Watts v. State, 44236
| Decision Date | 06 March 1967 |
| Docket Number | No. 44236,44236 |
| Citation | 196 So.2d 79 |
| Parties | Thomas WATTS v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
R. Jess Brown, Denison Ray, Jackson, for appellant.
Joe T. Patterson, Atty, Gen., by R. Hugo Newcomb, Sr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.
Appellant was tried and convicted on April 21, 1966, in Justice of the Peace Court, District One, or Claiborne County, Mississippi on charges of reckless driving and carrying a concealed weapon. On appeal to the Circuit Court of Claiborne County appellant filed a motion to quash the venire on the ground that Negroes had been systematically and arbitrarily excluded from jury service in said county in violation of appellant's rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. A hearing was held on May 17, 1966, and the motion to quash was overruled.
On May 20, 1966, appellant was trial de novo in the circuit court and was again convicted on both charges by a jury duly impaneled from the venire which had been the subject of the motion to quash. Motion for a new trial was overruled, and appellant was fined $50 on the charge of reckless driving, and on the charge of carrying a concealed weapon was fined $350 and sentenced to serve four months in the county jail. Appellant thereupon filed a motion to reduce the sentences, which motion was overruled, and appeal was then taken to this Court.
The facts out of which this cause arose are few and simple. Between the hours of 1:00 and 1:15 on the morning of March 6, 1966, Patrolmen A. B. Marlin and Ira Pace of the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol, while cruising on U.S. Highway 61 several miles south of Port Gibson, Mississippi, observed a green and white Chevrolet driven by appellant proceeding ahead of them and traveling between forty-five and fifty miles per hour. Both cars were traveling south. As the officers approached appellant's car, they noticed that it was weaving from one side of its lane of traffic to the other, running off the pavement on the right side of the road a least three times and back across the highway and the center line thereof at least three times. The highway at this point contains numerous hills and curves, and several automobiles were coming from the opposite direction on the same highway. For these reasons, the officers were unable to stop appellant as soon as they would have liked since to do so might have endangered the lives of other travelers on the highway. However, as soon as it was safe to do so, they pulled alongside appellant's automobile and directed him to stop, which he did. Patrolman Marlin testified that while observing appellant in his efforts to find his driver's license, he concluded that appellant was drinking. Appellant was placed under arrest for reckless driving and was told to get out of the car, at which time he was personally searched. Appellant was then placed in the custody of Patrolman Pace. Patrolman Marlin returned to appellant's automobile, opened the left-hand door which appellant had previously opened, and shined his light into the car. At that time he detected a pistol lying under the left front seat. The record discloses that two-thirds of the pistol was showing from under the seat and was readily visible to the officer from where he stood. The pistol was seized, and appellant was charged with reckless driving and carrying a concealed weapon.
The basic issue presented by this appeal is whether appellant's motion to quash the venire should have been sustained. The determination of this question makes moot the other assignments of error urged by appellant.
By stipulation it was admitted that according to the records of the Bureau of Census of the United States for 1960 the recial composition of Claiborne County is overwhelmingly Negro. In 1960 there were 2,600 white people, constituting 24% of the population, and 8,245 non-whites, constituting 76% of the population of said county. The white male population twenty-one years of age or over in 1960 numbered 823 or 31.1% of the total population over twenty-one years of age, while the non-white males twenty-one years of age or over numbered 1,822 or 68.9%.
The record discloses that despite the great majority of Negroes both in the general population and among the males eligible for jury service, the Board of Supervisors of Claiborne County had for ten years placed an overwhelming preponderance of whites on the jury lists from which the venires were drawn. In fact, of the approximately 3,467 to 3,867 persons placed on the jury lists of Claiborne County between 1956 and 1963, only twenty-two were Negroes. The State stipulated that for the years 1956 through 1963 approximately 350 to 400 prospective jurors were annually placed on the jury lists. A yearly analysis of these jury lists from 1956 through 1965 is as follows:
Total on
Supervisors' Negroes
Year * Lists on Lists
---------- -------------- ----------------
1956 350-400 ** 5
1957 350-400 1
1958 350-400 3
1959 350-400 List Unavailable
1960 350-400 0
1961 350-400 3
1962 350-400 1
1963 350-400 2
1964 320 3
1965 347 4
For the year 1966 the names of 410 prospective jurors appeared on the supervisors' list, of whom fifty-three or fifty-four were Negroes. From a total of approximately 1,653 to 2,553 persons called for jury duty from 1956 through the January 1966 term only two were Negroes. An analysis of the number of Negroes actually called for jury duty during this period, as compared to the total number of jurors called, reflects the following:
Total
Year Jurors Called Negroes Called
------------------- ------------- --------------
1956 150-250 * 0
1957 150-250 0
1958 150-250 0
1959 150-250 0
1960 150-250 0
1961 150-250 0
1962 150-250 0
1963 150-250 0
1964 150-250 0
1965 241 0
1966 (January Term) 62 2
For the May 1966 term, at which appellant was convicted, only seven Negroes were on the venire of sixty-two persons. The State admits that from 1956 to 1964 no Negroes served on any grand or petit jury in Claiborne County. It is obvious that no Negroes served in 1965, because, as heretofore shown, none were called for jury duty. The record is silent and no testimony was offered as to whether the two Negroes called in the January 1966 term actually served as jurors. In the May 1966 term two Negroes sat on the grand jury.
The circuit clerk, who was also the county registrar, estimated that in April 1965 there were only fifteen qualified Negro male electors in the county. In April 1966, at the time the supervisors prepared the jury list in question, she estimated that there were approximately 1500 Negroes registered to vote in the county, of whom only 300 were Negro males. She testified that of these 300, possibly no more than ten were qualified electors by virtue of having paid their poll taxes for two consecutive years, although it is conceded that this number could have been as high as 150. The proof shows that on May 17, 1966, there were approximately 4,375 registered voters in Claiborne County, of whom 2,600 were Negroes. This drastic increase over the number of Negroes registered a month earlier occurred simultaneously with the presence of a federal voting registrar in the county.
This Court has heretofore clearly stated that the laws relating to the selection of juries must be followed in accordance with the decisions of the United States Supreme Court and that when such laws are not followed, due process under the Fourteenth Amendment is denied to defendants. In Bolton v. City of Greenville, 253 Miss. 656, 666, 178 So.2d 667, 672 (1965), we stated:
We acknowledge that all courts are fallible and their decisions are subject to acrid criticism. Nevertheless, this Court is under authority of the United States Supreme Court. Our attitude toward a decision of that Court does not authorize or control its rejection or acceptance. We must follow the decision until it has been abrogated by constitutional and legal procedures. Irrespective of how erroneous it may appear, or how odious it is, a decision of the United States Supreme Court is still the ultimate in judicial determination and is binding on the tribunals and citizens of the respective states in comparable cases.
The facts in this case conclusively show beyond peradventure that Negroes have been systematically excluded from juries in Claiborne County over a period of ten years. Nearly a quarter century ago the United States Supreme Court held that in order to refute the prima facie case of discrimination created by the long continued absence of Negroes from jury service, the jury selection officials must present evidence of a substantial nature which is corroborated by public records. Patton v. State Of Mississippi, 332, U.S. 463, 68 S.Ct. 184, 92 L.Ed. 76 (1947). It is obvious from a reading of the record in this case that the jury selection officials of Claiborne County did not present evidence of a substantial nature to rebut the prima facie case of discrimination created by the facts previously recited. This Court has repeatedly held that the discriminatory exclusion of Negroes from the venire is in violation of a defendant's rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. Shinall v. State, 187 So.2d 840 (Miss.1966); Black v. State, 187 So.2d 815 (Miss.1966); Bass v. State, 254 Miss. 723, 182 So.2d 591, 183 So.2d 483 (1966); Harper v. State, 251 Miss. 699, 171 So.2d 129 (1965)...
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