State v. Shepherd

332 So. 2d 228
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMay 17, 1976
Docket57385
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 332 So. 2d 228 (State v. Shepherd) 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. Shepherd, 332 So. 2d 228 (La. 1976).

Opinion

332 So.2d 228 (1976)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Ellison C. SHEPHERD.

No. 57385.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

May 17, 1976.

*229 Joel B. Dickinson, Joel B. Dickinson & Associates, Baton Rouge, for defendant-appellant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Ossie B. Brown, Dist. Atty., Anthony J. Graphia, James E. Boren, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-appellee.

SUMMERS, Justice.

Ellison C. Shepherd was charged in an indictment filed by the grand jury of East Baton Rouge Parish on July 23, 1974 with the second degree murder of Eddie C. Robinson, Jr., on June 9, 1974. After a trial by jury on February 18, 19 and 20 of 1975, a verdict of guilty of manslaughter was returned. Shepherd was sentenced to be confined in the custody of the Louisiana Department of Corrections at hard labor for fifteen years. Seven assignments of error are urged on this appeal.

Assignment 1

Prior to trial, on February 14, 1975, defendant filed a motion to quash the indictment, alleging as grounds therefor that the grand jury which indicted him was illegally *230 constituted because women were systematically excluded therefrom.

In his brief, defense counsel relies upon the decisions in Daniel v. Louisiana, 420 U.S. 31, 95 S.Ct. 704, 42 L.Ed.2d 790 (1975), Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522, 95 S.Ct. 692, 42 L.Ed.2d 690 (1975) and this Court's decision in State v. Gaines, 315 So.2d 298 (La.1975).

This grand jury was empaneled prior to July 23, 1974 when it rendered its indictment. At that time Section 41 of Article VII of the Louisiana Constitution of 1921 provided that "no woman shall be drawn for jury service unless she shall have previously filed with the clerk of the District Court a written declaration of her desire to be subject to such service." Article 402 of the Code of Criminal Procedure at that time was to the same effect. Repeated decisions of this Court affirmed these enactments. Their constitutionality had been supported by the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Hoyt v. Florida, 368 U.S. 57, 82 S.Ct. 159, 7 L.Ed.2d 118 (1961).

Louisiana's Constitution of 1974 became effective at midnight on December 31, 1974. La.Const. art. XIV, § 35 (1974). Any citizen of the State who has reached the age of majority is eligible, under Section 33 of Article V of that Constitution, to serve as a juror within the parish in which he is domiciled. This constitutional provision is not retroactive. La.Const. art. XIV, § 26 (1974).

Provision for exemptions from jury duty was, by Section 33 of Article V, to be provided for by rule of this Court. Rule 25 of this Court which became effective January 1, 1975, provides that no citizen of this State shall be excluded from jury service on account of sex. Thus, it will be seen that on January 1, 1975 and thereafter women could no longer be exempt from jury service in this State on the basis of sex, while prior to that time they could not be compelled to serve without their expressed desire to do so.

Then, on January 21, 1975, the United States Supreme Court decided Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522, 95 S.Ct. 692, 42 L.Ed.2d 690, holding that in a trial by jury in 1972 the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments were violated by Article VII, Section 41, of the Louisiana Constitution of 1921 and Article 402 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Six days after the decision in Taylor v. Louisiana the United States Supreme Court decided Daniel v. Louisiana, 420 U.S. 31, 95 S.Ct. 704, 42 L.Ed.2d 790 (1975) and held that the Taylor decision was not to be applied retroactively, as a matter of Federal law, to convictions which were obtained by juries empaneled prior to the date of the Taylor decision—January 21, 1975.

On June 23, 1975 this Court decided, in State v. Gaines, 315 So.2d 298, that two grand jury indictments returned on January 6, 1975, were illegally returned where no women were included in the general venire, even though the grand jury had been empaneled prior to January 1, 1975. On that same day we decided State v. Lewis, La., 315 So.2d 626, holding that a trial by jury commenced and concluded during the month of April 1974, in which no women served, was not subject to constitutional attack. The decision recognized that the validity of the Louisiana constitutional and statutory provisions, exempting women unless they declared their intention to serve, were not affected by the decisions of the Taylor and Daniel cases prior to the effective date of the Taylor decision—January 21, 1975.

Also, in State v. Rester, 309 So.2d 321 (La.1975) and State v. Devore, 309 So.2d 325 (La.1975), we decided that, as a matter of state law, the rule of the Taylor case would not be applied retroactively. In State ex rel. James v. Parker, 308 So.2d 284 (La.1975), writs were denied in a case where the trial court refused to quash an indictment returned before the Taylor case was decided by a grand jury empaneled prior to January 1, 1975, but where the trial *231 was scheduled to take placed after the Taylor decision on January 21, 1975.

Upon this authority we conclude that the indictment rendered prior to January 1, 1975 by a grand jury, on which women have not served because none had declared her willingness to do so, resulting in a conviction in a February 1975 trial, where women served, is not infirm as a matter of federal or state law. For the reasons stated, defendant's Assignment 1 is without merit.

Assignment 2

James G. Joseph testified for the State. He was a picketer at a strike being staged at Schuylkill Metal Corporation where Shepherd and Walter Brumfield also worked. All of them were on strike. Larry Butler, although he was not employed there, associated with the strikers and walked the picket line with Shepherd and Brumfield.

Some time prior to June 9, 1974, according to the defense, there was a discussion among the strikers about "scaring" employees who refused to honor the strike. Eddie Robinson was one who was mentioned.

On Saturday night, prior to the shooting, Brumfield and Butler met. Brumfield had a pistol. They agreed to carry out their plan to "scare" the strike breakers. They agreed to go in Butler's car and to pick up Shepherd. After picking up Shepherd, they decided that Robinson would be the subject of their plan.

They drove to Robinson's house, and stopped the car nearby, Shepherd remaining in the car while Butler and Brumfield approached Robinson's house. Butler went up on the porch and knocked on the door. When Odette Louis, Robinson's sister-in-law, answered, she was asked if Robinson lived there. She said yes and went to awaken him.

Butler then left the porch, and as Robinson approached the door, Butler unloaded an automatic pistol into the door, shooting five times. One of the bullets struck Robinson in the neck, and he died from the wound shortly thereafter.

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Bluebook (online)
332 So. 2d 228, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-shepherd-la-1976.