State v. Green

• Decision Date: 22 May 1995
• Citation: 655 So.2d 272
• Parties: 94-0887 La
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

Page 272

655 So.2d 272

94-0887 La. 5/22/95

STATE of Louisiana v. Melvin GREEN.

No. 94-KA-0887.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

May 22, 1995.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 29, 1995.

Richard P. Ieyoub, Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Susan M. Erlanger, Timothy J. McElroy, Asst. Dist. Attys., for applicant.

Joseph C. Seyler, New Orleans, for respondent.

[94-0887 La. 1] CALOGERO, ^* Chief Justice, Pro Tem.

Pamela Beth Block was murdered in the course of an attempted armed robbery on August 28, 1991. An Orleans Parish Grand Jury returned an indictment charging Melvin Green with first degree murder. LSA-R.S. 14:30. Green pleaded not guilty and was tried by jury on July 21-24, 1992. The petit jury found Green guilty as charged, but was unable to reach a unanimous decision following the penalty phase of the capital trial. Accordingly, the trial court sentenced Green to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence.

On appeal the court of appeal reversed the conviction and vacated Green's sentence. State v. Green, 92-2700 (La.App. 4 Cir. 3/15/94), 634 So.2d 503. It concluded that the trial court had erred in admitting a confession made by Green to homicide detectives shortly after his arrest because "defendant's mental retardation" rendered him incapable of making a "knowing and intelligent" waiver of his Miranda rights. In addition, the court [94-0887 La. 2] found that the prosecutor during voir dire exercised peremptory strikes against two prospective jurors to exclude them because of their race, in violation of Batson v. Kentucky 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). The court of appeal ordered Green retried and barred further use of his confession in the trial court.

We granted a writ to review the decision of the court of appeal. State v. Green, 94-0887 (La. 1/6/95), 648 So.2d 908. Based upon our review of the record and the applicable law, we reverse the decision of the court of appeal and reinstate the district court's conviction and sentence of the defendant.

I. Facts and Procedural Background

At approximately 9:00pm on August 28, 1991, Pamela Beth Block and her husband were walking to their car, which was parked in front of their home in the 4800 block of Carondelet Street in New Orleans. As the Blocks were about to enter their vehicle, three black males, all on bicycles, approached them. One of the three pulled a pistol on the Blocks and demanded that they "give it up." Mrs. Block panicked and jumped into her car through the driver's side door. The gunman thereupon fired a single shot through the front passenger side window, striking Mrs. Block in the neck. While the three men fled on their bicycles, Mr. Block, along with several neighbors who had responded to the sound of the gunshot, attempted unsuccessfully to revive Mrs. Block. Unfortunately, she died forty-five (45) minutes later.

At around 3:00pm the following day, August 29, 1991, an unidentified informant called the "Crimestoppers" hotline to provide the police with information about the shooting of Mrs. Block. Based upon information obtained in a face-to-face interview with this informant, ¹ homicide detectives prepared arrest warrants designating Melvin Green, Darrell Claiborne, and an individual known as "Duck" (later identified as George McClow) as the prime [94-0887 La. 3] suspects in the Block murder. ² In an attempt to seize the murder weapon search warrants were prepared for the residences of Green and Claiborne.

At 7:56pm on the evening of August 29, at approximately the same time as the search warrant was being executed on his residence, Green was arrested at the home of his girlfriend's mother. Following his arrest Homicide Detective John Ronquillo informed Green of his Miranda rights. Green acknowledged that he understood his rights and declined to waive them at that time.

Homicide detectives Marco Demma and Norman McCord assumed custody of Green at the place of his arrest and transported him to the Homicide Division Office of the New Orleans Police Department. While in transit to the police station the detectives again read Green his Miranda rights, but did not attempt to obtain any statement from him.

Once they had arrived at the stationhouse, the detectives again read Green his rights and asked him to sign a "rights of arrestee" form which contained, along with a transcription of the Miranda litany, a clause providing for the arrestee's waiver of his Miranda rights. Green complied with the detectives' request and signed the form at 8:46pm.

Detectives Catalonotto, Demma, and McCord then began questioning Green about his involvement in the Block murder. At around 9:30pm, about an hour and a half after his arrest, Green made a statement in which he admitted being at the scene of the crime along with Claiborne and McClow. Green asserted, however, that he had not been involved in the attempt to rob the Blocks, and claimed that it was Claiborne who had shot Mrs. Block. The detectives had Green repeat his statement so that it might be [94-0887 La. 4] recorded on an audio cassette tape. ³ At the outset of the recording Green was Mirandized again and expressly waived his rights.

The detectives continued questioning Green because the "Crimestoppers" informant who had earlier contacted the police had indicated that it was Green, and not Claiborne, who had shot Mrs. Block. In the course of his first statement the detectives had shown Green several photographs seized during the search of Green's residence, including a Polaroid photograph of Green holding a handgun which matched a description of the weapon used in the Block murder. During his first statement Green maintained that although the photographs depicted him holding the weapon, the gun belonged not to him but to Claiborne.

In the course of subsequent questioning, however, perhaps prompted by the detectives' assertion that Green's girlfriend had told the police that the gun was his, Green recanted his prior story and admitted that the gun was indeed his own. Green also admitted that he had discarded the gun the day after the shooting in a weeded area near a warehouse at the corner of St. Louis and Robertson streets. At the prompting of Detective Demma, Green volunteered to show the detectives where the gun was located.

The detectives, accompanied by Green, immediately left the police station and travelled to the 1500 block of St. Louis Street. The police were initially unable, because of the poor lighting conditions, to locate the weapon in the area indicated by Green. Because of their difficulties, the detectives summoned the Fire Department to provide remote lighting on the scene. A Dan Wesson .357 magnum revolver, later confirmed by ballistics analysis to be [94-0887 La. 5] the gun which fired the bullet that killed Mrs. Block, was found within moments after the Fire Department emergency vehicle arrived and illuminated the area.

As they were departing the scene, Detective Demma resumed his questioning of Green. Demma, while praising Green for cooperating with the detectives, also pointed out that Green had admitted that he owned the murder weapon and had led the detectives to it. Demma again asked Green whether it had been he, and not Claiborne, who shot Mrs. Block. In response to Demma's questioning, Green confessed to having been the gunman. At 11:39pm, back at the police station, Green was Mirandized yet again. He repeated his confession to the murder of Mrs. Block. This statement, along with the reading of the Miranda rights and accompanying waiver of those rights, was also recorded on an audio cassette tape.

Green filed a number of pretrial motions, among which was a motion to suppress his confession. A hearing on this motion was held on March 9, 1992, and Detective McCord testified regarding the circumstances surrounding Green's two tape-recorded statements, including the second, his confession. Detective McCord testified that basically Green understood his Miranda rights, waived those rights a number of times, and gave several statements which were not compelled or coerced by the detectives in any way. The defense called no witnesses and submitted its motion without argument. The trial court denied the motion to suppress.

The case was set for trial on July 21, 1992. The day before the trial began the defense filed a motion to re-open the motion to suppress, offering as grounds for the motion new evidence concerning Green's capacity to knowingly and intelligently waive his Miranda rights. ⁴ Just before trial the court allowed the defense to present its evidence regarding Green's alleged diminished mental capacity. After hearing testimony from a [94-0887 La. 6] forensic psychologist, Dr. Marc Zimmerman, the trial court declined to reconsider its earlier ruling denying the motion to suppress.

Following the trial court's ruling on the defense's eleventh hour motions, the process of jury selection began. After six panels of prospective jurors from the venire had been subjected to voir dire and both sides had exhausted their allotment of peremptory challenges, a twelve-member jury was finally selected. The racial composition of the jury was eight (8) white members and four (4) black members.

After the jury had been selected and sequestered, the defense made a number of objections, including a Batson challenge. ⁵ Specifically, the defense observed that the prosecutor had exercised peremptory strikes on eleven (11) black prospective jurors and only one white prospective juror, and alleged that in doing so the prosecutor had acted with discriminatory intent, striking the black prospective jurors on the basis of their race. The trial court ordered the prosecutor to provide a race-neutral explanation for each peremptory strike made against a black juror, and after hearing the prosecutor's reasons the trial court overruled the Batson objection.

The guilt phase of Melvin Green's capital trial lasted...