State v. Bowman

491 So. 2d 1380
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 25, 1986
DocketCR85-904
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 491 So. 2d 1380 (State v. Bowman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Bowman, 491 So. 2d 1380 (La. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

491 So.2d 1380 (1986)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee,
v.
Clifford Ray BOWMAN, Appellant.

No. CR85-904.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

June 25, 1986.
Rehearing Denied August 8, 1986.

*1382 Gerald J. Block, Lafayette, for defendant-appellant.

Carol Spell, Jr., Asst. Dist. Atty., Lafayette, for plaintiff-appellee.

Before FORET, PLANCHARD[*] and McNULTY [*], JJ.

FORET, Judge.

Defendant, Clifford Ray Bowman, was indicted by a grand jury on April 20, 1983, and charged with the first degree murder of his father-in-law, Leland "Whitey" Johnson, on April 10, 1983, a violation of La.R.S. 14:30. Defendant entered a plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. A sanity hearing was held on November 9, 1983, and the defendant was found capable to proceed.

On February 26, 1985, prior to the selection of the jury, defendant filed a motion for a hearing on Witherspoon[**] voir dire and for individual and sequestered voir dire, and in the alternative, the selection of two separate juries, challenging the constitutionality of the death qualified jury selection process. The trial court denied the motion and jury selection proceeded.

On March 2, 1985, the jury returned a verdict of guilty of first degree murder. The sentencing hearing began on March 3, 1985, at which time the jury unanimously recommended life imprisonment without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. In accordance with the recommendation, defendant was so sentenced on March 8, 1985. Defendant has appealed his conviction and advances twelve assignments of error.

FACTS

After midnight, in the early morning hours of April 10,1983, defendant, Clifford Bowman, drove to his father-in-law's mobile home. Defendant was armed with a Weathersby .300 rifle and fired one shot outside the trailer, broke a window on the locked trailer door, and forced his way into the mobile home. The victim, "Whitey" Johnson, was crouched on the floor attempting to phone the police when the defendant fired a fatal shot to his head. Defendant then fired another shot down the hallway in an apparent attempt to shoot Whitey's nephew, Richard Ross, who also occupied the mobile home. Additionally, defendant's ex-wife, who was also the victim's daughter, Carolyn Merrick, was in the mobile home with their two children. Defendant attempted to shoot his wife, but he had run out of bullets.

Defendant then took a cigarette from the person of the victim and smoked it as he called 911, the emergency phone number. Almost immediately, Officer Mitch Walley arrived on the scene and defendant said, "I cracked, Mitch."

The victim was a building contractor for whom the defendant worked as a carpenter. Richard Ross, the victim's nephew, was also in his employ. Ross testified that there had been an argument or disagreement between defendant and victim on the afternoon before the shooting. Carolyn Merrick testified that she was sleeping at her father's trailer the night of the shooting because she was eight months pregnant and concerned about going into labor, had no transportation, and defendant had not yet come home. Carolyn Merrick also testified that defendant stayed at the scene until he was taken into custody and transported to the sheriff's office.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR 1, 2 & 10

By these assignments, the defendant challenges the fairness and constitutionality of the jury selection process involving cases in which the state seeks to invoke the death penalty for the crime of first degree murder. Defendant argues that such a death qualification process denies him the right to a neutral jury. Defendant offered testimony and exhibits in an effort to establish that the jury selection process results in a jury that is predisposed to conviction, *1383 and is not a fair cross-section of the community.

The most recent U.S. Supreme Court case addressing these issues is Lockhart v. McCree, ____U.S.___,106 S.Ct. 1758, 90 L.Ed.2d 137 (1986). In Lockhart, respondent was tried for capital felony murder, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. During voir dire, the judge removed for cause, over respondent's objections, prospective jurors who stated that they would be unable, under any circumstances, to vote for the imposition of the death penalty. Such prospective jurors are named "Witherspoonexcludables."[1]

The court addressed the issue left unresolved by Witherspoon v. State of Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968): Whether the constitution prohibits the removal for cause, prior to the guilt-phase of a bifurcated capital trial, of prospective jurors whose opposition to the death penalty is so strong that it would prevent or substantially impair the performance of their duties as jurors in the sentencing phase of the trial. In a 5-4-1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that it does not.

In the Lockhart case, as in the one before us, the defendant introduced social science studies to support constitutional arguments, establishing that "death qualification" in fact produces juries somewhat more "conviction-prone" than "non-death-qualified" juries. We believe the data introduced at trial is too tentative to establish such a rule, but will assume, for purposes of this opinion, that the studies are valid and accurate. The U.S. Supreme Court in Lockhart held that: "... nonetheless... the Constitution does not prohibit the States from `death qualifying' juries in capital cases."

The procedure complained of is one authorized by La.C.Cr.P. art. 798 (2), which allows the State to challenge for cause a juror tendered in a capital case who has conscientious scruples against the infliction of capital punishment and makes it unmistakably clear that he would automatically vote against the imposition of capital punishment without regard to any evidence that might be developed at trial; or that his attitude toward the death penalty would prevent him from making an impartial decision as to the defendant's guilt. This procedure serves the State's entirely proper interest in obtaining a single jury that can objectively decide all of the issues in defendant's case. Art. 798 is a legislative enactment of Witherspoon v. Illinois, supra.

In State v. Lasseigne, 464 So.2d 1097 (La.App. 3 Cir.1985), writ denied, 468 So.2d 1204 (La.1985), the defendant claimed he was unfairly tried by a "conviction-prone jury" which did not represent a fair cross-section of the community. We upheld the validity of the jury selection process in capital cases quoting from Witherspoon, supra:

"... nothing we say today bears upon the power of a State to execute a defendant sentenced to death by a jury from which the only veniremen who were in fact excluded for cause were those who made unmistakably clear (1) that they would automatically vote against the imposition of capital punishment without regard to any evidence that might be developed at the trial of the case before them, or (2) that their attitude toward the death penalty would prevent them from making an impartial decision as to the defendant's guilt. Nor does the decision in this case affect the validity of any sentence other than one of death. Nor, finally, does today's holding render invalid the conviction, as opposed to the sentence, in this or any other case."

Furthermore, the U.S. Supreme Court in Lockhart

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Related

State v. Denomes
674 So. 2d 465 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1996)
State v. Bell
543 So. 2d 1013 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1989)
State v. Leonard
543 So. 2d 975 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1989)
State v. Standridge
505 So. 2d 256 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1987)
State v. Bowman
498 So. 2d 13 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1986)

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Bluebook (online)
491 So. 2d 1380, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bowman-lactapp-1986.