Ellis v. Pope

• Decision Date: 13 November 1997
• Citation: 709 So.2d 1161
• Parties: Jim ELLIS, as circuit clerk of Coffee County; and Frank Gregory, as director of the Administrative Office of Courts v. Larry POPE, et al. 1961789.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Page 1161

709 So.2d 1161

Jim ELLIS, as circuit clerk of Coffee County; and Frank Gregory, as director of the Administrative Office of Courts v. Larry POPE, et al.

1961789.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

Nov. 13, 1997.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 23, 1998.

Bill Pryor, atty. gen., and Tori L. Adams-Burks, asst. atty. gen., for appellants.

Jeff W. Kelley of Lindsey, Kelley & McClung, Elba; Paul A. Young, Enterprise; and J. Stafford Pittman, Jr., Enterprise, for appellees.

PER CURIAM.

Larry Pope, Billy Ray Farris, and James Keith Johnson, civil and criminal defendants in actions presently pending in Coffee County, filed a declaratory judgment action asking that Act No. 96-454, Acts of Alabama 1996, be declared unconstitutional. That Act concerns the manner in which juries are selected in Coffee County, which has two judicial divisions: the Elba Division and the Enterprise Division. Jim Ellis, the circuit clerk of Coffee County, and Frank Gregory, the administrative director of courts, appeal from the trial court's judgment declaring Act No. 96-454 unconstitutional.

Act No. 96-454 provides the following:

"Section 1. All jury venires in Coffee County shall be chosen from the county-at-large and the county shall not be divided into territorial subdivisions for purposes of selecting jury venires.

"Section 2. No person shall serve on both the jury venire chosen at the court at Enterprise and the jury venire chosen at the court at Elba at the same time. The juror shall serve on the venire which was chosen first.

"Section 3. All laws or parts of laws which conflict with this act are expressly repealed.

"Section 4. This act shall become effective in the next term of court after its passage and approval by the Governor, or upon its otherwise becoming a law."

Thus, Act No. 96-454 requires that a Coffee County jury be drawn from the entire county's population, rather than from the population of that division of Coffee County wherein the trial is being held, i.e., the Elba Division or the Enterprise Division.

The trial court held that Act 96-454 violated Art. I, § 6, and Art. IV, § 105, of the Alabama Constitution. Art. I, § 6, provides, in part:

"[I]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused has a right to ... [a trial] by an impartial jury of the county or district in which the offense was committed...."

Art IV, § 105, provides:

"No special, private, or local law, except a law fixing the time of holding courts, shall be enacted in any case which is provided for by a general law, or when the relief sought can be given by any court of this state; and the courts, and not the legislature, shall judge as to whether the matter of said law is provided for by a general law, and as to whether the relief sought can be given by any court; nor shall the legislature indirectly enact any such special, private, or local law by the partial repeal of a general law."

The general act with which the trial court found Act 96-454 to conflict, § 12-16-44, Ala.Code 1975, requires that a jury venire be drawn from the division where the action is tried, rather than from the county at large. Section 12-16-44 provides:

"Whenever a court requiring grand and petit juries or petit juries is established for and held in a territorial subdivision of the county, the jury commission shall make and keep a separate roll and make a separate box for that court and territorial subdivision, on which roll and in which box only the names of jurors residing in that territory shall be placed, which box shall be kept by the clerk of said court and the key thereof by the judge of said court, and all jurors for that court shall be drawn by the judge of said court as provided in this article from the separate jury box provided under this section and shall be summoned as provided by law for summoning jurors otherwise drawn. The names of jurors whose names are required to be placed on the roll and in the box provided for in this section shall not be placed on any other roll nor in any other box nor shall any such person be authorized or required to serve as a juror in any court outside of said territorial subdivision.

"If there is more than one court requiring grand and petit juries or petit juries established for and held in such territorial subdivision of the county, all of such courts shall procure their juries from the box provided for in this section.

"This section is intended to apply to any division of a court that is held in such territorial subdivision, including the probate court. It is not the object or effect of this section to repeal or affect any local law."

On appeal, Ellis and Gregory argue that the trial court erred in declaring Act No. 96-454 unconstitutional; they also argue that the declaratory judgment action was an improper vehicle for deciding this issue. We hold that the declaratory judgment action was a proper method for testing the constitutionality of Act No. 96-454. See Ala.Code 1975, § 6-6-223; Tillman v. Sibbles, 292 Ala. 355, 294 So.2d 436 (1974). Regarding the constitutionality of Act No. 96-454, we refer to the well-reasoned and thorough order of the trial court, a portion of which we quote below and adopt as this Court's opinion on the issues regarding Act No. 96-454:

"This case came before the Court on First Amended Bill [for] Declaratory Judgment and First Amended Answer. A trial was held, with all parties represented by counsel, including the defendants, who were represented by the Attorney General. The Court received evidence which had previously been entered in a similar case, Miller and Daughtery v. Ellis and Gregory, CV-96-81, based on the stipulation of the parties and the authority of Boatright v. Fennell, 213 Ala. 10, 104 So. 1 (1925). The Bill challenges the constitutionality of Act No. 96-454, Acts of Alabama, which requires that all juries be drawn from county-wide pools rather than divisional pools as has been the case since the establishment of two divisions within Coffee County, the Elba Division and the Enterprise Division, by Act No. 569, Acts of Alabama 1907. Two of the plaintiffs are parties in civil cases presently pending in the two divisions of the Circuit Court of Coffee County. Plaintiff Johnson is a defendant in a criminal case presently pending in the Circuit Court of Coffee County, Enterprise Division. The defendants were sued in their official capacities because of their duties in drawing jury venires for the various terms of court in the two divisions.

"The defendants oppose the contentions of the plaintiffs on the grounds that the plaintiffs should not be allowed to bring this challenge to the constitutionality of the Act because they each have the opportunity to raise the grounds in their respective civil and criminal cases. Relief under the Declaratory Judgment Act, § 6-6-220 et seq., Code of Alabama, 1975, does not depend on the presence or absence of other remedies. Ex parte Jim Dandy Co., 286 Ala. 295, 239 So.2d 545 (1970). The fact that another remedy is available to the plaintiffs does not preclude an action seeking a declaratory judgment, particularly since the Bill in this case pursues the purposes of the Declaratory Judgment Act 'to afford relief from uncertainty and insecurity with respect to rights' and 'to make uniform the law' of this State. § 6-6-221, Code of Alabama, 1975. Therefore, this Court determines that this action is an appropriate action under the Declaratory Judgment Act.

"The plaintiffs argued that Act No. 569, Acts of Alabama, 1907, establishes two separate jurisdictions within Coffee County. However, this Court notes that the Supreme Court of Alabama has previously determined that the Act provides for differences in venue rather than in subject matter jurisdiction. Ex parte Chrysler Corp., 659 So.2d 113 (Ala.1995), citing Glenn v. Wilson, 455 So.2d 2 (Ala.1984). Therefore, the Court found no merit in that argument. The plaintiffs presented three other basic grounds of attack on the Act which must be addressed.

"JUDICIAL ARTICLE

"The plaintiffs contend that Act No. 96-454 violates Amendment 328, Alabama Constitution of 1901, particularly §§ 6.11 and 6.12. The plaintiffs cite Rule 12.1(a), Ala.R.Crim.P., which states that 'Jurors shall be drawn and selected as provided in Title 12, Chapter 16, Ala.Code 1975.' The Court found no merit in an argument which sought to raise a Supreme Court rule to the level of a constitutional provision simply because the Constitution authorizes such a rule. The plaintiffs also contended that Act No. 96-454 effectively eliminates the Enterprise Division, in violation of § 6.12. The Court also found no merit in this contention, since the Act does not abolish or eliminate the division.

"RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL

"The plaintiffs contend that the Act violates Article I, § 6, of the Alabama Constitution of 1901 ... in that it requires that a defendant in a criminal case be tried by a jury comprised of individuals who do not reside in the county and district where the offense occurred. The defendants contend that [this] [provision requires] that the trial be held in the appropriate county or district, not before jurors who reside in that county or district. This contention could stand if the [constitution] provided that the defendant had the right to a trial by an impartial jury in the county or district in which the offense was committed. However, this is not the case. The Alabama Constitution provides that an accused has the right to a trial 'by an impartial jury of the county or district in which the offense was committed.' (Emphasis added.) ... The constitutional [provision requires] that the jurors be of (meaning residents of) the county or district where the crime was committed.

"The meaning of the term 'district' appears to have varied over the years. Since the [1973] adoption of the present Judicial Article [of the Alabama Constitution], 'district' [as in references to the district court] has come to mean a judicial subdivision of the...