

The State requested, and the court granted, the following instruction:

“The Court instructs the jury for the State that while it is true that in this case, as in all criminal cases, the Defendant is presumed to be innocent until he is proven guilty, and that this presumption goes with the Defendant throughout the entire trial and until overcome by competent testimony, and while it is further true that the burden of proof in this case, as in all criminal cases, is upon the State to satisfy the minds of the jury of the guilt of the Defendant from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, yet the Court now says to you that this presumption of innocence, which the law throws around the defendant as a shield and safeguard and is not intended to shield from punishment anyone who is in fact guilty, but is simply a humane provision of the law to guard against the conviction of an innocent man, and the Court further says to you that if you believe from the evidence in this case, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the Defendant is guilty as charged, then, in that event, it is your sworn duty to say guilty by your verdict regardless of the presumption of innocence and the further fact of the burden of proof being on the State.”

This instruction has been repeatedly condemned by this Court. Murphy v. State, Miss., 195 So.2d 847, decision rendered February 27, 1967; Pendergraft v. State, 191 So.2d 830 (Miss.1966); Hall v. State, 250 Miss. 253, 165 So.2d 345 (1964); McLaurin v. State, 205 Miss. 554, 37 So.2d 8 (1948); Smith v. State, 161 Miss. 430, 137 So. 96 (1931).

[483]*483In the Murphy case, this Court requested the prosecuting attorneys to refrain from offering this instruction and directed the trial judges to refuse to grant it. Over the years this instruction has been proven to be harmful, and although we have never held it to be reversible error when taken alone, nevertheless, it is error and is harmful, and in most cases will be considered prejudicial to the defendant’s right to a fair trial.

Instructions to juries are statements of the law applicable to the facts and are given for the guidance of the jury in considering the testimony. Instructions should never be used to influence the jury as to how facts should be decided.

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Bluebook (online)
197 So. 2d 480, 1967 Miss. LEXIS 1529, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keith-v-state-miss-1967.