Williams v. State

149 S.E.2d 449, 222 Ga. 208, 1966 Ga. LEXIS 441
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedMay 5, 1966
Docket23429
StatusPublished
Cited by56 cases

This text of 149 S.E.2d 449 (Williams v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams v. State, 149 S.E.2d 449, 222 Ga. 208, 1966 Ga. LEXIS 441 (Ga. 1966).

Opinions

Almand, Justice.

Under an indictment returned at the April term, 1965, of the Gwinnett Superior Court charging Venson [210]*210Eugene Williams and Alex S. Evans with murder in that they on April 17, 1964, did kill one Jerry S. Everett by shooting him with a pistol, in the separate trial of Williams he was found guilty on October 7, 1965, and sentenced to death on October 8, 1965. His motion for a new trial on the general grounds and 33 special grounds was overruled on January 28, 1966. Notice of appeal was timely filed, and the appeal is before us in which the appellant asserts that he is entitled to a new trial if error be found in any one of his 33 enumerated grounds of error. Our sole duty being to review the trial in the court below to ascertain if an error of law was committed, we have reviewed each enumeration of error and render our opinion and judgment on each one seriatim.

Motion to change venue. It is asserted that the court erred in not sustaining defendant’s motion for a change of venue because “of the excitement and the inflamed state of public opinion that has existed since the homicide, which was calculated to poison the minds of the jurors of said county, a large portion of the jurors have formed an opinion as to petitioner’s guilt, or have become prejudiced or biased against him either from having read or heard accounts of the murder and indictment of this defendant in the newspapers and various publications or over the television or radio, or from having heard statements of others and of relatives and friends of the decedent which are exceedingly damaging to petitioner and prejudicial to a correct termination of the issues involved in the case. The public mind has been so poisoned and prejudiced by exaggerated rumors and by accounts in the newspapers, local press and other news media that petitioner will be unable to get a fair trial by an impartial jury in said county, the sort of trial that he is entitled to under the laws of the land, the State of Georgia, and the Constitution of the United States of America, particularly Section One, Fourteenth Amendment.”

On the hearing of this motion, the defendant’s evidence consisted entirely of newspaper articles of general circulation in the county which carried reports of the slaying of three Gwinnett County police officers and particularly the accounts in the newspapers that “Gwinnett Murders Solved,” in which the defendant [211]*211was named as one of the participants. It was contended by the defendant that these newspaper reports contained the names of those indicted and the past criminal record of the defendant was given. It was contended that this wide publicity as to the indictment of the defendant and his prior criminal record made it impossible to obtain a fair trial in Gwinnett County. In support of his motion, defendant offered no opinionative evidence.

As a countershowing, the State introduced in evidence the affidavits of 30 citizens of Gwinnett County in which they swore that in their opinion the defendant could receive a fair trial in Gwinnett County.

The trial judge did not err in denying the motion for a change of venue. This ruling follows our ruling in Morgan v. State, 211 Ga. 172 (84 SE2d 365), where it was held that the court did not err in overruling a motion for a change of venue based solely upon grounds that newspaper reports published in the county in which the charges against the defendant were pending were inflammatory and rendered it impossible to obtain a fair trial. This court in a unanimous opinion said: “The mere fact that newspapers had carried items and editorials that the defendant had confessed the crime for which he stood indicted, or had published articles in regard to the defendant which were inflammatory in nature, would not of itself be sufficient to establish the fact that a fair and impartial trial could not be had in Richmond County, without further alleging that the jurors who had been summoned to try the case had read the articles and formed a fixed opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant from reading such articles. As to whether any juror empaneled for the defendant’s trial had read the articles or formed any opinion therefrom, the right of the defendant in the selection of a fair and impartial jury was protected by the right of challenge to the poll, to have the voir dire questions propounded, and to have peremptory challenges. From the fact that the two local newspapers gave a large amount of publicity to the case, it does, not follow that such prejudice existed in the whole county as to make a fair and impartial trial impossible.” Id. at p. 175. See also Blevins v. State, 108 Ga. App. 738 (134 SE2d 496).

Prior to the trial, the defendant filed a motion praying [212]*212that the court order and direct the State to produce certain alleged (a) names and addresses of all those persons whose testimony "was in substance related to the grand jury”; (b) “a full, exact and complete copy of any statement or affidavit” in the control of the solicitor general of those persons who would be called as witnesses; (c) the names and addresses of the officers who questioned the wife of the defendant in April, 1964; (d) the minutes of the grand jury which indicted the defendant; (e) all witnesses for the prosecution to be made available to the defendant for the purpose of taking the depositions of those persons and (f) the written agreement, if any, made to Wade L. Truett for immunity.

In denying these motions for discovery or production of evidence, error is alleged in grounds 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. This court in Blevins v. State, 220 Ga. 720 (2) (141 SE2d 426), held: “There is no statute or rule of procedure of force in this State which requires a solicitor general or other prosecuting officer to make his evidence, documentary or otherwise, available to the accused or his counsel before trial. . .” Id. at p. 723. See also Walker v. State, 215 Ga. 128 (109 SE2d 748). It has never been the practice in this State for a court to engage in the investigation as to whether the evidence before a grand jury was sufficient to warrant an indictment. Buchanan v. State, 215 Ga. 791 (113 SE2d 609). Under these prior rulings, which we follow and approve, these grounds are without merit.

We come now to alleged error number 9 which charges that the court erred in excusing 37 persons called for jury service on the grounds that in response to the question given to them on the voir dire as to whether they were conscientiously opposed to capital punishment, each of them was excused by his answer in the affirmative. Defendant alleges error on the ground that the removal of this class of jurors denied him due process of law as contemplated by Federal and State Constitutions.

■Code § 59-806 provides that in trials for felonies any juror may be put upon his voir dire and if in response to the question "Are you conscientiously opposed to capital punishment?” his answer shall be in the negative he shall be held to be a competent juror. We have held that if he answers in the affirmative [213]*213he is incompetent to serve. Mickens v. State, 149 Ga. 185 (99 SE 779); Cherry v. State, 220 Ga. 695 (6) (141 SE2d 412).

Enumerations of error numbers 9-26 inclusive assert that the court erred in placing upon the defendant in the selection of a jury 13 jurors who were not impartial and qualified.

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Bluebook (online)
149 S.E.2d 449, 222 Ga. 208, 1966 Ga. LEXIS 441, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-state-ga-1966.