Oyarzun v. Pittman

367 So. 2d 574, 1978 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1101
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedDecember 19, 1978
Docket1 Div. 965
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 367 So. 2d 574 (Oyarzun v. Pittman) 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
Oyarzun v. Pittman, 367 So. 2d 574, 1978 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1101 (Ala. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

DeCARLO, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the Baldwin Circuit Court, denying the appellant’s petition for the issuance of a writ of mandamus.

On December 31, 1977, law enforcement officers in Baldwin County arrested and charged approximately ten individuals with possession of marijuana. One of those charged and arrested was the appellant, Raul Oyarzun.

After indictment, but prior to arraignment, the appellant filed a petition for a writ of mandamus on relation of State of Alabama against the clerk, chairman, and members of the Baldwin County Jury Commission, alleging that the jury commission and the clerk had failed to carry out their duties, as prescribed by the laws of the State of Alabama, in selecting potential jurors, maintaining the jury rolls, and filling the jury box with prospective jurors.

A hearing was held and the appellant presented the testimony of a number of witnesses. Among those testifying were the respondents, Alex Pittman, Walter Foster and Isola Faust (members of the jury commission of Baldwin County), and Lois Hughes, the clerk of the commission. The Baldwin Circuit Court denied the petition at the end of the hearing and Oyarzun appealed the judgment to the Supreme Court of Alabama.

The appeal was transferred to the Court of Criminal Appeals by the Alabama Supreme Court on May 9, 1978. On May 16, 1978, the Court of Criminal Appeals struck the appeal of Oyarzun.

After an application for rehearing was overruled, the appellant filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the Alabama Supreme Court, requesting that the Supreme Court require the Court of Criminal Appeals to hear the appeal. The petition for certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court of Alabama on June 9, 1978.

[577]*577A petition for reconsideration of the denial of writ of certiorari was filed by the appellant on June 20,1978, and on June 28, 1978, the Alabama Supreme Court restored the case to its docket. On September 6, 1978, the Alabama Supreme Court restored the case to its docket. On September 6, 1978, the Alabama Supreme Court issued an order stating that it was the opinion of that court that the Court of Criminal Appeals had jurisdiction of the appeal and it was transferred to the Court of Criminal Appeals for review.

During the hearing on the petition, the three commissioners of the Baldwin County Jury Commission and its clerk were called to testify in support of the writ of mandamus. For the sake of brevity, we have summarized the testimony of these witnesses.

Lois Hughes was the clerk of the jury commission. She was appointed in December, 1976, and had served approximately one year at the time of this hearing. According to Mrs. Hughes, she was instructed to “get the names on the cards that were to go in the jury box and enter them into the jury roll.”

She testified that she was not to prepare a jury roll, but merely to add names. Further, she stated it was the commissioner’s job to gather the names of potential jurors to be placed on the jury roll. Also, that she had never been instructed to prepare a list of citizens of Baldwin County between the ages of nineteen and sixty-five. She explained that the names had listings of beats next to them, rather than precincts; and that the beats numbered one through fifteen. She said they endeavored to use the citizen’s “full name,” rather than initials.

Mrs. Hughes testified she had used the telephone directory of the Bay Minette area as a source for gathering names of citizens to be included on the jury roll.

Mrs. Hughes recalled that she had not prepared a list of names of the citizens in the county between the ages of nineteen and sixty-five, but stated, “we have been working on putting some younger ones in there.” She said that she had started this task approximately in January of 1978, about the time the Code was changed permitting nineteen year-olds to be placed on the list, which was several weeks prior to the hearing.

Further testimony by Mrs. Hughes was that she had been helping the commissioners to gather names and that this effort was being made “mostly on the telephone.” She testified she had approximately one-hundred and fifty to two-hundred cards prepared that were included in the jury box.

Mrs. Hughes testified that the ages of those on the jury roll were not listed and she could not tell how many people on the jury roll were over the age of sixty-five.

During further questioning, it was shown that specific named individuals did not appear on the jury roll. She stated there were some names that appeared on certain venires that had not been purged from the list. She explained that she had not had sufficient time to get to some of them, but did have correspondence in her folder on those to be taken off the jury roll. She said that the correspondence was from the circuit judge and the sheriff’s office.

Mrs. Hughes also stated she had added approximately three-hundred names to the jury list during her tenure as clerk of the commission. These names would appear at the bottom of the particular page on which they were added. There were names of individuals in the jury box, whose names did not appear on the jury roll, but she produced another list of about forty-five names, which she said she would compare with the jury roll to determine whether or not they were listed.

Mrs. Hughes stated that, during her tenure in office, approximately five-hundred names had been supplied to her by the commissioners. She said she did not know “how many ways they have for getting them (names),” but the commissioners brought them in during their meetings, and that she had also received them by mail. She said as to investigating the qualifications of the person whose name she had [578]*578been given, such task was left up to the person who supplied her with the name; that she had received names only from friends and the jury commissioners.

Mrs. Hughes testified that the jury commission met four times a year usually in the probate judge’s office. Further, she said that on only one occasion had one of the commissioners been absent and that was due to illness. Mrs. Hughes said the names of the people to be added to the roll were discussed during these meetings, as well as those to be removed; that she did not strike any names from the roll unless she had letters from the circuit judge or the sheriff’s office. She admitted there were few names that she had typed on cards that were in the jury box that had not been entered on the jury roll and that she did not know the other ways the commissioners used to gather names, but she did know they used the telephone book and some personal contacts.

During further questioning, Mrs. Hughes stated that during her tenure in'office the jury roll had not been purged to determine those persons over the age of sixty-five.

Walter Foster had been the chairman of the jury commission for five years and he identified the jury roll as being the only one in existence. Further, he admitted, that, during his tenure of office, it had been the practice of the jury commission merely to add names to the pages in the jury roll.

Mr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
367 So. 2d 574, 1978 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oyarzun-v-pittman-alacrimapp-1978.