Ex parte Daniels
Citation | 534 So.2d 656 |
Decision Date | 05 September 1986 |
Docket Number | No. 85-442,85-442 |
Parties | Ex parte John Ronald DANIELS. (Re: John Ronald Daniels v. State). |
Court | Supreme Court of Alabama |
Certiorari to the Court of Criminal Appeals (1 Div. 92).
John Bertolotti, Jr., Mobile, for petitioner.
Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., and Helen P. Nelson and Ed Carnes, Asst. Attys. Gen., for respondent.
John Ronald Daniels, the defendant herein, was indicted and convicted under Alabama's 1975 capital punishment statute, §§ 13-11-1 through 13-11-9, Code 1975 (repealed 1981). 1 For the murders of Cheryl Moore and Richard Brune he received the death penalty pursuant to § 13-11-2(a)(10), which proscribes that penalty upon a conviction of first degree murder wherein two or more people are intentionally killed by one or a series of acts. In an excellent opinion, authored by Judge Patterson, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the defendant's conviction, but found error in the trial court's sentencing order and remanded for resentencing. See Daniels v. State, 534 So.2d 628 (Ala.Cr.App.1985). The defendant filed a petition for certiorari, which we granted pursuant to Rule 39(c), Ala.R.App.P.
Having carefully read and considered the record, together with the briefs and arguments of counsel, we conclude that the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals is due to be affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
MADDOX, J., not sitting.
85-442 John Ronald Daniels v. State
The defendant contends that the Court of Criminal Appeals erred in its determination that he was not prejudiced, and thus was not entitled to a new trial, because of the application of the "preclusion clause" in § 13-11-2(a), Code 1975, which precluded any instructions to the jury concerning lesser included offenses. I agree that the Court of Criminal Appeals erred; therefore, I dissent.
Applying the test which this Court set out in Cook v. State, 431 So.2d 1322 (Ala.1983), to determine the effect of the preclusion clause on a trial held prior to Beck v. State, 396 So.2d 645 (Ala.1980), the Court of Criminal Appeals concluded that there was no evidence presented at trial upon which a conviction of a lesser included offense could have been based. The court correctly acknowledged that the defendant's assertion of an alibi defense did not foreclose his right to jury instructions on any lesser included offenses. See Ex parte Pruitt, 457 So.2d 456 (Ala.1984); Ex parte Stork, 475 So.2d 623 (Ala.1985). A defendant has a right to have the jury instructed on lesser included offenses if there is a reasonable theory from the evidence supporting his or her position, regardless of whether the State or the defendant offers the evidence. Ex parte Pruitt, supra.
In Chavers v. State, 361 So.2d 1106 (Ala.1978), the Court stated:
The defendant argues that the jury could have reasonably inferred from the evidence presented at trial that he was guilty of the noncapital offense of first degree murder. Defendant argues in his brief:
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