Bracewell v. State
| Citation | 401 So.2d 119 |
| Decision Date | 19 December 1978 |
| Docket Number | 4 Div. 663 |
| Parties | Debra BRACEWELL, alias v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
Donald F. Colquett, Opp, J. Fletcher Jones, Andalusia, for appellant.
William J. Baxley, Atty. Gen., and James F. Hampton, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Debra Bracewell, alias, Debra Jeanene Bracewell, was indicted by the grand jury of Covington County in a seven-count indictment under the Alabama Death Penalty Act 1 for the intentional killing of one Rex Carnley by shooting him with a pistol while in the commission of a robbery.
The trial court denied the appellant's application for youthful offender treatment and appointed two experienced lawyers to represent her.
Following the overruling of several pretrial motions, the appellant's trial in this cause ensued. The jury found the appellant guilty "as charged," and fixed punishment at death. The trial court thereafter conducted a hearing on the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, as required by law, and sentenced the appellant to death by electrocution.
The tenor of the State's evidence is to the effect that on the night of Sunday, August 14, 1977, Mr. Rex Carnley went to his store, known as "Carnley's Grocery," located on U. S. Highway 84, East, between Opp and Elba in Covington County, Alabama. Members of Mr. Carnley's family assisted him in opening the store, and others remained with him there until late evening, at which time, at Mr. Carnley's request, he was locked in the store to remain there during the evening because he was concerned about burglaries, and also due to the fact that he was keeping a large amount of cash within the premises.
Early the following morning, Mr. Carnley's body was found lying in the store with a pearl-handled .22 pistol lying beside his body.
The State Toxicologist's report indicated that nine shots were fired into his head and a number of bullets were removed therefrom. The cause of death was attributed to "death by gunshot wounds to the head."
Because reversible error occurred in the admission of the written confession of Debra Bracewell to Sheriff W. E. Harrell, on January 23, 1978, we must reverse and remand this cause for a new trial.
I
Sheriff W. E. Harrell testified at trial that the appellant had been arrested on November 4, 1977, on another charge and placed in the Covington County Jail. Thereafter she was interrogated on three occasions in November and again on January 19, 1978. On at least two of these occasions, according to Sheriff Harrell and Mr. Marlon Brewer, Criminal Investigator for the State Department of Public Safety, Bureau of Investigation, she was given her constitutional rights through a Miranda warning. The two officers and the district attorney indicated that, prior to interrogating Debra Bracewell on January 23, 1978, she was again given a Miranda type warning, and that the interrogation took place in the Sheriff's Office in the Court House. They testified that she was not threatened, intimidated, coerced, or induced into making her statement.
Mrs. Debra Bracewell, however, testified that she was frightened by statements made to her by the district attorney concerning the possible death penalty. This was why she gave her statement. The officers and the district attorney refuted these assertions, and the trial court found the statements to have been voluntarily given.
The officers explained that her statement was taken down by notes made by Mrs Cassady, that she reduced the statement to typewritten form, and that the statement was then read by the appellant, who then signed it in the presence of Mrs. Cassady and Mr. Brewer.
Mrs. Bracewell admitted in this statement to the officers that she had driven to Mr. Rex Carnley's store with her husband, Charles Bracewell, during the late evening of August 14, 1977, knocked on the door, that Mr. Carnley admitted them, and that while they were talking about a purchase, her husband held a gun on Mr. Carnley while she obtained a pistol from underneath a counter, at her husband's direction, and held it on the deceased, Rex Carnley. A discussion ensued, she was directed by her husband to fire, which she did, and that later she saw her husband fire several shots at Mr. Carnley's head. Mrs. Bracewell stated that she ran outside, and shortly thereafter her husband came out with a pistol and the deceased's billfold in his hands, that they got in the car and her husband counted more than $1200.00 which he removed from this billfold.
Mr. Brewer testified on trial that his investigation revealed Mrs. Bracewell was seventeen years of age and had completed the seventh grade in school at the time she gave her statement.
Section 12-15-1(3)b, Code of Alabama, 1975, reads as follows:
Section 12-15-67, Code of Alabama, 1975, reads as follows:
This Act became effective on January 16, 1977, Parker v. State, Ala.Cr.App., 351 So.2d 927, cert. denied, Ala., 351 So.2d 938 (1977), seven (7) months before this crime was committed.
Sheriff W. E. Harrell's testimony at trial (Volume 2, R. pp. 328-330) pertaining to the taking of a written statement from Debra Bracewell on January 23, 1978, reads as follows in pertinent part:
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Bracewell v. State
...v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625, 100 S.Ct. 2382, 65 L.Ed.2d 392 (1980), and Beck v. State, 396 So.2d 645 (Ala. 1980). See Bracewell v. State, 401 So.2d 119 (Ala. Crim. App. 1978), rev'd, 401 So.2d 123 (Ala. 1979), on remand to, 401 So.2d 124 (Ala. Crim. App. 1980), judgment vacated by Bracewell v.......
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Bracewell v. State
...on the authority of Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625 (1980), and Beck v. State, 396 So. 2d 645 (Ala. 1980). See Bracewell v. State, 401 So. 2d 119 (Ala. Crim. App. 1978), rev'd, 401 So. 2d 123 (Ala. 1979), on remand, 401 So. 2d 124 (Ala. Crim. App. 1980), judgment vacated by Bracewell v. Alaba......
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Jackson v. State, 6 Div. 746
...representing him at the time the confession was made. He cites §§ 12-15-1(3)(a) and (b), Code of Alabama 1975, and Bracewell v. State, 401 So.2d 119 (Ala.Cr.App.), rev'd, 401 So.2d 123 (Ala.1979), on remand, 401 So.2d 124 (Ala.Cr.App.), cert. denied, 401 So.2d 130 (Ala.), vacated, 449 U.S. ......