Brown v. State

• Decision Date: 01 October 1999
• Citation: 807 So.2d 1
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals
• Parties: Raymond Eugene BROWN v. STATE.

807 So.2d 1

Raymond Eugene BROWN v. STATE.

CR-98-0343.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

October 1, 1999.

Rehearing Denied November 12, 1999.

Randall Scott Susskind, Montgomery, for appellant.

Bill Pryor, atty. gen.; and J. Clayton Crenshaw and Michelle Riley Stephens, asst. attys. gen., for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

The appellant, Raymond Eugene Brown, appeals the denial of his petition for post-conviction relief filed pursuant to Rule 32, Ala.R.Crim.P.

This case has a long and complicated procedural history. In 1988 Brown was convicted of four counts of capital murder for the murders of Linda LeMonte and her nine-year-old daughter Sheila Smoke. The four counts included 1) the intentional murder of two or more people during one course of conduct, 2) the intentional murder of LeMonte while Brown was under a sentence of life imprisonment,¹ 3) the intentional murder of Smoke while he was under a sentence of life imprisonment, and 4) the intentional murder of Smoke during the course of sexual abuse. The jury unanimously recommended that Brown be sentenced to death. The trial court accepted its recommendation and found the existence of three aggravating circumstances: that the murders were committed while Brown was on parole for another offense, § 13A-5-49(1), Code of Alabama 1975; that Brown had previously been convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of violence, § 13A-5-49(2); and that the murders were especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel as compared to other capital offenses, § 13A-5-49(8). This Court reversed Brown's conviction based on the trial court's failure to conduct individual voir dire examination of the prospective jurors. Brown v. State, 571 So.2d 345 (Ala.Cr.App.1990). The United States Supreme Court vacated this Court's judgment based on its decision in Mu'Min v. Virginia, 500 U.S. 415, 111 S.Ct. 1899, 114 L.Ed.2d 493 (1991), which held that a defendant has no constitutional right to question prospective jurors about the specific contents of media coverage of a case. The case was remanded for reconsideration in light of Mu'Min. Alabama v. Brown, 501 U.S. 1201, 111 S.Ct. 2791, 115 L.Ed.2d 966 (1991). On remand, we again reversed the judgment and remanded the case for a new trial, saying that this case was distinguishable from Mu'Min, both on the facts and the law. Brown v. State, 586 So.2d 991 (Ala.Cr.App.1991). The Alabama Supreme Court reversed this Court's judgment, stating that Mu'Min controlled and that Brown's conviction was due to be affirmed on that ground. Brown v. State, 632 So.2d 14 (Ala.1992). While the case was pending on remand, the United States Supreme Court released Powers v. Ohio, 499 U.S. 400, 111 S.Ct. 1364, 113 L.Ed.2d 411 (1991), which applied Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), to white defendants. Brown is white. On remand from the Alabama Supreme Court, we applied Powers and remanded the case to the trial court for a Batson hearing. Brown v. State, 632 So.2d 17 (Ala.Cr.App.1992). Brown's convictions and his death sentence were affirmed in 1995. Brown v. State, 686 So.2d 385 (Ala.Cr.App.1995), aff'd, 686 So.2d 409 (Ala.1996), cert. denied, 520 U.S. 1199, 117 S.Ct. 1558, 137 L.Ed.2d 705 (1997).

In January 1998, Brown filed a Rule 32, Ala.R.Crim.P., petition attacking his convictions and death sentence. After a hearing, the trial court denied the petition in a thorough 23-page order; this appeal followed.

The State's evidence at trial tended to show the following. On August 10, 1987, LeMonte's parents discovered the mutilated bodies of Linda LeMonte and her daughter, Sheila Smoke, in LeMonte's home in Montgomery. LeMonte had been stabbed numerous times and her throat had been cut. Smoke had been stabbed four times; the handle of the knife was protruding from her navel when the body was found. Smoke had also been sexually abused. A Polaroid photograph of LeMonte's dead body was found at the murder scene. Brown's fingerprints were on the photograph. A Polaroid camera was found on the sofa. Brown's fingerprints were also discovered on the film in the camera.

When reviewing a trial court's ruling on a postconviction petition, this court must determine whether the trial court abused it discretion. Jones v. State, 724 So.2d 75 (Ala.Cr.App.1998); Elliott v. State, 601 So.2d 1118 (Ala.Cr.App.1992). The judge in this case, Judge Charles Price, also presided over Brown's trial and was in a much better position than this Court to evaluate Brown's claims because of his personal knowledge of the facts surrounding the allegations. Moreover, this Court must affirm a trial court's denial of a postconviction petition if the ruling is correct for any reason. Roberts v. State, 516 So.2d 936 (Ala.Cr.App.1987); Jenkins v. State, 516 So.2d 935 (Ala.Cr.App.1987).

I.

Brown initially argues that he was denied his right to exercise his peremptory strikes, his right to challenge prospective jurors for cause, and his right to have prospective jurors answer questions truthfully when one prospective juror, during voir dire examination, failed to disclose that he had been the victim of an armed robbery. He contends that this juror misconduct denied him a fair trial.

This Court has noticed an increased number of death-row inmates raising juror-misconduct claims. Over the past several years the following claims have been made: an allegation that a deputy sheriff, who was a witness for the state, had daily contact with jurors and that that contact prejudiced the defendant, Pierce v. State, [Ms. CR-96-1668, March 2, 1999] ___ So.2d ___ (Ala.Cr.App.1999); an allegation that a potential juror, during jury selection, discussed his opinion of the case with other potential jurors, Burgess v. State, [Ms. CR-93-2054, November 20, 1998] ___ So.2d ___ (Ala.Cr.App.1998); an allegation that the defendant was prejudiced when, during trial, a juror telephoned a member of the district attorney's office who was not involved in prosecuting the case, Pilley v. State, 789 So.2d 870 (Ala.Cr.App.1998); an allegation that jurors used extraneous material during deliberations, McNair v. State, 706 So.2d 828 (Ala.Cr.App.1997), cert. denied, 523 U.S. 1064, 118 S.Ct. 1396, 140 L.Ed.2d 654 (1998); an allegation that potential jurors heard discussions about the case during jury selection, Price v. State, 725 So.2d 1003 (Ala.Cr.App.1997), aff'd, 725 So.2d 1063 (Ala.1998), cert. denied, 523 U.S. 1064, 119 S.Ct. 1809, 143 L.Ed.2d 1012 (1999); an allegation that a juror, while in a hotel room during sequestration, heard someone outside the room shouting "Guilty", Clemons v. State, 720 So.2d 961 (Ala.Cr.App.1996), aff'd, 720 So.2d 985 (Ala.1998), cert. denied, 523 U.S. 1064, 119 S.Ct. 907, 142 L.Ed.2d 906 (1999); an allegation that a juror failed to disclose that he had been the victim of a crime, Tomlin v. State, 695 So.2d 157 (Ala.Cr.App.1996); an allegation that the foreman of the jury failed to disclose during voir dire examination that he had been a police officer in another state, State v. Freeman, 605 So.2d 1258 (Ala.Cr.App.1992).

Here, in the original Rule 32 petition, counsel made a general allegation that prospective jurors failed to answer voir dire questions truthfully. The petition stated:

"During the voir dire of Mr. Brown's case, prospective jurors failed to answer questions accurately and to disclose information asked of them. The failure of these jurors to disclose crucial information deprived Mr. Brown of his right to be tried by an impartial jury, and his right to strike a petit jury from a panel of fair-minded, impartial prospective jurors, and his right to have questions answered truthfully by prospective jurors to enable his counsel to exercise their discretion wisely in exercising their peremptory strikes protected by the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Alabama Constitution and Alabama law. United States v. Perkins, 748 F.2d 1519, 1529 (11th Cir.1984); State v. Freeman, 605 So.2d 1258 (Ala. Crim.App.1992); Clark v. State, 551 So.2d 1091 (Ala.1989) (conviction reversed where one juror did not reveal during voir dire that he had previously served as juror in another case.)"

After the trial court ordered that only the ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim would be addressed at the hearing, Brown moved to reconsider the dismissal of the juror-misconduct claim and filed an amended petition. That amended petition alleged the following:

"During the voir dire of Mr. Brown's case, prospective jurors failed to answer questions accurately and to disclose information asked of them. Specifically, several jurors failed to answer accurately whether [they] had previously served as jurors, whether they or their families had been victims of crime, whether they or their families were members of law enforcement, whether they were personally close [to] anyone who was a law enforcement officer in Montgomery, whether they knew the victims in this case, whether they had grandchildren under 15 years of age, whether they were involved in a mental health profession, whether they were retired military, whether they consider religion an important part of their lives, whether they have a habit of reading the Bible every day, whether they had strong beliefs against the use of alcoholic beverages, whether they had views about the death penalty, and whether they understood the legal process. The failure of jurors to disclose such crucial information deprived Mr. Brown of his right to be tried by an impartial jury, and his right to strike a petit jury from a panel of fair-minded, impartial prospective jurors, his right to have questions answered truthfully by prospective jurors to enable his counsel to exercise their discretion wisely in exercising their peremptory strikes, and his rights to due process, a fair trial, equal protection and a reliable sentencing protected by the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the

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