State v. Thornton

929 P.2d 676, 187 Ariz. 325, 232 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 3, 1996 Ariz. LEXIS 127
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 12, 1996
DocketCR-95-0044-AP
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 929 P.2d 676 (State v. Thornton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Thornton, 929 P.2d 676, 187 Ariz. 325, 232 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 3, 1996 Ariz. LEXIS 127 (Ark. 1996).

Opinion

OPINION

MARTONE, Justice.

At a consolidated trial, a jury found Floyd Bennett Thornton, Jr. guilty of first degree murder, burglary, controlling property of another, and kidnaping in connection with the 1991 death of William Prince; guilty of first degree murder, burglary, and kidnaping in connection with the 1993 death of Dale Duke; and guilty of escape from a correctional facility. The court sentenced him to death for the 1993 murder of Mr. Duke and prison for the remaining convictions. Appeal to this court is automatic under Rules 26.15 and 31.2(b), Ariz. R.Crim. P., and direct under AR.S. § 13-4031. We affirm his convictions and sentences.

I. BACKGROUND

On July 8, 1991, Thornton burglarized the home of William Prince in Cochise County, and then shot him in the head when Prince came home. Henrietta Bennett, Prince’s longtime companion, was waiting outside in her wheelchair. Thornton took Bennett into the house and tied her to the wheelchair. He took several items from the house and then left in Prince’s car.

During the early morning hours of July 21, 1991, Thornton drove Prince’s car off a road in Oregon. A neighbor heard the crash, picked Thornton up, and took him back to a party. The neighbor went back to the car the next morning, noticed a sawed-off shotgun on the passenger’s seat, and called the sheriffs office. The United States District Court for the District of Oregon sentenced Thornton to life imprisonment for the crime of convicted felon in possession of a firearm. 1 Thornton was transferred to the Cochise County jail pursuant to the Interstate Agreement on Detainers, A.R.S. § 31 — 181 and 18 U.S.C. app. § 2, to allow his prosecution for Prince’s murder.

Thornton masterminded an escape while awaiting trial in the Cochise County jail. After eluding the authorities for two days, he entered the home of Dale and Mary Duke. When the Dukes came home, Thornton grabbed a shotgun and positioned himself so he could “draw down on him.” Def. Ex. F at 25. He shot Dale Duke in the chest as Mr. Duke opened the door. Thornton took Mary Duke inside and bound her ankles and hands. During the next five hours, Thornton talked with Mrs. Duke and loaded items into the Dukes’ truck. The police arrested him on the road from Bisbee to Douglas, heading in the direction of the Mexican border.

The trial court found four aggravating factors: (1) the defendant was convicted of another offense for which a sentence of life imprisonment or death could have been imposed; (2) the defendant committed the offense in expectation of pecuniary gain; (3) the defendant committed the offense while on unauthorized release from jail; and (4) the victim was over the age of seventy. See AR.S. § 13-703(F)(1), (F)(5), (F)(7), and (F)(9). The trial court found that Thornton’s traumatic childhood and dysfunctional family *329 caused antisocial personality disorder, that this was mitigating, but not sufficiently substantial to call for leniency.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Trial Issues

1. Trial court’s denial of Thornton’s challenge for cause of a prospective juror

Thornton challenged Charlotte Nucci for cause because she had listened to his escape and capture on a scanner set on a police frequency. Nucci heard the sheriffs deputies and the dispatcher and learned that a death had occurred, that the police were looking for a small pickup truck, and that the police believed that the person apprehended was Thornton. Nucci heard the facts of the capture as presented by Deputy Hoke to the dispatcher. Deputy Hoke testified at Thornton’s trial as to these facts. The information Nucci heard was part of the state’s disclosure, including “the communications log, the times and the facts of the escape as presented to officers who were looking for him.” Tr. of Aug. 16,1994, at 270.

The trial court found that Nucci could be fair and impartial, see Rule 18.4(b), Ariz. R.Crim. P., and denied Thornton’s challenge for cause. Thornton used a peremptory challenge on Nucci. Thornton’s challenge for cause was based on A.R.S. § 21-211(1), which states that a “[wjitness in the action” “shall be disqualified to serve as juror[].” Thus even if she could have been fair and impartial, we are still confronted with the issue of whether she is a “[wjitness in the action.”

We begin our analysis by turning to history. Early juries were composed of witnesses who were assumed to have independent knowledge of the case and were expected to use it in reaching a verdict. 6 John H. Wigmore, Evidence § 1800 (1940). In the mid-1600s a new rule emerged that required jurors with personal knowledge of a case to “state publicly in court on oath any such information, and not to give it in private to his companions.” 6 id. § 1800 (quoting James B. Thayer, Preliminary Treatise on Evidence, 137,168 (1898)). By the 1700s, a well-settled principle of law required jurors with personal knowledge of a case to inform the court and to be sworn as witnesses. 6 id. § 1800.

Although persons with independent knowledge of a case were required to notify the court and be sworn as witnesses, they were still thought to have been capable of serving as impartial jurors. 6 id. § 1910. But “[a]s to material witnesses, those, we mean, upon whose testimony the event is essentially dependent, we think they ought not to be admitted into the jury-box.” 6 id. § 1910 (quoting Ho wser v. Commonwealth, 51 Pa. 332, 337 (1865)).

As early as 1906, the Arizona Territorial Court, our predecessor, considered whether prospective jurors with personal knowledge of a case would be subject to the fair and impartial standard. Leigh v. Territory, 10 Ariz. 129, 133, 85 P. 948, 950 (1906). Chief Justice Kent stated in dicta that if a prospective juror had an opinion “founded upon actual knowledge of the facts ... or upon other definite knowledge or information, it is nevertheless for the court to determine whether or not such knowledge or information ... will prevent him from acting with entire impartiality and without prejudice to the substantial rights of either party.” Id. The statute excluding witnesses in the action existed when Leigh was decided. 2 See Civ.Code 1901, § 2782. Leigh’s treatment of persons with actual knowledge of the case under the fair and impartial standard for disqualification rather than under the mandatory disqualification rule for witnesses implicitly limited the phrase “witness in the action” to those individuals called to testify at trial.

We believe the phrase “witness in the action” is broad enough to encompass both those persons who testify at trial and witnesses to the offense or transaction giving rise to the action. See Wyle v. Texas, 777 S.W.2d 709, 712 (Tex.Crim.App.1989).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
929 P.2d 676, 187 Ariz. 325, 232 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 3, 1996 Ariz. LEXIS 127, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-thornton-ariz-1996.