McAllister v. Brown

419 F. Supp. 588, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13471
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedAugust 26, 1976
DocketCiv. A. No. C76-21A
StatusPublished

This text of 419 F. Supp. 588 (McAllister v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McAllister v. Brown, 419 F. Supp. 588, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13471 (N.D. Ga. 1976).

Opinion

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

HOOPER, Senior District Judge.

While there are other alleged errors relied upon by the petitioner for habeas corpus in this case, the primary and controlling question is whether or not the Georgia trial judge and the Supreme Court of Georgia unconstitutionally applied the provisions of Georgia Code § 38-302 to the facts of this case:

Said Georgia Code Section reads as follows:

When in a legal investigation, information, conversations, letters and replies, and similar evidence are facts to explain conduct and ascertain motives, they shall be admitted in evidence, not as hearsay, but as original evidence.

The policeman’s conduct was not in issue (as in cases of illegal arrest) and consequently the statute did not apply to the facts in the instant case. This Court is holding that even if illegality of the arrest had been in question, the alleged confession related to the police officer by an unnamed informer (the name of which the police officer refused to divulge) deprived the petitioner herein of his constitutional right of confrontation and cross-examination accorded a defendant before receiving in evidence testimony concerning a confession.

Petitioner was convicted in the Superior Court of Fulton County of armed robbery and given a sentence of sixteen (16) years. His motion for a new trial was denied and that judgment was affirmed by the Georgia Supreme Court. See 231 Ga. 368, 202 S.E.2d 54. He filed a habeas corpus action in this court which was allowed in forma pauperis, but was dismissed for failure to exhaust state remedies. In December, 1974 he filed a habeas corpus action in Wayne County Superior Court, which was denied by that court and his pro se appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court was affirmed January 5, 1976. The present habeas corpus action was then filed in this court and allowed in forma pauperis, and counsel for petitioner was subsequently appointed by this Court. Allegations of error in the instant case allege insufficiency of the evidence on his trial and alleged improper summation to the jury by State’s counsel, these allegations of error having been properly overruled by the Georgia Supreme Court.

Petitioner also alleged ineffective assistance of counsel on his trial, on which question it is not necessary for this Court for reasons hereinafter set forth, to make a ruling. The primary allegation of error is to the effect that petitioner was denied the right to confront witnesses against him, in that a confession allegedly made by an anonymous informant was admitted into evidence, and a discussion of that allegation is set forth below.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1— Petitioner was convicted of armed robbery of a jewelry store in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 25, 1972. In that robbery the following assets were lost, none ever having been recovered, to-wit: $70,000.00 worth of diamonds, $5,000.00 worth of goods, and $1,000.00 worth of cash.

2— There were three victims at the scene of the robbery, to-wit: Rex Harrison (the watch maker), Otto Cohen (the owner) and Billy Cohen (the son of Otto Cohen).

3— The investigating police officer testified that the victims reported the crime to [591]*591him within minutes after its perpetration and that there was one robber concerned in the scene. Testimony on the trial by the victims, however, was to the effect that there were two robbers. Billy Cohen testified he could not identify the defendant on trial because the witness’s back was to the robber. Rex Harrison testified that the defendant on trial held a knife to Billy’s throat and that the other robber had a gun and struck him on the head with it.

4— Otto Cohen testified on the trial that the defendant had a big white-chromed plated gun and the man had neither a knife nor a pistol (note conflict with above testimony).

5— While there is testimony no gloves were worn by the robbers no finger prints were found.

6— Testimony of the police officer concerning the informer and the alleged confession follows in part the following: (See tr. beginning p. 180)

Q: Do you wish to disclose the informant’s name?
A: No, sir.
Q: Why not?
A: Because he’s known by the defendant and I’d rather not mention his name.

The foregoing questions related to prior testimony by the officer, as follows:

Q: Now, as a result of — well, first of all, what type of information did you have?
A: An informant called in and gave me some information, and I went and talked to him. He gave me the name of the person supposedly did the robbery.
Q: Did he tell you why he thought this person did the robbery?
A: He stated that the subject had told him about the robbery, that he did it.

It is significant that the State’s prosecuting attorney was the first one to inject the question as to the police officer’s unwillingness to give the name of the informant when he asked this question: “Do you wish to disclose the informant’s name?”, and received a negative answer. It is also significant that he asked the witness “why not” and received the answer “because he’s known by the defendant and I’d rather not mention his name.” The foregoing is significant when one considers the decisions of the' courts as to whether or not the unknown informer was in anywise involved in the transaction under investigation. (See Roviaro v. United States, 353 U.S. 53, 77 S.Ct. 623, 1 L.Ed.2d 639 (1957). (Further testimony by this police officer when cross-examined by defendant’s counsel appears hereafter)

After the recent decisions by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals1 this Court set this case down for a hearing requiring the presence of Officer Smith in order to determine the name of the informer referred to and whether the informant’s name would be relevant in this case. Officer Smith testified he did not recall the informant’s name, but stated he thought the name was included in some notes he had made concerning his investigation which he stated had been lost.2

7 — Officer Smith, after several refusals to give the name of the informer (because the informer allegedly was acquainted with the defendant on trial) having failed to cooperate with this Court in obtaining or [592]*592giving the name of such informer, this Court passed an order on June 29, 1976 in the further effort to obtain such name. Such order recited, “respondent contends, that the burden of proof is not upon respondent to furnish the name of said informant”, with which contention this Court did not, and does not now, concur because “it now appears that such information is entirely within the possession, custody, and control of said respondent and is not being made available to the Court.” It is unthinkable that no one connected with the prosecution of McAllister (without whose testimony his trial would have been an impossibility), did not recall or could not have readily ascertained his name.

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Bluebook (online)
419 F. Supp. 588, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13471, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcallister-v-brown-gand-1976.