Head v. State
Citation | 377 So.2d 160 |
Decision Date | 04 September 1979 |
Docket Number | 4 Div. 738 |
Parties | Robert HEAD, Jr. v. STATE. |
Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
Jerry E. Stokes, Andalusia, for appellant.
Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., and Joseph G. L. Marston, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State, appellee.
Robbery; sentence: thirty years imprisonment.
The evidence shows that on January 16, 1979, the appellant and his accomplice, Clennon Coon, robbed a service station in Covington County. Coon was tried for the same robbery and convicted two days prior to trial of the appellant in the instant case. On striking the jury in the instant case, it was disclosed that six members of the venire had served on the jury which convicted the appellant's co-defendant two days earlier. On questioning by the trial judge, five of those veniremen answered that they had formed a fixed opinion as to the appellant's guilt. The trial court granted the appellant's challenge for cause, and the five were excused.
The sixth venireman, Phillip Norris, indicated that he had no fixed opinion and could consider the evidence in the instant case impartially even though he had served on the jury which convicted the appellant's co-defendant two days earlier. The trial court denied the appellant's challenge for cause as to Norris, thereby committing reversible error.
Smith v. State, 55 Ala. 1 (1876).
In Morris v. McClellan, 169 Ala. 90, 53 So. 155 (1910), after quoting from Smith, supra, our Supreme Court stated:
". . . If a juror has acted in a previous case, whether the parties are identical or not, but which involved the controverted facts in the present case, whether there was a verdict or a mistrial, he cannot be considered an impartial juror upon the consideration of the same facts in a succeeding trial and should be excluded, notwithstanding these facts did not give a special statutory ground of challenging. . . ."
(Citations omitted.)
See also: Stover v. State, 204 Ala. 311, 85 So. 393 (1920); Hill v. State, Ala.Cr.App., 348 So.2d 848, cert. denied, Ala., 348 So.2d 857 (1977); Crowden v. State, 41 Ala.App. 421, 133 So.2d 678 (1961).
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...State v. Hohman, 138 Vt. 502, 420 A.2d 852 (Vt.1980); Rutledge v. State, 264 S.E.2d 248, 152 Ga.App. 849 (1979). But see Head v. State, 377 So.2d 160 (Ala.1979) (six veniremen served on jury that convicted co-defendant and five of the six stated that they could not be I find the decision in......
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Quinlivan v. State
...cause; they are not impartial--free from the bias of formed opinions." Dothard v. Denson, 72 Ala. 541, 543 (1882). See also Head v. State, 377 So.2d 160 (Ala.Cr.App.), cert. denied, 377 So.2d 161 The trial court correctly inquired whether any member of the venire had served on the grand jur......
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Head v. State
...Re Robert HEAD, Jr. v. STATE of Alabama. 79-69. Supreme Court of Alabama. Dec. 7, 1979. Certiorari to the Court of Criminal Appeals, 377 So.2d 160. BEATTY, WRIT DENIED. All the Judges concur. ...