Webb v. State

580 P.2d 295, 1978 Alas. LEXIS 669
CourtAlaska Supreme Court
DecidedJune 2, 1978
Docket2632
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 580 P.2d 295 (Webb v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alaska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Webb v. State, 580 P.2d 295, 1978 Alas. LEXIS 669 (Ala. 1978).

Opinions

OPINION

DIMOND, Justice Pro Tem.

Duncan Webb was convicted of being an accessory after the fact to the first degree murder of John Rich.1 Webb had been attorney for Wesley Ladd, one of the murderers. Before shooting Rich to death,2 Ladd forced Rich to sign a power of attorney, giving Duncan Webb the control of all of Rich’s assets. After Rich had been murdered, Webb had his secretary witness the power of attorney. However, there was no evidence that Webb had taken part in the murder of Rich or that he had any advance knowledge it was going to happen.

Webb’s involvement in the Rich murder consisted primarily of his lying to the police on several occasions. For example, Webb told the police that he had witnessed Rich’s [297]*297signing of the power of attorney, and that he had driven Rich to the airport on August 23, 1973, when in fact Rich had been murdered earlier that day. Webb’s principal defense was that he had acted the way he did because of threats on his life by Rich’s murderers, Ladd and Zieger.

It is the practice of the Third Judicial District to select as jurors only those persons who have been residents of Alaska for one year or more. Webb contends on appeal that this practice deprived him of his statutory3 and constitutional right to an impartial jury4 and was in violation of his rights to equal protection of the laws, which rights are guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal constitution and Section 1, Article 1 of the Alaska constitution.

Similar arguments were made in Hampton v. State,5 and in Smiloff v. State.6 In rejecting an attack on the jury arrays in those cases, where persons with less than one year’s residence in Alaska were excluded from the jury, we stated:

There is a one-year residency requirement for jury service in the federal courts. The legislative history of the provision illustrates that the purpose of the provision is to guarantee “some substantial nexus between a juror and a community whose sense of justice the jury as a whole is expected to reflect.” The constitutionality of the provision has been uniformly upheld.
Applying the “cognizable group” standards to less-then-one-year residents, we conclude that Hampton’s sixth amendment right to an impartial jury was not impaired. The excluded group is not a static one with definite parameters. There is no common thread, “a basic similarity in attitudes or ideas or experience,” except the lack of familiarity with the community. While circumstances can be imagined in which bias against a defendant member of the excluded group might exist, that possibility is too remote to justify reversal in the absence of a more specific suggestion of prejudice, (footnotes omitted)7

In Smiloff we referred to the Hampton decision, where we stated at page 148:

The term ‘cognizable group’ was defined by the federal district court in United States v. Guzman, 337 F.Supp. 140, 143-44 (S.D.N.Y.), aff’d., 468 F.2d 1245 (2d Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 937, 93 S.Ct. 1397, 35 L.Ed.2d 602 (1973), in the following manner:
A group to be ‘cognizable’ for present purposes must have a definite composition. That is, there must be some factor which defines and limits the group. A cognizable group is not one whose membership shifts from day to day or whose members can be arbitrarily selected. Secondly, the group must have cohesion. There must be a common thread which runs through the group, a basic similarity in attitudes or ideas or experience which is present in members of the group and which cannot be adequately represented if the group is excluded from the jury selection process. Finally, there must be a possibility that exclusion of the group will result in partiality or bias on the part of juries hearing cases in which group members are involved. That is, the group must have a community of interest which cannot be adequately protected by the rest of the populace, (citation omitted)

Additionally, in Smiloff, we rejected the contention that AS 09.20.40 was violated by the one-year residency requirement, by holding that the statutory jury selection [298]*298procedures were substantially complied with.8 Similarly, they were substantially complied with in this case.

Despite the Hampton decision, at oral argument Webb’s counsel still contended that the jury selection procedures deprived him of his constitutional rights. The basis of such argument was that persons like Webb, who are newcomers to Alaska, bring with them their own ideas concerning society and justice, and that such people could have related to Webb’s state of mind at the time of his acts and at the time of trial, and that the exclusion from the jury of such persons left Webb with a jury comprised of people who “have been here long enough to ‘know the ropes’ and be familiar with the community, thus being less sympathetic and understanding with the plight of a new arrival.”

The gist of such an argument, if we understand it correctly, is that persons who have been residents of Alaska for less than one year have brought with them to this state a different standard of values than is held by residents of more than one year and thus would tend to more readily believe Webb’s defense of duress, i. e., that he had acted as he had because of his fear of Rich’s killers. Such an argument has no substance. Webb was constitutionally entitled to a trial by an “impartial jury.”9 There is no constitutional right to a jury composed of a cognizable group that would tend to be “partial” or biased or prejudiced against the state and in favor of the accused in a criminal case. Webb’s contentions on the jury selection question are without any merit.10

Count I of the indictment against Webb provides:

That between the dates of August 23, 1973, and December 3, 1973, at or near Anchorage, in the Third Judicial District, State of Alaska, Duncan Webb did unlawfully and feloniously after the commission of a felony, to-wit: murder, conceal or aid the offender or offenders with knowledge that he or they had committed a felony, to-wit: murder, and with intent that he or they may avoid escape from arrest, trial, conviction or punishment.

All of which is contrary to and in violation of AS 11.10.050 and against the peace and dignity of the State of Alaska. Webb claims that Count I of the indictment should have been dismissed because it did not contain a “plain, concise and definite written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged,” as required by Criminal Rule 7(c).11

Webb had two trials. The first resulted in a mistrial in August, 1974, when the jury could not agree on a verdict. The second trial resulted in a jury verdict in May, 1975, finding Webb guilty on Count I of the indictment and not guilty on Count II.12 Count III of the indictment was dismissed.13 In August, 1975, Webb received a sentence of two years, with all of that time suspended subject to supervised probation.

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Webb v. State
580 P.2d 295 (Alaska Supreme Court, 1978)

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Bluebook (online)
580 P.2d 295, 1978 Alas. LEXIS 669, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/webb-v-state-alaska-1978.