Morris v. State

184 S.E.2d 82, 228 Ga. 39, 1971 Ga. LEXIS 458
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedSeptember 14, 1971
Docket26619, 26620
StatusPublished
Cited by59 cases

This text of 184 S.E.2d 82 (Morris 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
Morris v. State, 184 S.E.2d 82, 228 Ga. 39, 1971 Ga. LEXIS 458 (Ga. 1971).

Opinions

Grice, Justice.

These two appeals are by Donald Harold Morris from judgments of conviction and sentence to life imprisonment for murder and armed robbery, and also from denial of his amended motions for new trial. He was indicted for these offenses along with James L. Norwood, Paul Douglas Pearce and Donald Bridges by the grand jury of Fulton County, and was tried and convicted in the superior court of that county. The victim of the murder was Santos Martinez and of the robbery was George Nastapoulos. The appellant was tried separately for both offenses upon one trial.

His appeal involves 36 enumerations of error.

One enumeration complains of denial of the appellant’s challenge to the array because Code Ann. § 59-112 exempts numerous persons from jury duty and thereby deprives him [42]*42of a jury representing a cross-section of the community and the impartiality to which he is entitled under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, and denies him due process of law, equal protection of law, a fair and proper jury trial, and freedom from cruel and unusual punishments in violation of the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to that Constitution and in violation of the Georgia Constitution.

This complaint is not valid. See Manor v. State, 223 Ga. 594 (1) (157 SE2d 431); Robinson v. State, 225 Ga. 167 (2) (167 SE2d 158); Simmons v. State, 226 Ga. 110, 112 (172 SE2d 680). Nothing in Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U. S. 510 (88 SC 1770, 20 LE2d 776), supports appellant as to this.

He contends that the trial court erroneously denied his motion for dismissal of charges against him. The motion alleged in substance that he had not been arraigned, that while in custody the prosecuting officers tried to coerce, intimidate and harass him; and that he was denied a copy of the warrant and indictment.

The trial court correctly denied this motion. The record shows that the appellant was arraigned. The trial court heard testimony denying any such mistreatment and apparently chose to believe it instead of the appellant’s testimony. Likewise, the allegation as to being denied a warrant and copy of the indictment was not established.

Another enumeration avers that the trial court erred in allowing State’s counsel to ask improper hypothetical questions to prospective jurors on voir dire because such questions sought to define what each juror would do under a generalized state of facts. However, the questions related to impartiality and adherence to law, and therefore were not subject to the criticism made of them.

Also urged as erroneous is the overruling of appellant’s objection to the State’s questions upon cross examination of him when he was testifying in support of his motion to dismiss at the preliminary hearing. In this connection he argues that the questions concerning portions of an alleged [43]*43memorandum of an alleged statement, which he denied making, were outside the scope of the examination, were irrelevant to the hearing on the motion to dismiss, and infringed upon and damaged his right to make an unsworn statement in the jury trial occurring immediately thereafter.

The objections to these questions were properly overruled. They were germane to the matters involved in the motion, and in keeping with the State’s right to a thorough and sifting cross examination.

Three of the enumerations involve admissibility of evidence under the requirements of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436, supra.

(a) The appellant insists that the trial court erred in overruling his motions upon the preliminary hearing and upon the trial to suppress the aforementioned alleged oral statement made by him to an investigator for the district attorney’s office and allegedly reduced to writing in an unsigned memorandum.

As to this, appellant urges that he did not make the statement, but assuming that he did, it was made under circumstances which deprived him of his rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. He says that it was made after he was arrested, detained an unreasonable time without arraignment, coerced, threatened and offered promises to induce him to talk, but before he was shown a copy of the charges and without being informed of his rights as required by the Constitution of the United States, his right to counsel, to remain silent and not to discuss the matter without counsel being present, to have counsel before talking and to have counsel appointed if he had no funds to hire counsel.

(b) Appellant also insists that the purported written waiver that the State had him sign did not properly and lawfully warn him of the right to remain silent with the explanation that anything said can and will be used against him in court. Appellant avers that he was not otherwise so warned and that such failure, followed by the [44]*44interrogation which occurred, deprived him of his right against self-incrimination under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

Neither of these enumerations is meritorious.

The State offered testimony which contradicted the allegations recited above.

From the State’s evidence the trial court was authorized to find that prior to any questioning the appellant was properly advised as to his rights under the Miranda case, supra, both orally and by the waiver of counsel form that he read and signed. That the warnings here stated that anything said "could be used” and "may be used” instead of "can and will be used” is an inconsequential difference, as numerous cases have held, e.g., United States v. Grady, 423 F2d 1091 (CCA 5).

(c) The appellant also enumerates as error introduction in evidence of the waiver of counsel form hereinbefore referred to upon the same grounds as set forth in the motion to suppress. The rulings made in (a) and (b) control adversely to him here. See Walker v. State, 226 Ga. 292 (3) (174 SE2d 440).

The appellant complains of the denial of his motion to strike portions of the testimony of this witness emanating from the alleged memorandum of appellant’s statement to him, urging that this was inadmissible hearsay since the witness had not prepared it.

It was not error to permit this witness to testify as to the contents of this statement. Code § 38-1707 provides that "a witness may refresh and assist his memory by the use of any written instrument or memorandum, provided he finally shall speak from his recollection thus refreshed, or shall be willing to swear positively from the paper.” It is not required that the witness himself make the memorandum. Lenney v. Finley, 118 Ga. 427, 430 (45 SE 317). Here the evidence showed that the memorandum was prepared under the witness’ supervision. He testified that it was a correct statement of what the appellant had told him. What transpired in this respect was in accordance with the above [45]*45quoted Code section.

The position is taken that the motions for directed verdict for acquittal should have been granted because the probata fail to sustain the allegata as to both indictments.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Jackson v. the State
783 S.E.2d 672 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2016)
Payne v. the State
765 S.E.2d 770 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2014)
Sherman v. City of Atlanta
744 S.E.2d 689 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2013)
Hall v. Doyle-Hall
667 S.E.2d 81 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2008)
Harbolt v. Pelletier
662 S.E.2d 355 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2008)
Thomas v. State
572 S.E.2d 537 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2002)
Duckworth v. State
477 S.E.2d 336 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1997)
Rector v. State
444 S.E.2d 862 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1994)
Staples v. State
434 S.E.2d 757 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1993)
King v. State
411 S.E.2d 278 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1991)
Boyce v. State
362 S.E.2d 229 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1987)
Thomas v. State
335 S.E.2d 135 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1985)
Elliott v. State
320 S.E.2d 361 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1984)
Jackson v. State
323 S.E.2d 198 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1984)
Kelley v. State
315 S.E.2d 916 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1984)
Downside Risk, Inc. v. Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority
308 S.E.2d 547 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1983)
Hurst v. State
305 S.E.2d 663 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1983)
Jordan v. State
305 S.E.2d 165 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1983)
Harbin v. State
302 S.E.2d 386 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1983)
Robinson v. State
296 S.E.2d 225 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1982)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
184 S.E.2d 82, 228 Ga. 39, 1971 Ga. LEXIS 458, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morris-v-state-ga-1971.