Collins v. State, 7 Div. 408
| Decision Date | 15 April 1937 |
| Docket Number | 7 Div. 408 |
| Citation | 234 Ala. 197,174 So. 296 |
| Parties | COLLINS v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Rehearing Denied May 27, 1937
Appeal from Circuit Court, Calhoun County; R.B. Carr, Judge.
Roosevelt Collins was convicted of rape, and he appeals.
Affirmed.
Obe Riddle, of Talladega, for appellant.
A.A Carmichael, Atty. Gen., and Wm. H. Loeb, Asst. Atty. Gen for the State.
The trial court did not err in overruling the defendant's motion to quash the indictment. The defendant's own witnesses disclosed an effort on the part of the jury commission to conform to the requirements laid down by the United States Supreme Court in the case of Norris v Alabama, 294 U.S. 587, 55 S.Ct. 579, 79 L.Ed. 1074. The qualification of the jurors is largely discretionary with the jury commission, except there must be no exclusion on account of race, and we think the witnesses introduced by the defendant disclosed that a bona fide effort was made in the respective sections of the county to ascertain qualified negroes and that many names ascertained to be qualified were put in the jury box. True, the witness Moss testified, "No negroes have served on the Grand or Petit Jury in this county," but this did not necessarily contradict the fact that names of negroes were placed in the box as testified to by the witnesses. Calhoun is a white county and the names of negroes as placed in the box were, of course, less than the names of the whites. Moreover, some may have been drawn who did not serve as they may have gotten excused or were challenged.
The trial court will not be reversed for sustaining the solicitor's objection to the question to the witness Green as to whether negroes had been "drawn and served" since they commenced to put the names of negroes in the jury box. In the first place, the witness Moss had testified that none had served and which was not disputed. Again, the question was in the conjunctive and, as above indicated, the fact that none served does not negative the fact that the names were placed in the box.
The defendant made a motion for a change of venue based largely, if not entirely, upon certain newspaper publications in connection with the crime of which he was charged. It is true that much, if not unnecessary, publicity was given to the matter, but newspapers are prone to dwell upon matters of this character and so long as papers are published we may expect them to give an account of serious and startling crimes in answer to public interest.
Most of the excerpts were not inflammatory but largely narrative and some of them were temporate and urged against mob violence. Godau v....
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Hollis v. Davis
...Fikes v. State, 263 Ala. 89, 81 So.2d 303 (1955); Reeves v. State, 264 Ala. 476, 88 So.2d 561 (1956). See also Collins v. State, 234 Ala. 197, 198, 174 So. 296 (1937).7 Of course, inadequate representation is only one of two components of constitutionally ineffective counsel; the inept repr......
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Hollis v. Davis
...So.2d 388; Fikes v. State, 263 Ala. 89, 81 So.2d 303 (1955); Reeves v. State, 264 Ala. 476, 88 So.2d 561. See also Collins v. State, 234 Ala. 197, 198, 174 So. 296 (1937).7 Of course, inadequate representation is only one of two components of constitutionally ineffective counsel; the inept ......
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Butler v. State
...no fixed opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the accused, and would render a true verdict according to the evidence. Collins v. State, 234 Ala. 197, 174 So. 296. It is settled law that the matter of a continuance rests in the sound discretion of the trial court, and its ruling will not ......
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Dolvin v. State
...with it." Nothing in the record contradicts this. The denial of the defendant's motion for a continuance was not error. Collins v. State, 234 Ala. 197, 174 So. 296 (1937); Liddell v. State, 287 Ala. 299, 251 So.2d 601 (1971); Turk v. State, 348 So.2d 878 (Ala.Cr.App.1977); Humphries v. Stat......