Rickard v. State

219 So. 2d 363, 283 Ala. 534, 1969 Ala. LEXIS 1228
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedFebruary 13, 1969
Docket8 Div. 283
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 219 So. 2d 363 (Rickard v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rickard v. State, 219 So. 2d 363, 283 Ala. 534, 1969 Ala. LEXIS 1228 (Ala. 1969).

Opinion

HARWOOD, Justice.

This appellant, Charles Ernest Rickard, has been adjudged guilty of murder in the second degree under an indictment charging him with murder in the first degree.

In the trial below he entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.

The evidence tends to show that the deceased, Claud Thomason, came to appellant’s home around 12:30 P.M., on 24 October 1965. The appellant and deceased were cousins and had known each other since boyhood. The men sat on the porch and talked. Mrs. Rickard was preparing the midday meal and Thomason accepted the Rickard’s invitation to eat with them. After the meal the men sat in the kitchen talking. Mrs. Rickard went into a bedroom and lay down.

About 3:00 P.M., Mrs. Rickard heard a loud noise and went into the kitchen. She saw Thomason lying on the floor bleeding. The appellant was standing near a table. Mrs. Rickard kept asking what had happened but the appellant would make no reply. Mrs. Rickard examined Thomason’s body and determined he was dead. She announced she would call the sheriff but the appellant refused to let her make any call. In fact all during the afternoon Mrs. Rickard repeated her wish to call the sheriff but the appellant would not permit her to do so, but kept telling her to “get that out of here” meaning the body.

During the afternoon, Mrs. Rickard wrapped Thomason’s body in a blanket and dragged it to the rear porch. Later, she dragged it to a woodshed in the rear.

Around 5:00 P.M., the Rickard’s daughter, Betty, came home and Mrs. Rickard told her what had occurred. Together they pleaded with the appellant to permit them to call law enforcement officers, but the appellant was adamant in his denial of these requests.

Finally, around 7:00 P.M., the appellant gave his consent that they might call their minister. This’ call was made by Mrs. Rickard to Mr. M. J. McElhany, minister of the First Methodist Church in Cherokee, Alabama. In a short while Mr. McElhany arrived at the Rickard home accompanied by Mr. Wesley Morgan. After talking with Mrs. Rickard, Mr. ■ McElhany returned to his parsonage and called the Cherokee police. He returned to the Rickard home and two Cherokee policemen were there. Shortly the sheriff of Colbert County and two deputies arrived.

A pistol found on a dresser in a bedroom by Mrs. Rickard was turned over to the officers. After some investigation, police officers Patterson and Pope forcibly took the appellant to the jail in Cherokee. Chief Davis arrived at the jail shortly and informed the appellant he would not have to make a statement without having a lawyer present. No effort was made to interrogate the appellant at this time.

Policeman Pope, who was on duty at the jail, testified that shortly after midnight appellant indicated he wanted to talk to him. According to Pope:

“He wanted a cigarette, and I gave him one. He said, ‘Joe, you know you are my friend.’ I said ‘Yes, I am your friend. ’ I said, T don’t have nothing against you. ’ He said, ‘Why can’t I get out and go home ? ’ I told him I had no authority whatsoever to let him out, and he started to crying, and he stated that — he said ‘Joe, you know I didn’t mean to shoot him, that’s my best friend, all I can see is him laying in the floor with all that blood around him,’ and he started laughing.”

A full predicate of voluntariness other than offer of counsel was laid before the admission of the above statement. While it is reasonable to deduce that under the totality of the circumstances the state[537]*537ment would be admissible even under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694, we need not so determine, since this case was tried and judgment was entered prior to 13 June 1966. The full requirements of Miranda, supra, are therefore not applicable. Johnson v. New Jersey, 384 U.S. 719, 86 S.Ct. 1772, 16 L.Ed.2d 882.

After indictment, appellant filed a petition in the Circuit Court that “Your Honor will in accordance with Section 425, Title 15, Code of Alabama 1940, as last amended, obtain a full written report of Petitioner’s mental condition as provided for in said Code Section before ordering Petitioner to trial in this cause.”

After a hearing at which Dr. Joseph M. Glaister, a psychiatrist, was presented by the appellant, the court denied the petition.

The testimony of the psychiatrist is indeed tenuous. He testified that the appellant was suffering from a “mental illness of psychotic proportions,” that the appellant suffered from hallucinations but that appellant knew “these things are really happening,” and that “all of my opinion is based on hallucinations, and I am well aware that some fellows might tell me that hallucinations can be imitated like that.” In reply to a question as to whether appellant knew right from wrong, the witness replied, “I would have to say he was able to perceive that they were hallucinations.” The witness also testified he was not able to say that appellant was psychotic at the time of the offense.

This witness had examined appellant three times, twice in his office and the third time for about four minutes just before the hearing. After the first examination, the witness had reported that the appellant was not psychotic.

The hallucinations referred to by the witness were that appellant had told him that his mother, who appellant knew to be dead, had appeared to appellant and stated she would help him, and that he (appellant) had conversed with the deceased. The appellant had also expressed hostility against the judge, which witness thought was inspired by politics, and against the district attorney. Over the appellant’s objections, it was also shown through Judge Burt of the Colbert County Law and Equity Court, that following a preliminary hearing before him on the present charge, a petition was filed in said court seeking to have appellant committed to the insane asylum. The petition was heard with a jury and they found appellant sane. The appellant objected to Judge Burt’s testimony on the ground that it “is not the best proof.'

We are unwilling to cast a reversal on the lower court in this instance, though the records of the Colbert County Law and Equity Court would have been the proper way to establish the facts sought to be shown.

The reason we are unwilling to reverse because of the questionable admission of Judge Burt’s testimony is that the question of the appointment of specialists in mental disorders in response to a petition therefor is solely within the discretion of the trial court when the court considers such advice would be helpful. Coon v. State, 278 Ala. 581, 179 So.2d 710; Tiner v. State, 279 Ala. 126, 182 So.2d 859.

The appellant filed a motion to quash the indictment and a plea in abatement. The basis of the motion and plea was the insufficiency of the evidence presented to the grand jury authorizing the grand jury to return an indictment against the appellant.

A hearing was had upon the motion and plea and the court overruled the motion and plea.

The evidence presented on this hearing palpably supported the court’s action in [538]*538the premises and we see no reason to indulge in a discussion of this evidence.

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Bluebook (online)
219 So. 2d 363, 283 Ala. 534, 1969 Ala. LEXIS 1228, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rickard-v-state-ala-1969.