Barnes v. State, 55425
| Decision Date | 05 June 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 55425,55425 |
| Citation | 471 So.2d 1218 |
| Parties | Harold David BARNES v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Travis Buckley, Dan C. Taylor, Ellisville, Thomas E. Royals, Royals & Hartung, Jackson, for appellant.
Edwin Lloyd Pittman, Atty. Gen. by Billy L. Gore, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.
En Banc.
For the second time within a year Harold David Barnes appeals to this Court from a judgment of conviction entered by the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial District of Jones County, Mississippi, this time a conviction of the crime of murder. Once again, because the Circuit Court failed to enforce discovery rules found in Rule 4.06 of our Uniform Criminal Rules of Circuit Court Practice, we reverse and remand. See Barnes v. State, 460 So.2d 126, 133-135 (Miss.1984).
The context is set by that portion of Rule 4.06 which reads:
Upon request of defendant, the prosecution shall furnish to the court in camera any prior written statements of witnesses. If these materials are found to be materially inconsistent with the witness' testimony, the statement shall be supplied to defense counsel prior to cross-examination.
At trial, the principal state witness for the prosecution was Willard Donald Knight. On direct examination, Knight described several months of advance planning by Barnes directed toward the murder of Barnes' wife, Beverly. The basic motif was a faked automobile accident. Various options were considered and discarded. Finally, Knight testified that on Easter afternoon, April 7, 1980, Barnes came to his house and said "Be ready to go tonight". Barnes came back at approximately 10:30 p.m. From this point forward Knight described in meticulous detail his going to Barnes' house, helping get Beverly's body into a car and then helping to stage the wreck. Without question, Knight's testimony was the star attraction in the case for the prosecution. His credibility was likely outcome-determinative in the jury's mind.
On cross-examination, Knight was asked if he had previously talked with police officers. After some questions, the existence of three prior witness statements was disclosed. Defense counsel then invoked Rule 4.06 and moved for production of all prior statements given by the witness Knight to determine "whether or not there were any contradictory statements given" 1. Five statements were produced. These are:
(5) a final typewritten question-and-answer interview of Knight by law enforcement officers, this time of March 21, 1983, being 21 pages in length.
The trial judge then examined the five statements in camera and thereafter denied Barnes' request, announcing "that there is nothing exculpatory in the statements". Barnes' counsel asked that the record reflect that the purpose of his request was not merely to obtain exculpatory materials but also for the purpose of cross-examining the witness with respect to conflicts in the statements and between what the witness had said in the statements and his testimony in open court. The trial judge never ruled on whether there were conflicts in the statements or between the statements and the testimony of Knight given up to that point at trial.
The statements were then placed in sealed envelopes and made a part of the record on appeal. We presume that the statements have to this day not been seen by counsel for Barnes. Upon our examination, we find the following discrepancies in the various statements, when compared to Knight's trial testimony:
(1) The statement of December 28, 1982,
(a) throughout this statement Knight insists that he was on drugs (Talwain) and drinking and that he does not have a very good memory of what happened on Easter night, while on direct examination and trial he appeared to have a very vivid memory.
(b) Knight said he went over to Barnes' house on Easter night and Beverly met him at the door. (p. 4) On the witness stand Knight said the first time he saw Beverly that night she was in the bathroom and already dead.
(c) Knight repeated the statement that he saw Beverly that night alive and that she came to the door. (p. 6)
(d) Knight was asked point blank if he knew anything about Beverly's death and if he had anything to do with killing her and his answer on each occasion was a categorial "No, sir". (p. 7) Knight's substantially contrary trial testimony has been described above.
(e) Knight was asked if Harold Barnes killed Beverly Barnes and said he did not know. (p. 9) At trial on direct examination Knight said that Barnes did kill Beverly.
(f) Knight was asked if he helped bring Beverly Barnes' body out of the house and answered, no, he did not. (p. 9) At trial on direct examination Knight testified that he did assist Barnes in removing Beverly's body from the house.
(g) Knight was asked if the wreck was just staged and answered that he did not know. (p. 10) At trial on direct examination Knight testified that he participated in staging the wreck.
(2) The statement of December 29, 1982
(a) He "was plastered up back then". (p. 2) On direct examination at trial Knight had a very vivid memory.
(b) Knight was not nearly as sure he had been at the Barnes' house on Easter night. "I was down there one night; I don't know which one". (p. 1) Knight also said "I don't know whether I was [at the Barnes house] or not". (p. 1) This was a variance from the statement Knight had made the day before and was also at substantial variance with the trial testimony of Knight to the effect that he was definitely at the Barnes house on Easter night.
(3) The narrative statement of March 17, 1983
There is one major discrepancy between this statement and Knight's trial testimony. In the statement Knight says that he had no advance knowledge about any plan to kill Beverly Barnes. In fact, he did not know that she was going to be in the staged wreck until he saw her dead in the bathroom at 2:00 a.m. on Easter night and Barnes asked him to help carry her body out of the house. In this statement Knight never admits that he knew Barnes had murdered his wife. This is in contradiction to his direct testimony at trial.
(4) The narrative statement of March 17, 1983
This statement is quite lengthy. Again the major discrepancy is that Knight is very positive that he had no idea that a homicide was being planned. Indeed, when he entered the Barnes house in the early morning hours of April 7, 1980, he had no idea he was going to find Beverly's dead body. Rather, he thought he was simply going over there to participate in staging a wreck.
(5) The statement of March 21, 1983
This statement is substantially consistent with Knight's testimony at trial.
Applying the unequivocal language of Rule 4.06 as quoted above to the facts of this case, we hold that the first four statements--those of December 28 and 29, 1982, and the two statements of March 17, 1983--were discoverable. Counsel for defense was entitled to reasonable access to these statements before being required to cross-examine the witness Knight. Barnes v. State, 460 So.2d 126, 133-135 (Miss.1984); Patrick v. State, 285 So.2d 165, 167 (Miss.1973).
Much is made of the notion that Barnes' attorney "was not surprised" and that he was nevertheless allowed to conduct an effective cross-examination of Knight. The record makes clear, however, that to this day Barnes' attorney has not seen the statements. Great insight is not required to see how important access to verbatim transcripts of previous statements given by a key witness would be in the cross-examination of that witness, particularly where over a three month period of time the witness told three conflicting stories. In such cases, we do not ask whether defense counsel was surprised by the witness' direct testimony. We inquiry whether the rule has been violated. Box v. State, 437 So.2d 19, 21 (Miss.1983) ()
Rule 4.06, in pertinent part, was designed to assure that defense counsel had access to materially conflicting prior statements given by the State's witnesses for use in cross-examination. Where the trial court has refused to order production of clearly discoverable witness statements which go to the heart of the credibility of the State's principal witness in a murder prosecution, we do not engage in nice calculations regarding the amount of resulting prejudice. See Ford v. State, 444 So.2d 841, 843 (Miss.1984) and Morris v. State, 436 So.2d 1381, 1387 (Miss.1983). We reverse and remand for a new trial.
REVERSED AND REMANDED
WALKER and ROY NOBLE LEE, P.JJ., dissent.
...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Mitchell v. State, 57746
...(Miss.1987); Arteigapiloto v. State, 496 So.2d 681, 684 (Miss.1986); Foster v. State, 493 So.2d 1304, 1308 (Miss.1986); Barnes v. State, 471 So.2d 1218, 1221 (Miss.1985). While the trial court did not err in denying Mitchell an opportunity to view the statements by following the procedure o......
-
Hughes v. State, 97-DP-00028-SCT.
...So.2d 1067, 1071 (Miss.1987)(citing Morris v. State, 436 So.2d 1381 (Miss.1983), Ford v. State, 444 So.2d 841 (Miss.1984); Barnes v. State, 471 So.2d 1218 (Miss.1985)). 6. The racial breakdown here included only white and black 7. For an insightful and accessible explanation of the mathemat......
-
Williams v. State
...part to the inherent confusion in application of one of the portions of our discovery rule. See Barnes v. State, 471 So.2d 1218, 1222 (Miss.1985), (Anderson, J., specially concurring). The literal language of the rule requires absolute disclosure by the state of "any exculpatory material co......
-
Cole v. State
...v. State, 468 So.2d 45 (Miss.1985), failure to furnish defendant copy of statement of companion in commission of crime. Barnes v. State, 471 So.2d 1218 (Miss.1985), failure to furnish defendant with copy of statements given to officers by principal state Hentz v. State, 489 So.2d 1386 (Miss......