State v. Norris

684 S.W.2d 650, 1984 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 2974
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedOctober 3, 1984
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 684 S.W.2d 650 (State v. Norris) 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. Norris, 684 S.W.2d 650, 1984 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 2974 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

TATUM, Judge.

The defendant, Charles A. Norris, was convicted of first degree murder and armed robbery and sentenced to concurrent sentences of life and 60 years, respectively. On this appeal, he presents several issues which we find to be without merit.

The defendant does not attack the sufficiency of the evidence. The State’s principal witness was a 24-year-old woman named Kathy Payne. Prior to the murder, Ms. Payne was employed at Aquarius Industry in Nashville where the victim, James Clifton Carpenter, was a supervisor. Ms. Payne had visited in the victim’s house *652 on several occasions and had spent some nights there with the victim.

About two weeks before the crime was committed, Ms. Payne began living with Norris, Norris’ wife Gwen, and Danny Ray Sharp. These four people, who used drugs almost every day, obtained the money to sustain their habit by committing burglaries. On the night the instant crime occurred, Norris, Sharp and Ms. Payne had been using drugs and planning to burglarize the victim. Their plan was that Ms. Payne would detain the victim while her two accomplices would steal guns and other property. Before leaving their apartment, in the presence of the defendant and Ms. Payne, Sharp got a pistol. They also took socks to wear on their hands.

Ms. Payne first entered the house and occupied the victim in the kitchen. Contrary to plans, the two men entered the kitchen and Sharp held the pistol on the victim. They ordered Ms. Payne to lie on the floor and they took the victim to the hallway where they forced him to lie on the floor. Before going to the basement, the defendant obtained an extension cord with which the victim was bound. The two men then took the victim to the basement. The defendant came back upstairs while Sharp remained in the basement and Ms. Payne and the defendant began ransacking the house. Sharp called Norris back to the basement to help him do something. When Norris came back upstairs he looked sick and told Ms. Payne not to go into the basement. At about this point, she heard the victim say, “You’re killing me.” She then heard “gargling or drowning or something.”

Ms. Payne testified that Sharp forced her into the basement where she saw the victim in a puddle of blood. Sharp told her that the same thing would happen to her if she did not keep her mouth shut. All three of them then returned to the main floor and stole a television set, some guns, a pocketbook, and a jar of pennies. Sharp took this property to their apartment in the victim’s truck. Norris and Ms. Payne walked back to their apartment.

The victim’s body was found in the basement in a puddle of blood. His hands were tied in front of him with extension cords. A tube sock had been used as a gag. A large knife was embedded in his back. A heavy wrench was found with human hair on it. The victim had died from four stab wounds in the body and at least two blows to the head.

The testimony of Ms. Payne was contradicted by the defendant and Sharp. The defendant testified that they had not discussed committing any crime upon the victim. He denied being in the house when the victim was killed, and testified that when he entered the house Ms. Payne, who was washing blood from her hands, told him that if he mentioned anything he and his wife would be the next to die. Sharp likewise testified that they had not discussed burglary prior to going to the victim’s house, and that the defendant did not enter the house until after the actual robbery and a scuffle leading to the victim’s death. Since the sufficiency of the evidence is not questioned and because the jury accredited the testimony of the State’s witnesses, we will not further detail the evidence. We do observe however that the evidence meets the standard required by Rule 18(e), T.R.A.P.

In the first issue, the defendant says that T.C.A. § 39-2-202(a) is unconstitutional insofar as it defines first degree murder as a murder committed in the perpetration of certain felonies named in the statute. He asserts that malice or specific intent is constitutionally required for a conviction. Without examining the correctness of this assertion, we note that T.C.A. § 39-2-201 defines “murder generally” and provides that either express or implied malice aforethought is essential to both first and second degree murder. If the offense is committed in the perpetration of a felony designated in § 39-2-202(a), the elements of malice, deliberation and premeditation are implied. Tosh v. State, 527 S.W.2d 146 (Tenn.Crim.App.1975).

*653 The defendant cites Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782, 102 S.Ct. 3368, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1982), for the proposition that the felony/murder statute violates State and federal due process. The En-mund case does not support this contention. The case holds only that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment when imposed upon a robber who did not kill, attempt to kill, intend to participate in or facilitate a murder. Enmund treated a felony/murder statute as being valid. We find no merit in this issue.

In the next two issues, the defendant complains that the State was permitted to qualify the jury with regard to the death penalty. He says that Enmund v. Florida, supra, clearly prohibited the imposition of the death penalty in his case. He further claims that the State was not in good faith in seeking the death penalty but sought it only to make “the jury think that it was a much more serious case than it really was,” and to exclude jurors who would not impose the death penalty.

We find no reversible error occurred from the trial court allowing the instant case to go to the jury as a capital case. First, the defendant Norris was not nearly as far removed from the murder in the case at hand as was the defendant in Enmund v. Florida. In the Enmund case, the defendant remained in the automobile while two accomplices attempted to rob an elderly couple. One of the victims shot one of Enmund’s accomplices and the accomplices shot and killed both victims. Enmund was not present, had no knowledge of the homicides and clearly did not participate in them. In the case at bar, there was evidence that the defendant and Sharp participated in the assault upon the victim with the pistol. The defendant assisted in binding the victim’s hands and forcing him into the basement. While Sharp was doing something to the victim, the defendant went into the basement where something was taking place that made him sick. We do not agree that there was “clear evidence indicating that the death penalty could not be imposed.” Nor do we agree that the entire record indicates that the State did not act in good faith in seeking the death penalty.

Moreover, the death penalty was not imposed. The defendant asks us to take judicial notice that studies reveal that jurors who oppose the death penalty more often acquit. This we decline to do. We have no knowledge of any such studies and might well disagree with them if we did.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
684 S.W.2d 650, 1984 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 2974, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-norris-tenncrimapp-1984.