Ex parte Weeks
| Decision Date | 08 June 1984 |
| Citation | 456 So.2d 404 |
| Parties | Ex parte Varnall WEEKS. (Re Varnall Weeks v. State of Alabama). 83-424. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Jock M. Smith, Tuskegee, for petitioner.
Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., and William D. Little, Asst. Atty. Gen., and J. Anthony McLain and James F. Hampton, Sp. Asst. Attys. Gen., for respondent.
This is a death penalty case. The jury found Weeks guilty of an intentional killing during the course of a robbery, in violation of § 13A-5-40(a)(2), Code of Alabama. Weeks waived the participation of the jury in the sentencing hearing and demanded that the judge sentence him to death, a request to which the judge ultimately acceded. The Court of Criminal Appeals, 456 So.2d 395, affirmed and we granted certiorari because the death penalty was imposed. A.R.A.P. 39(c).
The deceased, a veterinary student at Tuskegee Institute, was first reported missing after he failed to appear at school on October 1, 1981. A witness testified that he had seen Weeks near the deceased's home on the morning of October 1. The witness noticed Weeks because he had never seen him before in the neighborhood. On October 6, the Alabama Bureau of Investigation received information that the deceased's automobile had been recovered in East Cleveland, Ohio. The previous day a police officer in East Cleveland had stopped an automobile, subsequently determined to be the deceased's, for making an illegal left turn. The car was being driven by Weeks. When the officer asked Weeks for a driver's license, he produced a license bearing the name of the deceased. Weeks then shot the officer and fled. Another officer witnessed the shooting and shot and wounded Weeks as he attempted to escape. Weeks was ultimately apprehended. A pistol and a brown imitation leather jacket bearing Weeks's brother's name was found about ten yards from the place where Weeks was apprehended.
On October 7, Alabama Bureau of Investigation officials began a search for the deceased's body near Weeks's home in Tuskegee. Members of the search party found two notebooks containing materials relating to veterinary medicine in a wooded area behind Weeks's house. Later that day, they found the victim's body buried about one hundred feet from Weeks's house.
A forensic scientist testified that the gun found by the East Cleveland police near Weeks when they arrested him contained a bullet with Weeks's fingerprints on it. Another expert testified that the bullet removed from the victim's head had been fired from the gun in question. Fingerprints belonging both to Weeks and to the victim were found on the notebooks found near the location where the victim's body was recovered.
Jewel Martin testified that Weeks picked her up at the Astrology Club in Tuskegee on October 3. He drove her, in a car matching the description of the victim's car, to Montgomery, where she spent the night. The next day he returned to Montgomery and the two of them drove to Cleveland. Martin testified that while en route to Ohio she found the victim's driver's license in the glove box of the automobile. She asked Weeks about the license and he reportedly replied that he had killed the victim.
Weeks raised the following issues in support of his petition:
(1) Whether the trial court committed reversible error in allowing evidence to be introduced with regard to the shooting of the East Cleveland, Ohio, police officer.
(2) Whether the court erred in refusing to grant a mistrial upon learning that a witness, Jewel Martin, had been transported to the courthouse on the second day of the trial in the same car with two jurors.
(3) Whether the court should have granted a new trial based on Jewel Martin's claim that she was coerced by the State into testifying against Weeks.
Testimony Regarding The Subsequent Crime.
The trial court allowed the State to introduce evidence regarding the shooting in Ohio, the defendant's flight from that crime, and his subsequent statements to the police in East Cleveland. The trial court allowed the testimony in order to link Weeks to the murder weapon. Since the gun was found under the porch of a third party's house, ten yards from the place where Weeks was apprehended, the testimony about the shooting was necessary to show how Weeks happened to be near the gun and why he had a motive for hiding it. Similarly, his admission to the East Cleveland police that the jacket found with the gun belonged to his brother linked him to the gun. Weeks argues that instead of limiting the testimony to the evidence necessary to link Weeks to the gun, the trial court allowed the State to elicit detailed testimony about the shooting, Weeks's flight from the scene of the shooting, and his statement to officers in East Cleveland.
The Court of Criminal Appeals addressed this issue and resolved it correctly. It is axiomatic that, during the trial of an accused, evidence of other crimes is not admissible if the only probative value of such evidence is to show the defendant's propensity to commit crimes of the sort charged. The rule does not, however, exclude evidence of all other crimes, only those offered to show the accused's bad character.
We disagree with the defendant's suggestion that the testimony should have been limited to the evidence necessary to link Weeks to the murder weapon. Evidence of...
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