State v. Tison

Decision Date09 July 1981
Docket NumberNo. 4624,4624
Citation129 Ariz. 546,633 P.2d 355
PartiesSTATE of Arizona, Appellee, v. Raymond Curtis TISON, Appellant.
CourtArizona Supreme Court

Robert K. Corbin, Atty. Gen. by William J. Schafer, III, Bruce M. Ferg, David R. Cole, Asst. Attys. Gen., Phoenix, for appellee.

Boyd T. Johnson, Coolidge and Alan M. Dershowitz, Cambridge, Mass., for appellant.

Alan M. Dershowitz, Cambridge, Mass., and Alice L. Bendheim, Phoenix, for amici curiae American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Arizona Civil Liberties Union, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States, The American Baptist Churches in the U. S. A.

STRUCKMEYER, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal by Raymond Curtis Tison from judgments of guilty to four counts of murder in the first degree and sentences of death thereon, two counts of armed robbery, three counts of kidnapping, and one count of theft of a motor vehicle. It is a companion case to that of Ricky Wayne Tison, decided this date, 129 Ariz. ---, 633 P.2d 335. Judgments and sentences affirmed.

On July 30, 1978, appellant and his two brothers, Ricky and Donald Tison, visited the Arizona State Prison at Florence, Arizona. Appellant went to the north annex, ostensibly to see his father, Gary Tison, who was serving a life sentence for murder. Gary Tison's cellmate, Randy Greenawalt, another convicted murderer, was close by in the control room. Appellant's two brothers, Ricky and Donald Tison, while in the yard office of the annex, took out guns which had been concealed in an ice chest. Greenawalt was given a gun and he passed it to Gary Tison. The guards who were present and some prison visitors were locked in a storage closet. The Tisons, with Greenawalt, then left the prison in an escape.

On August 6, 1978, an abandoned Lincoln Continental was found near Quartzsite, Arizona. The body of John Lyons was found near the vehicle and the bodies of Donnelda Lyons, his wife, and their twenty-two-month-old son, Christopher, were found inside the car. Another body, that of Theresa Tyson, the Lyonses' niece, was found one-fifth of a mile west of the vehicle. It was established that the Lyonses had left their home in Yuma, traveling toward Las Vegas, Nevada, in a late model Mazda on the evening of July 31, 1978. This vehicle was eventually found partially buried and covered with pine tree branches near Flagstaff, Arizona.

In the early morning hours of August 11, 1978, appellant, together with Ricky Tison and Randy Greenawalt, was captured near Casa Grande, Arizona after a high speed chase. They attempted to run a roadblock in a stolen Ford van. All were armed with weapons. During the capture, Donald Tison, the driver of the van, was shot in the head. Gary Tison fled into the desert and was found dead a few days later.

Appellant was tried along with Greenawalt and Ricky Tison in Pinal County, Arizona for crimes occurring at the prison and at the roadblock. Appellant was convicted of seventeen counts of assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a stolen motor vehicle, unlawful flight from a pursuing law enforcement vehicle, and aiding and assisting an escape. These convictions were affirmed by this Court in State v. Greenawalt, et al. on the 24th day of February, 1981, 128 Ariz. 388, 626 P.2d 118 (1981).

The convictions being upheld here resulted from a trial in Yuma County, conducted immediately following the trials first of Greenawalt and then of Ricky Wayne Tison. Greenawalt's convictions for murder, armed robbery, kidnapping and theft of a motor vehicle and sentences were affirmed by this Court in State v. Greenawalt, 128 Ariz. 150, 624 P.2d 828 (1981). Ricky Wayne Tison's appeals from convictions for similar offenses were resolved this day in Cause No. 4612.

Appellant has presented twenty-two assignments of error, most of which do not differ from those asserted and resolved in the companion case of State v. Ricky Wayne Tison, --- Ariz. ---, 633 P.2d 335 (1981). The similarity of the issues in the two cases was recognized by counsel for Raymond Curtis Tison in his motion to consolidate oral arguments:

"The two cases have a number of issues in common, including all of the conspiracy issues, felony-murder issues, vicarious liability questions, and death penalty issues, over which separate oral argument would be redundant."

We therefore find it unnecessary to reconsider the following issues which were discussed and resolved in State v. Ricky Wayne Tison, 129 Ariz. ---, 633 P.2d 335, supra: (1) that the plea agreement should be specifically enforced against the State, since it improperly compelled the appellant to withdraw from the agreement; (2) that an expert should have been appointed to conduct a public opinion survey; (3) that the trial court erred in giving the conspiracy instructions when the prosecution relied on the theory of aiding and abetting to impose criminal liability; (4) that the trial court erred in the conspiracy instructions given because Arizona law does not recognize vicarious liability for the acts of a co-conspirator; (5) that it was fundamental error for the trial court to fail to instruct the jury on the elements of the crime of conspiracy; (6) that the trial court erred by failing to instruct on the elements of escape from legal custody and avoidance or prevention of lawful arrest contained in the felony murder statute; (7) that the trial court erred in failing to instruct on termination of a felony underlying application of the felony murder rule; (8) that the trial court erred in failing to provide transcripts of co-defendant Randy Greenawalt's trial, see State v. Greenawalt, 128 Ariz. 150, 624 P.2d 828 (1981); (9) that the sentencing judge erred in his interpretation of the aggravating circumstances contained in A.R.S. § 13-454(E) (now § 13-703(F)); (10) that the death penalty constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution; (11) that the decision in State v. Watson, 120 Ariz. 441, 586 P.2d 1253 (1978), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 924, 99 S.Ct. 1254, 59 L.Ed.2d 478 (1979), is unconstitutional because the mitigating portions of the statute are not severable from the remainder of the statute; (12) that State v. Watson, supra, constitutes a prohibited exercise of legislative power in violation of Article III of the Constitution of Arizona; (13) that State v. Watson, supra, constitutes a judicial enactment of a bill of attainder prohibited by Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution; (14) that the death penalty as re-created by State v. Watson, supra, will be imposed wantonly, arbitrarily and freakishly because it contains no ascertainable standards for the sentencing body to measure the relative weights of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances; (15) that the death penalty statute improperly allocates the burden of proof in requiring the defendant to prove the existence of mitigating factors and not requiring the prosecution to establish aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt; and (16) that the imposition of the sentence of death upon an individual convicted under a felony murder theory without evidence that he was the actual perpetrator of the homicide or intended that the victim should die is grossly disproportionate and violates the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment contained in the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Our resolution here of the above enumerated issues is identical to their resolution in State v. Ricky Wayne Tison, supra.

In addition, appellant urges that as a result of the pretrial publicity, the trial court erred in denying his motions for change of venue, change of venire, continuance, sequestration of the jury and for individual voir dire. We will examine these assertions in the light of the established law that the determinations rest within the sound discretion of the trial court and will not be disturbed on appeal lacking a clear showing of abuse of discretion and resulting prejudice. State v. Ricky Wayne Tison, supra; State v. Greenawalt, et al, 128 Ariz. 388, 626 P.2d 118 (1981); State v. Greenawalt, 128 Ariz. 150, 624 P.2d 828 (1981).

It is appellant's position that pretrial publicity had so "permeated the community" and was so prejudicial that a change of venue was necessitated. He points to the fact that every member of the jury panel had some knowledge of the case.

In State v. Schmid, 107 Ariz. 191, 484 P.2d 187 (1971), this Court recognized that prior knowledge concerning a case by all of the empaneled jurors was an important factor for the trial judge to consider in ruling on the motion for change of venue, but that standing alone it did not demonstrate such prejudice as would necessitate a change of venue. The grounds for change of venue require the movant to show that pretrial publicity has the probable effect of precluding a trial by fair and impartial jurors. State v. Ricky Wayne Tison, supra; State v. Greenawalt, 128 Ariz. 150, 624 P.2d 828 (1981). Nothing approaching such a showing was made by appellant. Of the 50 prospective jurors that needed to be called to obtain a panel of 34, 16 expressed an unqualified opinion as to the guilt of the accused. These prospective jurors were excused and the remaining members of the panel, even though possessing some knowledge of the case, stated that they could try the case on the evidence presented in court. It is unnecessary for a juror to be totally ignorant of the facts of a case so long as he can lay aside his impressions or opinions and render a verdict based on the evidence before him. State v. Smith, 123 Ariz. 231, 599 P.2d 187 (1979). While the assurances of impartiality by the jurors are not dispositive on the question of actual prejudice toward the defendant, in the absence of any showing of the probability of an unfair trial we will not upset the trial judge's ruling on ...

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