Ex parte Foster
Decision Date | 15 July 1988 |
Citation | 548 So.2d 478 |
Parties | Ex parte Eddie Lee FOSTER. (Re Eddie Lee Foster v. State). 86-1420. |
Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Thomas M. Goggans of Goggans, McInnish, Bright & Chambless, Montgomery, for petitioner.
Don Siegelman, Atty. Gen., and Gerrilyn Grant, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
Petitioner, Eddie Lee Foster, was convicted of rape, robbery, kidnapping, and sodomy. We find the statement of facts contained in the opinion of the Court of Criminal Appeals to be correct, and we here adopt it as our own. See, Foster v. State, 548 So.2d 475 (Ala.Crim.App.1987).
In his petition Foster raises three issues, all of which were raised in the court below: first, Foster contends that the pretrial identification procedures used in this case were unnecessarily suggestive; second, he contends that the victim's "uncertainty" as to the identity of her attacker warranted a new trial; and, third, he contends that the trial court erred in denying his pro se motion for a new trial based on claims of improper jury selection and ineffective assistance of counsel.
We agree with the holding of the Court of Criminal Appeals with regard to the first two issues and as to Foster's claim that the jury was selected in violation of the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986).
We turn then, to the issue of whether Foster should have been granted a hearing on his pro se motion for a new trial on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel. Foster's motion alleged that his counsel did not bring out at trial: 1) that the victim had a history of mental illness; and, 2) that the Montgomery warrant clerk's office had posted a sign warning officers not to accept complaints from this prosecutrix because she had a history of making false complaints. Foster here claims that his attorney knew of, but did not call to the stand, witnesses who would have testified that the victim was not competent to testify and that she had a history of swearing out false complaints. As grounds for a new trial, Foster asserted:
The trial judge issued an order denying the motion for a new trial that read:
The decision of whether to grant or deny a motion for a new trial rests within the sound discretion of the trial judge. This Court will indulge every presumption in favor of the correctness of the trial judge's decision and will not reverse the case unless there has been an abuse of that discretion or unless the trial court committed prejudicial error as a matter of law. Smiley v. State, 435 So.2d 202, 206 (Ala.Crim.App.1983).
In Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), the U.S. Supreme Court established the standards for the review of an ineffective assistance of counsel claim.
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McLemore v. State
...So.2d 826, 828 (Ala.Cr.App.1982). See also Clency v. State, 442 So.2d 148, 149 (Ala.Cr.App.1983). McLemore's reliance on Ex parte Foster, 548 So.2d 478 (Ala.1988), is also misplaced, as that case is factually distinguishable from the present case. In Foster, the defendant filed a pro se mot......
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Foster v. State, 3 Div. 454
...466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). The foregoing is required by the opinion of the Alabama Supreme Court, Ex Parte Foster, 548 So.2d 478. Due return shall include the trial judge's order and judgment and shall be filed in this court showing the disposition of this REMANDED......