Headrick v. State, 7 Div. 75
Decision Date | 15 September 1970 |
Docket Number | 7 Div. 75 |
Citation | 46 Ala.App. 202,239 So.2d 572 |
Parties | Walter George HEADRICK v. STATE. |
Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
Walter George Headrick was indicted for murder in the first degree by a Calhoun County Grand Jury on November 7, 1969.
At arraignment Headrick, with his self-employed counsel, pled not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.
On June 2, 1970, a jury was empanelled and sworn and the court began to hear evidence. The evidence not being concluded, the jury was kept together without separation during the night.
The next morning it was made known to the court that the defendant and the State had reached an agreement to settle the case. The defendant agreed to withdraw his pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity and plead guilty to the lesser included offense of murder in the second degree with a sentence of eighteen years.
The court then proceeded to explain to defendant the significance of his act and to determine if his plea was voluntarily and understandingly entered. The record on this point is in compliance with Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274.
However, so far as we are able to ascertain from the record, the jury was never consulted on the sentence prior to its discharge.
Tit. 14, § 318, Code, 1940, sets out the punishment for murder and provides that this shall be fixed at the discretion of the jury.
In Ex parte Jenkins, 38 Ala.App. 117, 76 So.2d 858, it is stated:
We quote from Houston v. State, 37 Ala.App. 359, 68 So.2d 735, as follows:
'In addition to Section 398, supra, providing that punishment for violation of said section shall be fixed at the discretion of the jury, we also have Section 70, Title 30, Code of Alabama 1940, which provides that if in a capital case a defendant enters a plea of guilty at any time before a special venire is drawn for the trial, a trial shall be had and the degree of guilt, and the punishment fixed by a jury to be selected from the panel of regular petit jurors organized by the court during such week as the case is set for trial, in the same manner as juries are organized for trial of non-capital felonies.
'Either of the above code provisions would require a reversal of this cause.
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Prothro v. State
...or prior to trial." The amendment is not applicable when a plea of guilty is entered while the trial is in progress. Headrick v. State, 46 Ala.App. 202, 239 So.2d 572 (1970). In Singleton v. State, 288 Ala. 519, 262 So.2d 768 (1971), it was held that a defendant charged with a felony, not c......
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...the intervention of the jury trying the case, sentenced appellant to imprisonment in the penitentiary for life. Under Headrick v. State, 46 Ala.App. 202, 239 So.2d 572, we are compelled to reverse. Cf. Spencer v. State, 48 Ala.App. 646, 266 So.2d 902. After jeopardy attaches and a criminal ......
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