State v. Browning

290 So. 2d 322
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedFebruary 18, 1974
Docket53963
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 290 So. 2d 322 (State v. Browning) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Browning, 290 So. 2d 322 (La. 1974).

Opinion

290 So.2d 322 (1974)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Willie Louis BROWNING.

No. 53963.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

February 18, 1974.

*324 William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Charles A. Marvin, Dist. Atty., James S. Harris, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

Graydon K. Kitchens, Jr., John W. Montgomery, Minden, for defendant-appellant.

SANDERS, Chief Justice.

Defendant, William Louis Browning, was charged with murder. After trial by jury, he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment at hard labor. During the course of his trial, defendant reserved 16 bills of exceptions, which he relies upon for reversal of his conviction. Bills of Exceptions Nos. 4, 8 and 11 were neither argued nor briefed by defendant and are, therefore, deemed abandoned. See State v. Edwards, 261 La. 1014, 261 So.2d 649 (1972).

The State's theory of the case was that Browning had an argument with one Corrine Williams, after which he set fire to her house. In the fire, Sharon Williams, a three-year-old child, was asphyxiated. The defense was alibi, that is, that the defendant was at his own residence when the crime occurred.

BILL OF EXCEPTIONS NO. 1

Prior to trial, defendant filed a motion for a bill of particulars, containing nineteen requests for information. The State answered nine of the requests, supplying information about the crime, including the time of the offense, place of occurrence, date and cause of the victim's death, and the statutory bases for the prosecution.

The State had previously supplied defense counsel a copy of the defendant's statement.

Requests No. 10 through 17 inquired in detail concerning the State's evidence, such as the motive for the crime, whether there were eye witnesses and if so their names, and the nature of any physical evidence to be offered. Finally in request No. 18, the defense asked if the State had in its file any evidence that would tend to prove the innocence of defendant and, if so, its nature, and the names of the witnesses.

The defendant asserts in this Court that the trial judge erred in declining to order the State to supply all of this information.

It is well established that the defendant is not entitled to the pretrial discovery of the details of the State's evidence. State v. Square, 257 La. 743, 244 So.2d 200 (1971); State v. Wright, 254 La. 521, 225 So.2d 201 (1969); State v. Hunter, 250 La. 295, 195 So.2d 273 (1967).

Quite clearly, requests Nos. 10 through 17 are designed to force the State to disclose the details of its evidence prior to trial. Hence, the ruling of the trial judge as to them was correct.

In this Court, the defendant strongly reurges request No. 18, in which he sought the disclosure of evidence tending "to prove the innocence of the defendant." He relies upon the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963).

In answer to this request, the State responded:

"With respect to `evidence that would tend to prove the innocence of the defendant', as inquired about in Article 18 of the Motion for a Bill of Particulars, the State shows that it has not attempted and shall not attempt to suppress any evidence favorable to the accused which it could legally reveal so as to deny constitutional due process to the accused.
*325 The State further answers that the defendant and his counsel have been furnished with the names of witnesses regarding the crime charged on October 17, 1972, and that the defendant is not otherwise entitled to the details of the evidence upon which the State will rely for a conviction."

In our opinion, the response is more than adequate. Brady v. Maryland, supra, dealt with the prosecution's suppression of a confession in which a companion of the petitioner admitted the actual homicide.

Recently, in State v. Gray, La., 286 So. 2d 644 (1973), in applying that decision, we stated:

"Significant in that case, we think, is the suppression of the confession after request, its favorable content for the defense, and its materiality to the issue of punishment to be fixed by the jury in the capital case. Thus, the withholding of the confession rose to a constitutional dimension."

In Moore v. Illinois, 408 U.S. 786, 92 S. Ct. 2562, 33 L.Ed.2d 706 (1972), the United States Supreme Court stated:

"The heart of the holding in Brady is the prosecution's suppression of evidence, in the face of a defense production request, where the evidence is favorable to the accused and is material either to guilt or to punishment."

In the present case, we find no adequate showing of the suppression of evidence tending to prove the defendant's innocence.

We conclude that Bill of Exceptions No. 1 lacks merit.

BILL OF EXCEPTIONS NO. 2

Defendant reserved this bill when the trial court denied a motion to suppress a statement given by the defendant which he alleges was the product of coercion. Defendant also alleges, as he did at the time of the motion to suppress, that any evidence obtained as a result of the statement should also be suppressed as "fruit of the poisonous tree."

The statement which defendant seeks to have suppressed was not offered into evidence during his trial. Furthermore, there is no showing that any evidence offered at trial was obtained as a result of the statement. Hence, the defendant has suffered no prejudice from the ruling of the trial judge.

Bill of Exceptions No. 2 is without merit.

BILL OF EXCEPTIONS NO. 3

Defendant reserved Bill of Exceptions No. 3 to the denial of his motion for a mistrial, based upon several statements of the prosecutor during his opening statement. First, defendant objects to the following statement by the prosecutor:

". . . To establish this element of intent the State shall use the actions and words of the defendant occurring prior to and after the actual time of the crime charged and we shall also use these things to establish motive for the crime.. . ."

Defendant argues that the above statement violates the provisions of Article 767 of the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure which provides: "The state shall not, in the opening statement, advert in any way to a confession or inculpatory statement made by the defendant."

The quoted remark does no violence to Article 767. It makes no reference to a confession or inculpatory statement. Rather, it refers to the "acts, conduct or declarations" probative of intent under LSA-R.S. 15:446. That statute provides:

"When knowledge or intent forms an essential part of the inquiry, testimony may be offered of such acts, conduct or declarations of the accused as tend to establish such knowledge or intent and where the offense is one of a system, evidence *326 is admissible to prove the continuity of the offense, and the commission of similar offenses for the purpose of showing guilty knowledge and intent, but not to prove the offense charged."

In our opinion, the statement did no more than "set forth, in general terms, the nature of the evidence." See LSA-C.Cr.P. Art. 766.

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290 So. 2d 322, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-browning-la-1974.