Jackson v. State, 1 Div. 385

• Decision Date: 23 November 1982
• Docket Number: 1 Div. 385
• Citation: 423 So.2d 320
• Parties: Charles Cartwright JACKSON v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 320

423 So.2d 320

Charles Cartwright JACKSON v. STATE.

1 Div. 385.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

Nov. 23, 1982.

John W. Coleman, Mobile, for appellant.

Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., and Leura J. Garrett, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

LEIGH M. CLARK, Retired Circuit Judge.

On a trial on an indictment charging him with murder, a jury found appellant guilty of manslaughter, and the court fixed his punishment at imprisonment for ten years and sentenced him accordingly.

According to an abundance of undisputed evidence, the alleged victim, Charles Ryal Hall, was killed by one of two blasts from a shotgun fired by defendant, while the victim was standing in the doorway of the Ranch Club and while the defendant and his brother were sitting in an automobile near the entrance to the club. The undisputed evidence also shows that defendant and his brother had previously been in the club that night for a long period of time and had left the building on orders of the management and Mr. Hall, the alleged victim, who was one of three "bouncers" on duty at the time. Some time after they left the club building and before the fatal incident, Mr. Hall, acting as a bouncer, sprayed mace in the face of defendant, and one of the other bouncers kicked defendant.

There was no scarcity of eyewitnesses, which included the owner, the two surviving bouncers, other employees of the club, the defendant, the defendant's brother and some acquaintances of the defendant and his brother who were at the club that night. Other witnesses, not eyewitnesses to the homicide or the circumstances prior to the homicide, included law enforcement authorities and an expert witness, a criminalist who testified to the effect that the alleged victim was killed by some pellets from a shotgun shell from the shotgun fired by defendant.

The agreement among the witnesses generally as to many of the facts as indicated above is in marked contrast with their disagreement as to some of the other material facts. Witnesses for the State testified that defendant's conduct while in the club was greatly disruptive and annoying to employees and customers; witnesses for the defendant, including defendant himself, testified to the contrary. Witnesses for the State testified that appellant left the club of his own volition soon after his brother left the club and that the mace that was sprayed in appellant's face by the victim and the kicking of the appellant by another bouncer had not occurred at that time. Their testimony was that the spraying of the mace in defendant's face, and the kick administered to him, occurred while the defendant and his brother were attempting to re-enter the club after they had been refused permission to re-enter. Defendant and some of his witnesses testified that there was never any effort by defendant to re-enter the club and that the spraying of the mace in defendant's face, and the assault on defendant's brother by one of the bouncers, occurred while defendant and his brother were in the process of being ejected from the club. Witnesses for the State testified that defendant and his brother left in their automobile which was in the parking lot of the club and in about forty-five minutes returned to the parking lot in the automobile, and, while in the vicinity of the front door of the club, defendant fired at least two shots ¹ from a shotgun pointed in the direction of the door where the victim was when he was killed. Defendant and some of his witnesses testified that they did not leave the parking lot before the shooting occurred, that they made no attempt to return to the club, that defendant was in pain from the mace in his face that required washing his eyes and face and that soon thereafter they were in the process of leaving the premises, or the general area of the premises, of the club, when defendant fired the shotgun, after the alleged victim had shot two shots at defendant and his brother. They left the general area in their automobile and were apprehended soon thereafter by law enforcement authorities.

The first three paragraphs of the argument in appellant's brief are as follows:

"The single issue presented for review on this appeal is whether the trial court should have allowed into evidence a prior specific act of the deceased.

"In this instance the Defendant shot the deceased after having had MACE sprayed in his face and had been fired upon by the deceased. (T.R. 229). The deceased had been involved in an incident on December 10, 1980, wherein the facts were almost identical. He had been involved where MACE was sprayed in a man's face and shot in the back after a very minor disturbance at the same club. (T.R. 228).

"The law in Alabama is clear on this point in holding that prior actions are not admissible. Hall vs. State, [Ala.Cr.App.], 375 So.2d 536 [1979]. Though the reputation of the murder victim for turbulence, violence and bloodthirstiness is admissible to show that the killing was in self-defense, Bankston vs. State, [Ala.] 358 So.2d 1040 [1978]."

The next sentence of appellant's brief is thus stated:

"Your appellant urges this court to make an exception to the rule which prohibits the admission of prior specific acts of the deceased ..."

The remainder of the brief is devoted to a serious...