Riley v. State

• Decision Date: 09 July 1984
• Citation: 496 A.2d 997
• Parties: James W. RILEY, Defendant-Appellant, v. STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff-Appellee. . Submitted:
• Court: Supreme Court of Delaware

Page 997

496 A.2d 997

James W. RILEY, Defendant-Appellant, v. STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff-Appellee.

Supreme Court of Delaware.

Submitted: July 9, 1984.

Decided: July 12, 1985.

Upon appeal from Superior Court. Affirmed.

Robert B. Young (argued) of Young and Schwartz, John Williams (argued) of Prickett, Jones, Elliott, Kristol & Schnee, Dover, for defendant-appellant.

John A. Parkins, Jr. (argued), Former Chief of Appeals Div., Dept. of Justice, Wilmington, Gary A. Myers (argued), Deputy Atty. Gen., Georgetown, Deborah A. Blom, Deputy Atty. Gen., Wilmington, for plaintiff-appellee.

John Williams of Prickett, Jones, Elliott, Kristol & Schnee, Dover, for amicus curiae American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware, Inc.

Before HERRMANN, Chief Justice, McNEILLY, HORSEY, MOORE and CHRISTIE, Justices, constituting the Court en Banc.

HORSEY, Justice:

Defendant, James W. Riley, seeks reversal of his conviction in a jury trial of two counts of Murder in the first degree (11 Del.C. § 636),¹ Conspiracy in the second degree (11 Del.C. § 512(1)), Possession of a deadly weapon during commission of a felony (11 Del.C. § 1447(a)), and Robbery in the first degree (11 Del.C. § 832(a)(2)). On appeal, defendant asserts multiple grounds for reversal. These include potential jury prejudice, abusive discretionary rulings, and the use of the underlying felony both as an element of felony murder and as an aggravating circumstance for the imposition of the death penalty. We find no reversible error as to the conviction and, therefore, we affirm.

Codefendants, Tyrone Baxter and Michael Williams, testified for the State as follows: On February 8, 1982, Baxter and Riley decided to rob a liquor store. Williams drove Riley and Baxter to the store, waited in the automobile, and after the robbery, drove them to a bus station. Inside the liquor store, Riley placed a quart bottle of beer on the counter and paid for it. When the store owner, James Feeley, opened the cash register, Riley drew a pistol and removed approximately $150 from Riley pleaded not guilty to each of the five charges against him. He testified that he was in Philadelphia the entire day of the robbery. Riley's fingerprints, however, were on the beer bottle found on the store counter. No alibi witnesses testified for Riley. Tyrone Baxter's mother testified that Riley had spent the night before the robbery in her house in Dover. Riley denied it. Gary Walter Momenko, an inmate at the Delaware Correctional Center, testified that Baxter had told him that he, Baxter, not Riley, shot Feeley.

the register. Riley attempted to take Feeley's wallet but Feeley resisted. At Baxter's urging, Riley shot Feeley in the leg. As Baxter and Riley were leaving, Feeley threw a wine bottle at Riley. Baxter ducked behind a cigarette machine. Riley then shot Feeley in the chest at close range. Baxter and Riley fled, leaving the victim mortally wounded.

The jury found Riley guilty on all charges. The State sought and obtained the death penalty only for felony murder, not for intentional murder.

I

Defendant first contends that the Trial Judge abused his discretion in the conduct of voir dire by excusing for cause two venirepersons who allegedly failed to demonstrate their unequivocal opposition to the death penalty. Defendant claims these dismissals violated his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment right to an impartial jury under the standards set forth in Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968). Applying Witherspoon as clarified or modified by Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. 412, 105 S.Ct. 844, 83 L.Ed.2d 841 (1985) we cannot conclude that the Trial Court abused its discretion or committed reversible error in excusing for cause the venirepersons in question.

A.

In Wainwright, the Supreme Court recently reviewed and modified "the standard for judging the proper exclusion of a juror opposed to capital punishment." 105 S.Ct. at 849. We refer to the standard which the Supreme Court had defined 17 years earlier in Witherspoon. In Witherspoon, the Court concluded:

that a sentence of death cannot be carried out if the jury that imposed or recommended it was chosen by excluding veniremen for cause simply because they voiced general objections to the death penalty or expressed conscientious or religious scruples against its infliction.

391 U.S. at 522, 88 S.Ct. at 1777. At the same time, the Court in Witherspoon acknowledged a state's legitimate interest in administering an otherwise lawful death penalty scheme:

[N]othing we say today bears upon the power of a State to execute a defendant sentenced to death by a jury from which the only veniremen who were in fact excluded for cause were those who made unmistakably clear (1) that they would automatically vote against the imposition of capital punishment without regard to any evidence that might be developed at the trial of the case before them, or (2) that their attitude toward the death penalty would prevent them from making an impartial decision as to the defendant's guilt. (emphasis in original)

Id. at 522 n. 21, 88 S.Ct. at 1777 n. 21. The Court thus attempted to strike a balance between a defendant's right to have a jury not "uncommonly willing to condemn a man to die," Id. at 521, 88 S.Ct. at 1776, and a state's legitimate "quest for a jury capable of imposing the death penalty." Id. at 520-521, 88 S.Ct. at 1776. The Court summarized its position:

The most that can be demanded of a venireman in this regard is that he be willing to consider all of the penalties provided by state law, and that he not be irrevocably committed, before the trial has begun, to vote against the penalty of death regardless of the facts and circumstances that might emerge in the course of the proceedings. If the voir dire testimony in a given case indicates that Id. at 522 n. 21, 88 S.Ct. at 1777 n. 21 (emphasis in original).

veniremen were excluded on any broader basis than this, the death sentence cannot be carried out even if the applicable statutory or case law in the relevant jurisdiction would appear to support only a narrower ground of exclusion.

As Justice Rehnquist stated, writing for the majority in Wainwright, Witherspoon struck down as unconstitutional Illinois' statutory sentencing procedures which resulted in the excusal for cause of nearly half the veniremen because they "expressed qualms about capital punishment." 391 U.S. at 513, 88 S.Ct. at 1772. Under Illinois statutes governing trials for murder, the State was permitted to challenge for cause any juror stating either "that he ha[d] conscientious scruples against capital punishment, or [who was] opposed to the same." 391 U.S. at 512, 88 S.Ct. at 1772. Thus, the Court in Witherspoon held that a jury chosen under the Illinois statutes in question "would not be the impartial jury required by the Sixth Amendment, but rather a jury 'uncommonly willing to condemn a man to die.' " Wainwright v. Witt, 105 S.Ct. at 849, quoting Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. at 521, 88 S.Ct. at 1776.

Witherspoon was thereafter construed as permitting jurors to be excluded from a capital case for cause only if the jurors made it "unmistakably clear [either] (1) that they would automatically vote against the imposition of capital punishment without regard to [the] evidence ... or (2) that their attitude toward the death penalty would prevent them from making an impartial decision as to the defendant's guilt." 391 U.S. at 522 n. 21, 88 S.Ct. at 1777 n. 21; Witt v. Wainwright, 11th Cir., 714 F.2d 1069, 1076 (1983), modified, 723 F.2d 769 (1984). See also Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38, 100 S.Ct. 2521, 65 L.Ed.2d 581 (1980); Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978); Davis v. Georgia, 429 U.S. 122, 97 S.Ct. 399, 50 L.Ed.2d 339 (1976); Maxwell v. Bishop, 398 U.S. 262, 90 S.Ct. 1578, 26 L.Ed.2d 221 (1970).

Reversing the Eleventh Circuit in Witt v. Wainwright, supra, the Supreme Court ruled that the Eleventh Circuit's construction of Witherspoon was erroneous. The Court held that the "proper standard for determining when a prospective juror may be excluded for cause because of his or her views on capital punishment," 105 S.Ct. at 852, is stated in Adams v. Texas, supra. "That standard is whether the juror's views would 'prevent or substantially impair the performance of his duties as a juror in accordance with his instructions and his oath.' " The Court thus "[dispensed] with Witherspoon's reference to 'automatic' decision-making [and the requirement] that a juror's bias be proved with 'unmistakable clarity.' ". 105 S.Ct. at 852.²

The Court in Wainwright thus discarded Witherspoon's "requirements" that a veniremember be excluded for cause only upon an "unmistakably clear" showing either that the prospective juror would be unable to abide by existing law or that he would automatically vote against the imposition of capital punishment regardless of the evidence of guilt.

Characterizing the Witherspoon standard for excluding a juror for cause as unduly rigid, the Supreme Court in Wainwright opted for a single, more elastic standard for excusal with respect to views on capital punishment: "whether the juror's views would 'prevent or substantially impair the performance of his duties as a juror in accordance with his instructions and his oath.' " 105 S.Ct. at 852. The Court reasoned that [D]eterminations of juror bias cannot be reduced to question-and-answer sessions which obtain results in the manner of a catechism. What common sense should have realized experience has proved: many veniremen simply cannot be asked enough questions to reach the point where their bias has been made 'unmistakably clear'; these veniremen may not know how they will react when faced with imposing death sentence, or may be unable to articulate, or may wish to hide their true feelings.

Id.

B.

The primary purpose of voir dire under Delaware law is to elicit a juror's want of bias or prejudice...