De La Beckwith v. State
| Citation | 707 So.2d 547 |
| Decision Date | 22 December 1997 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 94-KA-00402-SC,91-IA-01207-SCT,s. 94-KA-00402-SC |
| Parties | Byron De La BECKWITH, VI v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi |
Merrida Coxwell, Keyes Danks Coxwell & Leonard, Jackson, Jim Kitchens, Kitchens & Ellis, Jackson, for Appellant.
Michael C. Moore, Attorney General, Pat S. Flynn, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for Appellee.
Steven D. Orlansky, Watkins & Eager, Jackson; Steven M. Freeman, Harlan A. Loeb, New York City, for Amicus Curiae.
En Banc.
MILLS, Justice, for the Court:
¶1 Medgar Evers, first Field Secretary for the NAACP in the State of Mississippi was shot in the back and murdered in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 12, 1963. Byron De La Beckwith, VI was arrested and charged with the murder on June 23, and indicted by the grand jury of Hinds County in July of 1963. He was twice tried in February and April of 1964. In each case, a hung jury necessitated a mistrial. Following his second trial, Beckwith was released on $10,000.00 bond. An order granting a nolle prosequi of the indictment, signed by the three circuit judges of the Seventh Circuit Court District was entered, without objection of the defendant, on March 10, 1969.
¶2 In December of 1990, the Hinds County grand jury again indicted Beckwith for the murder of Evers. He was extradited from Tennessee to Mississippi and incarcerated in the Hinds County jail without bail. Following an interlocutory appeal to this Court, he was tried and convicted in 1994 for the murder of Medgar Evers and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Feeling aggrieved by the jury's verdict, Beckwith appeals to this Court.
THE EVIDENCE
THE DEATH OF MEDGAR EVERS
¶3 The last hours of Medgar Evers were recounted by the testimony of his widow, Myrlie. On direct examination, Ms. Evers testified as follows:
Q. Okay. When was the last time that you saw your husband, Medgar Evers, alive?
A. The last time that I saw Medgar alive was on June the 11th, 1963, when he left home that morning to go to work.
Q. Okay. And did the NAACP have an office that he worked out of, or what-- when you say he went to work, where would he go?
A. Well, there was an office. Office was located on Lynch Street here in Jackson. I recall that he left that morning after telling us goodbye with a very special embrace. And he went out to his car and was out there for a second or so Q. Okay. Did you get an opportunity to talk with him at any time later on during the day?
and came back in and told us to be sure to take good care of ourselves and to be sure to watch President Kennedy's address that night, and hugged and kissed us all again and--and left.
A. Yes.
Q. When--without telling us what he said, when approximately was the last time you talked with him?
A. Well, it was late that evening, afternoon I should say. It was before President Kennedy's speech that night.
Q. Okay. Did you watch President Kennedy's speech?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you watch it together? Was he with you?
A. No, he was not. He--he--he didn't--had not returned home at that time. Just the children and myself.
Q. Okay. Did there come a time that he did return home?
A. Yes, he did return home.
Q. If you would, just take a minute and tell the jury about what time it was and what you remember hearing and seeing at that time.
A. Well, he returned home on the 12th of June. It was slightly after midnight when he came home. We heard the car, the motor, which we were very familiar with, and the children said, "There's Daddy." I might add we were in the bedroom. And we heard the car pull in the driveway, and this horrible blast. And the children fell to the floor, as he had taught them to do. The baby was on the bed with me, and I bolted up off the bed and ran to the front door, and opened the door, and there was Medgar at the steps leading to the front door with his keys in his hand. It appeared that the force of the bullet had pushed him past his car, my car, and he had pulled himself around to--to the doorsteps.
The children--I screamed, I guess uncontrollably, and the children ran out shortly after I did, and they called, I recall going back in the house for a second to call someone--I don't even know who it was. At the time, I couldn't get through. I ran back out, and I kept calling to him, and the children were calling to him. I do recall, however, that when I first got out to him that there was another shot that was fired, and I remember dropping down to my knees again because I thought someone was trying to--to shoot me as well.
By the time I ran back out the second time, neighbors had come out and were over at the house. There were a couple of people helping to put Medgar on a mattress, and to put him in a vehicle to take him to a hospital for treatment.
¶4 Medgar Evers was found lying in a pool of blood clutching white T-shirts which read "JIM CROW MUST GO."
¶5 By 12:30 a.m., on the night of the murder, Captain B.D. Harrell, of the Jackson Police Department had assigned two detectives and a patrol unit to investigate the case. Officer Eddie Rosamond described what he saw when he arrived at the crime scene.
A. --and we got out of the car, our patrol car, and went up to see what had happened, and there was someone laying on--in the carport at the steps that go up to the kitchen door, in the kitchen, or in the--then the house, under the carport.
Q. Okay. And what, if anything, was done with the-what did you observe about this person you saw laying in the carport?
A. He was lying kinda face down on his--in a--kinda in a fetal position. And there was blood--he was laying in a puddle of blood.
Q. What, if anything, was done as far as any--obtaining any kind of medical aide or assistance?
A. The first thing we did was to try to get him to the hospital. We got him--we got a mattress, some kind of a mattress, and we used a neighbor's station wagon. We didn't wanna waste any time calling an ambulance and letting Q. Okay. And you followed or led the way with the police car--
them get out. We got him in a station wagon, and carried him to the hospital. The station wagon belonged to Wells, Houston Wells, Mr. Houston Wells.
A. We escorted them to the hospital.
¶6 Officer Ralph Hargrove of the Jackson Police Department went to the University Hospital on the night of June 12th to photograph Evers' body. He found Evers dead with a bullet hole in his back that had exited his chest.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD
¶7 The Evers' home was located on Guynes Street, now Margaret W. Alexander Street, which runs West into Missouri Street which runs in a Southeast direction parallel to and into Delta Drive, now known as Medgar Evers Boulevard. Approximately 350 feet Southwest of the Evers' home, and located on Delta Drive were Joes's Drive-In and Pittman's Handy Andy Grocery.
¶8 Herbert Richard Speight testified that he was a cab driver in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963. On Saturday, June 7, 1963 he was parked at the Trailways Bus Station in Jackson waiting for a call. He testified that the man he later recognized as Beckwith approached him and walked up beside his car. According to the testimony of Speight, Beckwith "asked me if I knew Negro Medgar Evers, NAACP leader." He stated that Beckwith then went back into the bus station and came back with a map. The following colloquy occurred in Speight's testimony:
Q. Now, Mr. Beckwith asked you if you knew--what was the first thing he asked you when he came up to your cab?
A. He asked me if I knew Negro Medgar Evans. I understood it to be Evans instead of Evers. NAACP leader.
Q. And you told him that you did not?
A. I told him I did not.
Q. And that's when he went into the bus station and looked in the phone book?
A. Right.
Q. Then he came back. Did he come back to your cab a second--
A. He came back to my cab and had an address on--he told me it was on Lexington Street.
Q. What did he say to you then?
A. He asked me if I knew where Lexington Street was. I told him I did, but that couldn't be where the colored fellow lived because it's an all-white section.
Q. All right. What did Mr. Beckwith do then?
A. He turned around and went back to the bus station. He came back with another address on Buena Vista, if I recall right, and I told him that that couldn't be it because that was a white section.
Q. All right. What did he do next?
A. He went back and come back with another address, which was on Poplar Boulevard, and I told him that couldn't be right because that was a white section. And then I left the bus terminal and I didn't see him no more.
¶9 According to the Evers' neighbor, Kenneth Adcock, he and Betty Jean Coley were walking in the neighborhood around 12:30 a.m. when At the time of the shot, Adcock was standing East of a clump of bushes growing along Missouri Street behind the drive-in. After hearing the shot, Adcock heard someone running through the darkness. It "[s]ounded like, you know, leaves and bushes and stuff cracking, and then whoever shot was running (bout) hard as they could back toward Delta Drive."
¶10 The prosecution offered the prior testimony of deceased witness Betty Jean Coley. Ms. Coley testified that she was with Kenneth Adcock around midnight of June 11, 1963 in the vicinity of Missouri and Ridgeway streets. She stated that around 12:30 she and Adcock heard a gun fire. The gunshot appeared to come from some nearby bushes and "I heard a man running" after the gunshot.
According to her testimony, the person appeared to be coming from a clump of nearby bushes and was running toward the parking lot of Joe's Drive-In.
¶11 Barbara Holder testified that she was a twenty-two year old "car-hop" working at Joe's Drive-In in 1963. She was at...
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