Brown v. State

• Decision Date: 08 February 1999
• Docket Number: No. S98A1875.,S98A1875.
• Citation: 512 S.E.2d 260,270 Ga. 601
• Parties: BROWN v. The STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

512 S.E.2d 260

270 Ga. 601

BROWN v. The STATE.

No. S98A1875.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

February 8, 1999.

Reconsideration Denied March 5, 1999.

Robert L. Chandler, Cheryl Harmon Kelley, Fox, Chandler, Homans, Hicks & McKinnon, Gainesville, for James William Brown.

Darrell E. Wilson, Dist. Atty., Lynn Marie Akeley-Alderman, Asst. Dist. Atty., Dahlonega, Thurbert E. Baker, Atty. Gen., Daniel Garland Ashburn, Asst. Atty. Gen., Department of Law, Atlanta, for the State.

CARLEY, Justice.

James Brown was charged with the murder of Jeffery Clarkson. Clarkson was married to Brown's former wife and, thus, was the step-father of Brown's 5-year-old daughter. Brown admitted that he killed the victim, but claimed that he was justified in doing so because of his daughter's molestation by Clarkson. The trial court granted the State's motion in limine to exclude any evidence concerning the alleged molestation. According to the trial court, an act of molestation, without a showing of the use or threat of physical force, is not a forcible felony for which the defense of justification would be available. In an interlocutory appeal, however, we held that child molestation is, by its very nature, a forcible and violent crime. Brown v. State, 268 Ga. 154, 486 S.E.2d 178 (1997). Therefore, we reversed and held that Brown should be given an opportunity to show that Clarkson's alleged acts were admissible to support a justification defense under Chandler v. State, 261 Ga. 402, 407(3), 405 S.E.2d 669 (1991). When the trial court held a hearing to determine the admissibility of the evidence, it was established that Brown, after stalking the victim for some time, shot him as he stood in his yard when the child was not even present. Under these circumstances, the trial court held that the evidence was inadmissible because Brown was unable to show that, at the time of the homicide, his daughter was in imminent danger of being molested by Clarkson. Accordingly, the trial court's ruling precluded any mention at trial of the child's alleged molestation. Because there was no other evidence of justification, the trial court refused to give Brown's requested charges on that defense. The jury found him guilty of the malice murder of Clarkson. The trial court entered a judgment of conviction on the jury's guilty verdict and sentenced Brown to life. From that judgment and sentence, Brown brings this appeal.¹

1. The evidence is sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find proof beyond a reasonable doubt of Brown's guilt of the malice murder of Clarkson. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).

2. Brown contends that the evidence of Clarkson's alleged acts of molestation should have been admitted. Evidence is relevant and, therefore, admissible if it tends to prove a material issue in the case. OCGA § 24-2-1. Thus, evidence of a defendant's motive which is not material to his criminal liability is irrelevant and inadmissible. See Stoudemire v. State, 261 Ga. 49, 50(3), 401 S.E.2d 482 (1991). The law will not justify a killing for deliberate revenge no matter how grievous the past wrong may have been. Teems v. State, 256 Ga. 675, 676(4), 352 S.E.2d 779 (1987). "`[T]he bad character of the deceased would not offer the defendant any excuse for taking his life, if he ... took [the victim's] life; for it is the same offense to kill a bad person as it is to kill a good person.'" Crawley v. State, 137 Ga. 777(2), 74 S.E. 537 (1912). Since revenge is not a material exculpatory factor in a criminal case, evidence of Clarkson's alleged commission of prior acts of molestation, standing alone, would not be admissible in defense of Brown's act. Only if Brown acted in accordance with the legally recognized exculpatory motive of justification, rather than revenge, would evidence of Clarkson's bad character and specific acts of violence be admissible on Brown's behalf. See Austin v. State, 268 Ga. 602(2), 492 S.E.2d 212 (1997). Otherwise, such evidence would constitute an irrelevant attack on the character of the deceased victim who could not answer the charges of molestation being asserted against him. See OCGA § 24-2-2.

According to the dissent, proof of Clarkson's alleged prior acts of child molestation should have been admitted to prevent an evidentiary imbalance between Brown and the State on the issue of his motive for the homicide. In so opining, the dissent fails to distinguish between the inculpatory concept of criminal motive and the exculpatory principle of justification as a defense to criminal liability. In contemplation of the criminal law, "motive" refers to the cause or reason that induced the defendant to commit the crime. 22 CJS, Criminal Law, § 34, p. 40. The defendant's motive for committing the criminal act is always a relevant inquiry on the part of the State. See Wall v. State, 153 Ga. 309(1), 112 S.E. 142 (1922). There is certainly no evidentiary imbalance as to this inculpatory issue, since the defendant is always free to offer proof which negates the existence of any motive on his part. "Absence of motive is an important consideration in determining whether [the] accused is guilty of the crime charged, and is a strong argument for innocence." 22 CJS, Criminal Law, § 34, p. 41. It is also clear, however, that the defendant cannot offer affirmative evidence of the existence of a "motive" for his act which would not otherwise constitute a viable defense to his criminal liability. "The most laudable motive is no defense where the act committed is a crime in contemplation of law...." 22 CJS, Criminal Law, § 34, p. 40. Thus, in Chandler v. State, supra at 407(3), 405 S.E.2d 669, we held that evidence of the victim's commission of prior acts of violence was admissible solely for the limited purpose of illustrating the defendant's claim of justification. In his special concurrence in Chandler, supra at 409, 405 S.E.2d 669, then Justice and now Chief Justice Benham specifically warned against "trial by character assassination. When applied to homicide cases, this revolutionary change in the law of evidence is a throwback to frontier days and gives judicial sanction to a new defense to murder: the victim `needed killing.'" The dissent would significantly expand the limited holding of Chandler and, in fact, would sanction the dire consequences predicted by Justice Benham. Under the dissent's reasoning, a trial court should allow evidence of a victim's alleged commission of prior criminal acts in order to inform the jury that a defendant's motivation for the homicide was a belief that the deceased deserved to die simply because he was a violent person. We decline to overrule long-standing precedent establishing that evidence of prior violent acts of the deceased, standing alone, will not establish a viable defense to a murder charge because it constitutes irrelevant character assassination of the victim. Therefore, it is immaterial that the jury did not know why Brown claimed that he killed the victim, if that reason was the irrelevant exaction of revenge for Clarkson's alleged prior acts. Brown was not entitled to present evidence which was not relevant to his criminal liability.

In order to justify the homicide, Brown needed to show that he had a reasonable belief that the shooting was necessary to defend his daughter against Clarkson's "imminent" commission of the forcible felony of child molestation. OCGA § 16-3-21(a). However, because the child was not even present at the time of the shooting, there was no evidence that she was in any immediate danger from Clarkson. "`The doctrine of reasonable fear does not apply to any case of homicide where the danger apprehended is not urgent and pressing, or apparently so, at the time of the killing.'" Short v. State, 140 Ga. 780(3), 80 S.E. 8 (1913). Thus, even assuming that there was a sufficient showing that the child had been molested previously and that Clarkson was the perpetrator, the absence of any proof that the child was in imminent danger of being molested again shows that Brown's claim of justification was without merit. See Walden v. State, 267 Ga. 162, 163(2)(a), 476 S.E.2d 259 (1996). Because Brown failed to establish a prima facie case of justification for shooting Clarkson, the trial court correctly held that the allegations of Clarkson's commission of prior acts of molestation were irrelevant and inadmissible as to that defense. Harrison v. State, 268 Ga. 574, 577(3), 492 S.E.2d 218 (1997); Laster v. State, 268 Ga. 172, 173(2), 486 S.E.2d 153 (1997); Walden v. State, supra at 163(2)(a), 476 S.E.2d 259.

3. Brown urges that the evidence of the child's alleged molestation was admissible to show the elements of passion and provocation necessary to reduce the homicide from murder to manslaughter. See Brooks v. State, 249 Ga. 583, 292 S.E.2d 694 (1982). It is undisputed that the alleged molestation occurred some months prior to the shooting. However, Brown stalked Clarkson periodically during the day before, and on the morning of, the homicide. On the afternoon that Clarkson was killed, Brown armed himself with a rifle, went to the victim's house, and, using the scope on the weapon, watched from the woods. Seeing the victim and his father standing in the yard, Brown waited until Clarkson was alone before shooting him. After his arrest, Brown stated that the reason he shot Clarkson was his belief that the authorities would not punish him for the alleged acts of molestation. This uncontradicted evidence shows that, as a matter of law, the homicide was a deliberate and calculated act of revenge, rather than a sudden and irresistible act of passion. Aldridge v. State, 258 Ga. 75, 76(2), 365 S.E.2d 111 (1988), overruled on other grounds, Smith v. State, 263 Ga. 224, 226(4), 430 S.E.2d 579 (1993).

4. Brown further contends that evidence of the alleged molestation should have been admitted to show that he acted...