W.G.M. v. State

140 So. 3d 491, 2013 WL 4710406, 2013 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 66
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedAugust 30, 2013
DocketCR-12-0472
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 140 So. 3d 491 (W.G.M. v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
W.G.M. v. State, 140 So. 3d 491, 2013 WL 4710406, 2013 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 66 (Ala. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

KELLUM, Judge.

The appellant, W.G.M., was convicted of rape in ‘the first degree, a violation of § 13A-6-61, Ala.Code 1975, sodomy in the first degree, a violation of § 13A-6-63, Ala.Code 1975, and sexual abuse of a child less than 12 years of age, a violation of § 13A-6-69.1, Ala.Code 1975. The circuit court sentenced W.G.M. to life imprisonment for his rape and sodomy convictions and to 20 years’ imprisonment for his sexual-abuse conviction. The circuit court ordered the sentences to run consecutively. The court further ordered W.G.M. to pay a fine of $3,000, $750 to the crime victims compensation fund, and court costs. W.G.M. subsequently filed a motion for new trial that the circuit court denied. This appeal followed.

W.G.M. does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence on appeal; therefore, a detailed recitation of the facts is unnecessary in this case. On appeal, W.G.M. contends that the circuit court abused its discretion by denying his motion for a new trial in which he argued, among other things, that there existed juror misconduct where several jurors failed to correctly answer questions during voir dire and that the circuit court erred by not allowing the jury to have access to certain tangible evidence before announcing their verdict.

“The granting or denying of a motion for new trial rests largely within the discretion of the trial court, and the exercise of that discretion carries with it a presumption of correctness that will not be disturbed on appeal unless some legal right was abused and the record plainly and palpably shows that the trial court was in error.”

Knight v. State, 710 So.2d 511, 513 (Ala.Crim.App.1997) (quoting Beard v. State, 661 So.2d 789, 796 (Ala.Crim.App.1995)) (citations omitted).

I.

W.G.M. contends that juror misconduct occurred when jurors failed to completely disclose during voir dire their relationship with a State’s witness, the prosecutor, and the District Attorney. Specifically, W.G.M. alleges that Juror W.P. failed to mention during voir dire that she was married to the first cousin of a witness for the State, that she attended the witness’s wedding, or that they shared a relationship on [494]*494the Facebook social-media Web site. W.G.M. further contends that several jurors did not fully disclose that they had a “Facebook/Social Networking relationship” with the prosecutor or the District Attorney. (W.G.M.’s brief, p. 19.)

The Alabama Supreme Court has explained:

“ ‘The proper standard for determining whether juror misconduct warrants a new trial, as set out by this Court’s precedent, is whether the misconduct might have prejudiced, not whether it actually did prejudice, the defendant. See Ex parte Stewart, 659 So.2d 122 (Ala.1993).... The “might-have-been-prejudiced” standard, of course, casts a “lighter” burden on the defendant than the actual-prejudice standard. See Tomlin v. State, supra, 695 So.2d [157] at 170 [ (Ala.Crim.App.1996) ] ....
“ ‘It is true that the parties in a case are entitled to true and honest answers to their questions on voir dire, so that they may exercise their peremptory strikes wisely.... However, not every failure to respond properly to questions propounded during voir dire “automatically entitles [the defendant] to a new trial or reversal of the cause on appeal.” Freeman v. Hall, 286 Ala. 161, 166, 238 So.2d 330, 335 (1970)_As stated pre-
viously, the proper standard to apply in determining whether a party is entitled to a new trial in this circumstance is “whether the defendant might have been prejudiced by a veniremember’s failure to make a proper response.” Ex parte Stewart, 659 So.2d at 124. Further, the determination of whether a party might have been prejudiced, i.e., whether there was probable prejudice, is a matter within the trial court’s discretion.
“ ‘ “The determination of whether the complaining party was prejudiced by a juror’s failure to answer voir dire questions is a matter within the discretion of the trial court and will not be reversed unless the court has abused its discretion. Some of the factors that this Court has approved for using to determine whether there was probable prejudice include: ‘temporal remoteness of the matter inquired about, the ambiguity of the question propounded, the prospective juror’s inadvertence or willfulness in falsifying or failing to answer, the failure of the juror to recollect, and the materiality of the matter inquired about.’ ”
‘Union Mortgage Co. v. Barlow, 595 So.2d [1335] at 1342-43 [ (Ala.1994)]....
“ ‘The form of prejudice that would entitle a party to relief for a juror’s nondisclosure or falsification in voir dire would be its effect, if any, to cause the party to forgo challenging the juror for cause or exercising a peremptory challenge to strike the juror. Ex parte Ledbetter, 404 So.2d 731 (Ala.1981).... If the party establishes that the juror’s disclosure of the truth would have caused the party either to (successfully) challenge the juror for cause or to exercise a peremptory challenge to strike the juror, then the party has made a prima facie showing of prejudice. Id. Such prejudice can be established by the obvious tendency of the true facts to bias the juror, as in Ledbetter, supra, or by direct testimony of trial counsel that the true facts would have prompted a challenge against the juror, as in State v. Freeman, 605 So.2d 1258 (Ala.Crim.App.1992).’ ”

Ex parte Dixon, 55 So.3d 1257, 1260-61 (Ala.2010) (quoting Ex parte Dobyne, 805 So.2d 763, 771 (Ala.2001)) (footnote omitted in original; emphasis in original). We have explained:

[495]*495“The might-have-been-prejudiced standard, although on its face a light standard, actually requires more than simply showing that juror misconduct occurred. ‘[T]he question whether the jury’s decision might have been affected is answered not by a bare showing of juror misconduct, but rather by an examination of the circumstances particular to the case.’ Ex parte Apicella, 809 So.2d 865, 871 (Ala.2001). Thus, 4[i]n applying this standard we look at “the temporal remoteness of the matter inquired about, the ambiguity of the question propounded, the prospective juror’s inadvertence or willfulness in falsifying or in failing to answer, the failure of the juror to recollect, and the materiality of the matter inquired about.” ’ Hooks [v. State], 21 So.3d [772,] 781 (Ala.Crim.App.2008) (quoting DeBruce v. State, 890 So.2d 1068, 1078 (Ala.Crim.App.2003), overruled on other grounds, Ex parte Jenkins, 972 So.2d 159 (Ala.2005)).”

Bryant v. State, [Ms. CR-08-0405, February 4, 2011] — So.3d -, - (Ala.Crim.App.2010). With those principles in mind, we address W.G.M.’s claims of juror misconduct.

A.

W.G.M. argues that Juror W.P. “failed to mention that she was in fact married to the [State’s] witness’ first cousin and failed to mention that the witness had attended her wedding.” (W.G.M.’s brief, p. 17.) The record demonstrates that the venire was asked whether anyone knew the State’s witness, and Juror W.P. responded that the witness was “a cousin now through marriage.” (R.

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Bluebook (online)
140 So. 3d 491, 2013 WL 4710406, 2013 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 66, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wgm-v-state-alacrimapp-2013.