State v. Huskey

66 S.W.3d 905, 2001 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 618, 2001 WL 904301
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedAugust 13, 2001
DocketE1999-00524-CCA-R3-CD
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 66 S.W.3d 905 (State v. Huskey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Huskey, 66 S.W.3d 905, 2001 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 618, 2001 WL 904301 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

OPINION

JOSEPH M. TIPTON, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court, in which

DAVID H. WELLES and DAVID G. HAYES, JJ., joined.

The defendant, Thomas Dee Huskey, brings this interlocutory appeal, contending that the double jeopardy protections of the United States and Tennessee Constitutions bar a retrial following the jury’s deadlock on four counts of first degree murder. He argues that the trial court failed to declare a mistrial and manifest necessity did not compel one, that prosecu-torial misconduct and judicial overreaching precipitated the jury’s inability to reach a verdict, and that the trial court erroneously failed to accept the jury’s special verdicts. We conclude that double jeopardy does not bar a retrial.

The defendant was charged with four counts of first degree murder, following the discovery of the victims’ bodies in a wooded area near Cahaba Lane in Knox County. The defendant pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity, to all four counts. On the fifth day of delibera *911 tions, the jury sent the trial court a note stating that it was unable to arrive at a unanimous decision. The trial court recalled the jury, asked if further deliberations would be beneficial, and then discharged the jury upon receiving a negative response. This court’s order granting the defendant permission to appeal limited the issues for review to whether the Double Jeopardy Clause bars a retrial of the case because:

(1) the trial court dismissed the jury after the appellant had been placed in jeopardy without declaring a mistrial;
(2) there was no “manifest necessity” to discharge the jury on the issue of the appellant’s factual guilt of each offense; and
(3) the jury’s inability to reach a verdict was precipitated by prosecutorial misconduct or judicial misconduct during the course of the trial itself.

The defendant contends that federal and state constitutional prohibitions against double jeopardy prevent retrial, arguing that:

(1) the jury’s notes on February 12 and 13,1999, place the defendant in jeopardy with regard to the act of killing;
(2) manifest necessity did not require the trial court to release the jury before accepting its partial verdict on the issue of the act of killing;
(3) the trial court’s improper comments to the jury made it impossible for the court to determine that manifest necessity existed;
(4) the trial court denied him due process, including the right to be heard, before it discharged the jury;
(5) prosecutorial misconduct and judicial overreaching resulted in the jury’s inability to reach a verdict and caused jeopardy to attach;
(6) the trial court erroneously failed to take the jury’s special verdicts on factual guilt or the degree of homicide; and
(7) double jeopardy, res judicata, and collateral estoppel prohibit retrial of the issue of whether he suffered from a mental disease or defect because the jury rendered a special verdict as to that issue.

Because double jeopardy does not bar retrial of the defendant on the four counts of first degree murder, we affirm the trial court’s denial of his motion to bar retrial.

I. DISCHARGE OF JURY

We first address the defendant’s contentions relating to whether the trial court properly declared a mistrial following the jury’s announcement that it could not reach a unanimous decision. The defendant argues that although jeopardy had attached, the trial court released the jury without declaring a mistrial; that no manifest necessity existed to discharge the jury without taking its partial verdicts; and that the trial court’s improper comments to the jury made it impossible for a meaningful manifest necessity determination to be had. Finally, he claims that the trial court denied him due process when it discharged the jury without conferring with counsel or allowing him an opportunity to be heard. The state contends that manifest necessity existed due to the jury’s inability to reach a verdict and that all of the parties knew that the trial court was going to and did declare a mistrial when it called the jury into the courtroom, following the jury’s February 13 note.

Because of the nature of the defendant’s contentions, we review the events surrounding the discharge of the jury in some detail. The jury began deliberating on the morning of February 9, 1999. On February 12, the jury sent the court a note, which read:

*912 Your Honor:
We are unable to come to a unanimous decision on mental responsibility. People’s decisions are unlikely to change.
Leslie Boone
Foreman
We can agree that he has a mental disease or defect, but we cannot decide on the second part on p. 18 # 2 & 3. Can you give us some guidance?

With the jury out, the trial court noted that the jury was referring to the second portion of the insanity instruction relating to the defendant’s capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. The defendant requested a mistrial, arguing that the jury was irrevocably hung. The court reread the note to defense counsel, who conferred and then repeated the request for a mistrial, arguing that the jury had deliberated for four days and that the note was not asking for clarification. The court stated that it viewed the jury to be asking for clarification and commented that it was amazed that the defendant did not want the jury to deliberate further on the issue. The court stated its intention to give the jury further instructions on insanity and to allow the jury to deliberate longer.

The following morning, February 13, the court instructed the jury as follows:

Tennessee Code Annotated 39-11-501 provides as follows: Insanity. Insanity is a defense to prosecution if at the time of such conduct as a result of a mental disease or defect, the person lacked substantial capacity either to appreciate the wrongfulness of the person’s conduct or to conform that conduct to the requirements of the law. As used in this section, mental disease or defect does not include any abnormality manifested only by repeated criminal or otherwise antisocial conduct.
Therefore, Mr. Huskey would not be legally responsible for his criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct, as the result of a mental disease or defect, Mr. Huskey lacked the substantial capacity to either appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or conform his conduct to the requirements of the law he is charged with violating.

The court returned the jury to its deliberations. The defendant renewed his objection to the new instruction and moved for a mistrial.-

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
66 S.W.3d 905, 2001 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 618, 2001 WL 904301, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-huskey-tenncrimapp-2001.