Rashid v. State

737 S.E.2d 692, 292 Ga. 414, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 113, 2013 WL 227642, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 63
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJanuary 22, 2013
DocketS12A1698
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 737 S.E.2d 692 (Rashid 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
Rashid v. State, 737 S.E.2d 692, 292 Ga. 414, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 113, 2013 WL 227642, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 63 (Ga. 2013).

Opinion

HINES, Justice.

Chaudhry Rashid appeals his conviction for malice murder in connection with the strangulation death of his daughter, Sandeela Kanwal. Rashid challenges the sufficiency of the evidence of his guilt, grants of immunity to members of his family, the admission into [415]*415evidence of a videotaped conversation between himself and his family, the use of a transcript of the videotape, and aspects of the trial court’s instructions to the jury. Finding the challenges to be without merit, we affirm.1

Rashid immigrated to the United States from Pakistan following the death of his wife. After he remarried, his four children, including Kanwal, emigrated from Pakistan and began living with him. Upon the insistence of Rashid, in 2005 Kanwal married her first cousin in order to permit the cousin entry into the United States. The cousin arrived in Georgia in 2008, stayed briefly with Rashid and his family, and then moved to Chicago without Kanwal. Kanwal contacted an attorney to seek a divorce. When Kanwal’s family learned of her intention to divorce her cousin, the family “started to force her not to do anything, not to leave the house, not to go and work. Trying to cut her off from everything.” Kanwal and Rashid argued frequently. Kanwal asked a friend to “try and get her out of the house” and to take her to a physician so that she could attempt to convince her father that she was not having any affairs and that she was not pregnant. In a telephone call to the friend, Kanwal confided that Rashid had found out that she filed for divorce, and that she feared her family would “take measures against her,” including poisoning her food.

On July 6,2008, Clayton County police responded to a 911 call at Rashid’s residence. One of Kanwal’s brothers told the responding officer that he thought Kanwal was dead inside the house because Rashid told him so. The officer found Rashid sitting on the ground behind a vehicle in the driveway, and asked him what had happened. Rashid responded that his daughter was dead, and when the officer inquired how she died, Rashid “dropped his head down between his legs.” The officer entered the home, which had an acrid smell like that given off from an electrical or plastic burn, and discovered Kanwal’s body in an upstairs bedroom; there were darkened marks around her neck. Remnants of a burned cord were found in the garage. At the scene, Rashid appeared to suffer a medical emergency and was taken [416]*416to a hospital. Following his release from the hospital, Rashid was transported to the police department where detectives conducted a videotaped interview of him with the aid of an interpreter fluent in Urdu and Punjabi. Rashid’s statements during the interrogation were ultimately suppressed based upon the trial court’s finding of a Miranda2 violation.3

At the conclusion of the police questioning, Rashid asked to speak with his family. The recording equipment in the interview room was still on when Rashid met with family members. Rashid, speaking in Urdu and Punjabi, repeatedly admitted to killing his daughter because she was defying him by pursuing a divorce, stating, inter alia, “I could not tolerate it, that my daughter confronted me in this way.” Describing the act of the murder itself, he said, “There was no noise; those who want to get things done, do it silently.” He further explained, that had his daughter survived his attack, “she was so filthy, she would have put me in jail.” Multiple times he expressed his belief that he had done the right thing by killing his daughter because she was bringing dishonor to herself, to him, and to the entire family.

The State filed a motion to admit Rashid’s recorded statements during his conversation with his family, and the trial court granted the State’s motion. At trial, the court allowed the State to show the videotape, publish a transcript of the recording to the jury, and use a Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) linguist to translate the recording.

Prior to trial, Rashid’s wife and sons invoked their Fifth Amendment rights. During trial, the State moved to offer grants of immunity [417]*417from prosecution to Rashid’s three sons. Pursuant to former OCGA § 24-9-28,4 the trial court granted Rashid’s sons use and derivative use immunity and required them to testify. All three sons testified that they did not kill Kanwal. Further, two of Rashid’s sons testified that they were not at home when Kanwal was killed.

1. Contrary to Rashid’s contention, the evidence was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the malice murder of his daughter. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979).

2. The trial court granted use and derivative use immunity to Rashid’s sons following opening statements and some testimony from State’s witnesses. Rashid contends that it was error to grant the immunity during what he characterizes as the “middle of the trial,” claiming that the timing undermined his entire trial strategy, including that for voir dire and jury selection, and therefore, resulted in prejudice to him. He claims further error in the trial court’s limiting the immunity granted to that of “use and derivative use,” arguing that the limited immunity subjected the sons to possible charges of perjury if their trial testimony deviated from their earlier statements even if the prior statements contained falsehoods.

Although it is plain that Rashid would have preferred the trial court not order his sons to testify, in general he has no standing under [418]*418Georgia law to challenge the offer and grant of immunity to his sons. King v. State, 273 Ga. 258, 264-265 (15) (539 SE2d 783) (2000). The sons’ rights, rather than Rashid’s rights, were at issue. Under OCGA § 24-9-28 (a), the trial court had to consider whether the State’s request to offer immunity was “necessary to the public interest.” Id. Further, assuming arguendo that Rashid does have standing to complain of any aspect of the grants of immunity, including the timing and breadth thereof, he has not shown any resulting prejudice. He does not detail or explain how his defense strategy would have differed if immunity had been granted earlier or if blanket immunity had been given. The record shows that Rashid knew or should have known that the grants of immunity were a possibility, if not a probability. In addition, the defense was well aware of the sons’ prior statements to authorities, and therefore, was on notice of their possible trial testimony. What is more, there were some significant discrepancies between the earlier statements to authorities and the trial testimony demonstrating that the sons did not feel constrained for any reason to mimic their prior statements.

3. Rashid contends that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence the videotape of his conversation with family members in the police interrogation room because the recordings amounted to an illegal search and seizure in violation of the Federal and State Constitutions because he had a reasonable subjective and objective expectation of privacy while making such statements. But, the contention is unavailing.

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Bluebook (online)
737 S.E.2d 692, 292 Ga. 414, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 113, 2013 WL 227642, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 63, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rashid-v-state-ga-2013.