Cordle v. State
| Decision Date | 09 April 1974 |
| Docket Number | 3 Div. 238 |
| Parties | David R. CORDLE v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
William J. Baxley, Atty. Gen., and David W. Clark, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Appellant was convicted of rape and the jury fixed his punishment at ninety-nine (99) years and one (1) day in the penitentiary. The judgment and sentence were in accordance with the verdict of the jury. The judgment entry recites that appellant pleaded not guilty, but the record shows that at arraignment in open court his court-appointed counsel interposed two pleas: (1) not guilty and (2) not guilty by reason of insanity. The trial was had on both pleas and the court charged the jury on the law of insanity. After conviction and sentence he gave written notice of appeal.
He made known to the court that he was an indigent and a free transcript was furnished to him. He retained new counsel to represent him on appeal.
Appellant was first arraigned on February 22, 1972, and on February 24, he filed two motions: (1) motion to quash the indictment on the ground that he could not adequately prepare his defense since the preliminary hearing given him on January 12, 1972, had not been taken by a court reporter though he had requested the committing magistrate to obtain the services of a court reporter, and in connection with this motion to quash, he requested a second preliminary hearing with a court reporter, and (2) a motion to send him to a state hospital to determine his sanity at the time of the commission of the offense and his competency to stand trial. Both motions were overruled and denied by the court on February 25, 1972. Nevertheless, on March 10, 1972, the court ordered a psychiatric examination by the staff at Bryce Hospital to determine appellant's sanity or insanity. On May 1, 1972, the following letter was sent to the circuit judge of Montgomery County:
'STATE OF ALABAMA
DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH BRYCE HOSPITAL
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401
SEAL
STONEWALL B. STICKNEY, M.D.
COMMISSIONER OF MENTAL HEALTH
SEAL
GEORGE C. WALLACE
GOVERNOR
May 1, 1972
'Honorable Richard Emmet
Judge of Circuit Court
Montgomery County, Alabama
Montgomery, Alabama
'Cordle, David R.
Our file 03 28 37
'Dear Judge Emmet:
'David R. Cordle was admitted in Bryce Hospital on March 13, 1972, on your order dated March 10, 1972, and is presently a patient in Bryce Hospital.
'After a period of examination, observation, and study, it is the opinion of the hospital staff that the said David R. Cordle is presently sane and competent. It is our further opinion that he was sane and competent at the time of admission in Bryce.
'We are ready to release him and will hold him awaiting the arrival of the sheriff, or any duly appointed officer, to take him into custody.
'Sincerely,
's/s Donald Smith
Donald Smith, M.D.
Assistant Superintendent
'pk
'cc: Sheriff Mac Sim Butler
Montgomery, Alabama' Following receipt of the above letter, the court ordered the sheriff of Montgomery County to assume custody of appellant and to transfer him from Bryce Hospital to the Montgomery County jail to stand trial on the charges pending against him.
A subpoena Duces tecum was issued out of the Circuit Court of Montgomery County directed to the records clerk of Bryce Hospital for the production of all medical records pertaining to appellant's confinement in Bryce Hospital to be used as evidence in his trial. Xerox copies of these medical records properly certified by the assistand superintendent were sent to the court in response to this subpoena and they were introduced in evidence by appellant over the objections of the state.
There was no attempt to take the depositions of the Bryce staff appointed to examine appellant as provided by Title 45, Section 226, Code of Alabama 1940; Sheppard v. State, 49 Ala.App. 398, 272 So.2d 605.
The court could have legally refused to admit in evidence the reports of the doctors who made up the Lunacy Commission for the reason these reports were not made under the sanction of an oath and were not intended for general public information. Benton v. State, 245 Ala. 625, 18 So.2d 428; Benton v. State, 31 Ala.App. 338, 18 So.2d 423.
The facts in this case are sordid in the extreme but it is necessary that we dwell on them to some extent.
Around mid-night on November 24, 1971, appellant entered the backdoor of an apartment in East Montgomery. The door was closed but was unlocked. He went into the kitchen and stood for a few minutes listening for signs of life in the apartment. From the kitchen he could see into the livingroom. He saw a rocking chair move in the livingroom but could not see the occupant of the chair. He approached the chair from its back and saw a young girl reading a magazine. He reached out and put his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming. He took her glasses off and put them on a table and while his hand was still over her mouth, he heard a dog bark somewhere in the apartment. He told the girl he had a knife but if she did what he told her to do he would not hurt her. He told her to walk out the backdoor and they walked out side by side with his hand still over her mouth. He carried her to his car parked on the street near the apartment and put her in the frontseat and told her to keep her head down on the seat. He drove out on the Wares Ferry Road and turned on a dirt road. He told her to take her clothes off and she asked him to please not do anything to her. He slapped her and told her if she didn't take her clothes off, he was going to rip them off. She then proceeded to undress and after she had removed all of her clothes he told her to get in the backseat. She got on the backseat and he got back there with her and started playing with her breasts. She told him she was fourteen year of age and that she was having her period and to please not do anything to her. He ignored her pleas and got on top of her. She felt his privates make contact with her privates. She was a virgin and the first two attempts he made to gain entry were unsuccessful, but he persisted in his efforts. He finally ruptured her hymen and completed the sexual act. After it was over, he handed her clothes to her and told her to dress and he would take her back home. On the return trip he told her to keep her head down on the frontseat. The car stopped for a traffic light and the victim thought they had gotten back to the place where he had forced her into the car and she raised up and got a good look at her assailant for the first time. He drove her a short distance beyond the frontdoor of the apartment where he had abducted her and he let her out and drove away. She ran into the apartment.
The victim of this rape lived with her mother and brother in the same apartment complex from which she was abducted on the night of the rape but she was baby-sitting A few weeks later the victim was shown a number of photographs of suspects at the Montgomery Police Department and she identified appellant as the man who raped her on the night of November 24, or the early morning hours of November 25, 1971.
for an Air Force captain and his wife in the apartment where appellant found her. She put a four-year-old child and a small baby to bed about nine o'clock that night and put the dog in the bedroom with the children. This was the dog that barked while appellant had his hand over the girl's mouth which frightened him and which moved him to take her out on a [53 Ala.App. 152] country road. Between twelve thirty and one p.m., the captain and his wife returned to their apartment and found the baby-sitter's pocketbook and glasses, but the girl was missing. The captain went to the girl's apartment to report her disappearance to her mother. While the captain was talking with the girl's mother, the captain's wife called the girl's mother and told her the girl had returned, but she was in a state of emotional shock, distraught and was highly hysterical and needed her badly. The police were alerted and responded immediately. The mother dressed and went to her daughter. The girl was carried to the emergency room of a local hospital. The doctor on duty was informed that the girl had just been raped and he conducted a vaginal examination including a pap smear. He found fresh male fecundating fluid or semen.
On the afternoon of December 27, 1971, three Montgomery police officers went to Wetumpka and found appellant at work at a cotton gin. They identified themselves and told appellant they wanted to talk to him about an incident that occurred in Montgomery on December 24, 1971. They asked him if he wanted to talk with them there or in Montgomery and he told them he would rather talk in Montgomery but he wanted to go by his home in Wetumpka first. Appellant got in the police car with two of the officers and they carried him by his home and then brought him to the detective's office at Headquarters. The third officer drove appellant's car from the cotton gin.
They arrived at Police Headquarters around 4:00 P.M. on December 27, 1971, and the officers immediately gave appellant the rights and warnings extolled in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694.
After the Miranda warnings were given to appellant, he told the officers that he fully understood his rights and that he was willing to answer questions. He thereupon signed a waiver of rights form as shown below:
'CITY OF MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF POLICE
'David Randall Cordle
NAME
'Police H. Q. Det. Office
PLACE
'Dec. 27, 1971
DATE
'8:20 P.M.
TIME
'Rape
'Before asking you any questions, I must explain to you that you can remain silent, that anything you say can be used against you in court, that you can talk to a lawyer first and that you have the right to the advice and presence of a lawyer even though you...
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