Ex parte Gwin
Decision Date | 07 January 1983 |
Citation | 425 So.2d 510 |
Parties | Ex parte James Edward GWIN. (Re James Edward Gwin, Alias Eddie Gwin v. State of Alabama) 81-632. |
Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Loma B. Beaty, Fort Payne, and Terry T. Bush, Rainsville, for petitioner.
Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., and Joseph G.L. Marston, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
Upon preliminary consideration, we granted the petition for a writ of certiorari to review the Court of Criminal Appeals' affirmance of the trial court's refusal of Defendant's requested charge relating to the right of the jury to disregard the testimony of a State's witness if the witness, under the evidence, were found to be a person of bad character. Citing Kennedy v. State, 291 Ala. 62, 277 So.2d 878 (1973), and ARAP 45, the appellate court held that, while such refusal was error, in light of other corroborating evidence, the error was rendered harmless.
Because the opinion states the fact of corroboration by way of conclusion, our review of that opinion may be invoked only through ARAP 39(k), which was not utilized in this case. Thus, this Court cannot be put to a search of the record to verify or disprove the factual conclusions stated by the Court of Criminal Appeals.
By quashing the writ for failure to comply with Rule 39(k), we are not to be understood as agreeing that Kennedy is authority for the abstract proposition that under all circumstances the corroboration of a witness's testimony renders harmless the error for failing to give the jury instruction which was requested in this case. Kennedy must be construed within its narrow and peculiar factual context.
WRIT QUASHED AS IMPROVIDENTLY GRANTED.
All the Justices concur.
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Brown v. State
... ... Hartman v. Board of Trustees, 436 So.2d 837 (Ala.1983); Duncan v. Sherrill, 341 So.2d 946 (Ala. 1977); Ex parte Rives, 511 So.2d 514, 517 (Ala.Civ.App.1986). "`[T]he law will not suppose a possibility of bias or favor in a judge who is already sworn to ... Allen v. State, 290 Ala. 339, 276 So.2d 583 (1973).' Gwin v. State, 425 So.2d 500, 506-07 (Ala. Cr.App.1982), cert. quashed, 425 So.2d 510 (Ala.1983)." Arnold v. State, 601 So.2d 145, 153 ... ...
-
Dobyne v. State
... ... As the Alabama Supreme Court stated in Ex parte Hamm, 564 So.2d 469, 471 (Ala.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 1008, 111 S.Ct. 572, 112 L.Ed.2d 579 (1990): ... "[T]he statutes that define the elements ... Ex parte Argo, 42 Ala.App. 546, 547, 171 So.2d 259 (1965). We recognized in Gwin v. State, 425 So.2d 500, 508 (Ala.Cr.App.1982), cert. quashed, 425 So.2d 510 (Ala.1983), that before determining whether fundamental fairness ... ...
-
Wright v. State
... ... Alabama, supra. The second one was posed first in Hopper v. Evans, 456 U.S. 605, 102 S.Ct. 2049, 72 L.Ed.2d 367 (1982)." Ex parte Baldwin, 456 So.2d 129, 133 (Ala.1984) ... See also Bryars v. State, 456 So.2d 1122, 1127 (Ala.Cr.App.1983), reversed on other ... of a witness's testimony does not render harmless the error in failing to give the jury instruction requested in this case, Ex parte Gwin, 425 So.2d 510, 511 (Ala.1983), here we consider both the strength of the State's case and the other instructions given by the trial court in finding ... ...
-
Webb v. State
... ... In Alexander v. State, 475 So.2d 625 (Ala.Cr.App.1984), reversed on other grounds, Ex parte Alexander, 475 So.2d 628 (Ala.1985), this court held that a state inmate who fails to return from work release is guilty of the felony of escape in ... The defendant's allegations of error are not supported by the record and we have nothing before us to review. Gwin v. State, 425 So.2d 500, 504 (Ala.Cr.App ... Page 349 ... 1982), cert. quashed, Ex parte Gwin, 425 So.2d 510 (Ala. 1983); Howard v. State, 417 ... ...