State v. Harris

• Court: United States State Supreme Court (New Jersey)
• Writing for the Court: O'HERN; STEIN; HANDLER
• Citation: 716 A.2d 458,156 N.J. 122
• Decision Date: 30 July 1998
• Parties: STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Ambrose A. HARRIS, Defendant-Appellant.

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156 N.J. 122 716 A.2d 458 STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent,
v.
Ambrose A. HARRIS, Defendant-Appellant. Supreme Court of New Jersey. Argued Sept. 23, 1997.
Decided July 30, 1998.

Frank J. Pugliese and Donald T. Thelander, Assistant Deputies Public Defender, for defendant-appellant (Ivelisse Torres, Public Defender, attorney).

[716 A.2d 463] Nancy A. Hulett, Deputy Attorney General, for plaintiff-respondent (Peter Verniero, Attorney General of New Jersey, attorney).

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

O'HERN, J.

In his concurring opinion in State v. Allen, 73 N.J. 132, 146, 373 A.2d 377 (1977), Justice Pashman described a similar case as one involving "the interplay between two of our most basic constitutional guarantees--free speech and fair trial--which are also, as Mr. Justice Black correctly noted, 'two of the most cherished policies of our civilization.' " Id. at 146, 373 A.2d 377 (quoting Bridges v. California, 314 U.S. 252, 260, 62 S.Ct. 190, 192, 86 L. Ed. 192, 201 (1941)).

In this capital case a jury has convicted defendant of the murder of Kristin Huggins and recommended that he be sentenced to death. Pervasive media publicity surrounded the conduct of the trial. In Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333, 86 S.Ct. 1507, 16 L. Ed.2d 600 (1966), the Supreme Court held that

d]ue process requires that the accused receive a trial by an impartial jury free from outside influences. Given the pervasiveness of modern communications and the difficulty of effacing prejudicial publicity from the minds of the jurors, the trial

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courts must take strong measures to ensure that the balance is never weighed against the accused. And appellate tribunals have the duty to make an independent evaluation of the circumstances.

[Id. at 362, 86 S.Ct. at 1522, 16 L. Ed.2d at 620.

Defendant contends that he was denied a fair trial because the court did not "take strong measures" to assure that his trial was free from the outside influence of prejudicial publicity. Central issues raised in his appeal are (1) whether the trial court should have granted defendant's motion for a change of venue, that is, whether it should have transferred the case for trial outside the county where the crime was committed, and (2) whether, because of recurring prejudicial publicity during the course of the trial, the court should have questioned jurors individually concerning their exposure to such midtrial publicity. We find that the measures taken by the trial court, the selection of a jury composed of out-of-county residents, and its general questioning of the jurors during the trial concerning any exposure to trial publicity sufficiently ensured that defendant's trial was free of extraneous influences. We find no other errors that tainted his trial. We affirm the convictions for murder and other crimes found and affirm the sentence of death. Proportionality review will take place in later proceedings.

Because in cases involving the death penalty a trial court's responsibility under both the federal and state constitutions is to "minimize the danger that prejudice will infiltrate the adjudicatory process," State v. Williams, 93 N.J. 39, 63, 459 A.2d 641 (1983) (Williams I ), we hold that when hereafter there is a reasonable likelihood that the trial of a capital case will be surrounded by presumptively prejudicial media publicity (as that phrase is understood in the law) the court should transfer the case to another county. Other devices, such as restraints against the publication of material concerning the trial or the sequestration of jurors, have proven either to be unavailable to counter the effects of continuing prejudicial publicity or to produce a contrary effect than desired. In some cases a court may conclude that an initial tide of inherently prejudicial publicity will have subsided at time of

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trial and will not require a change of venue if the jury selection process yields an impartial jury. E.g., State v. Koedatich, 112 N.J. 225, 273-82, 548 A.2d 939 (1988), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 1017, 109 S.Ct. 813, 102 L. Ed.2d 803 (1989) (Koedatich I ). When, however, a court is satisfied that there is a reasonable likelihood of the continuing recurrence at a capital trial of presumptively prejudicial publicity that might infiltrate the trial, a change of venue is required. I FACTS

On December 17, 1992, Kristin Huggins left her parents' home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to paint a mural at the Trenton[716 A.2d 464] Club, in downtown Trenton. She was driving a red Toyota sports car. Huggins never returned home. According to the State's case, Ambrose Harris, with the aid of Gloria Dunn, raped and killed Huggins in the course of a carjacking and robbery.

Police discovered Huggins' car on December 18, 1992, but were unable to locate her. In the later stages of the investigation, witnesses informed the police that defendant had been seen driving a red Toyota with Pennsylvania plates on the night of Huggins' disappearance. One witness, Tariq Ayres, told the police that Harris said he had "knocked off some white girl" and "hijacked" the car. Another witness reported that Harris had a wallet containing an ATM (automatic teller machine) card and a driver's license with Huggins' picture on it. An ATM video showed defendant attempting to make a $400 cash withdrawal from Huggins' account on that night.

On February 18, 1993, Gloria Dunn went to the police with her sister, Eleanor Williams, and told the police that she knew where Huggins' body was, claiming at first that the two had found the body by following Williams' "psychic vision." They asked about reward money.

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Dunn led the police to Kristin Huggins' badly decomposed body. That same day, she gave the police a statement about the murder. Over the next year and a half, Dunn provided the police with several additional statements containing a number of inconsistencies and additions. Of greatest significance, she waited a year and a half to inform the police about defendant's having raped Huggins. When she did inform the police about the rape, she lied about the circumstances.

On June 8, 1994, a Mercer County Grand Jury indicted defendant for purposeful or knowing murder by his own conduct, felony murder, kidnapping, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, possession of a handgun for an unlawful purpose, and various theft offenses. The State served a notice of aggravating factors as a basis for the death penalty, alleging that the murder was committed in the course of a felony, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(4)(g), and for the purpose of escaping detection, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(4)(f).

Defendant filed a number of pretrial motions, several of which were appealed to the Appellate Division on an interlocutory basis. A significant pretrial motion, based on massive pretrial publicity in the Trenton area, was for a change of venue or, in the alternative, empanelment of a jury from a county other than Mercer. The trial court denied the motion for a change of venue but agreed to empanel a jury from Hunterdon County. Both parties sought leave to appeal. The State contended that an out-of-county jury was unnecessary. Defendant argued that Camden County was the proper juror source.

The Appellate Division granted leave to appeal and held that defendant was entitled to an out-of-county jury and that the trial court should consider the racial makeup of the county from which jurors would be drawn. State v. Harris, 282 N.J.Super. 409, 419, 660 A.2d 539 (1995). On that basis, the Appellate Division held that the trial court had erred in choosing a pool of jurors from Hunterdon County, which has a small minority population. Id. at 420, 660 A.2d 539. On remand, after denying defendant's request to reconsider the motion for a change of venue, the trial court

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selected Burlington County as the county from which jurors would be selected, rejecting defendant's suggestion that Camden County be used.

Defendant also moved for closure of the trial, for exclusion of his criminal record if he were to testify, and for separate guilt-phase and penalty-phase juries. The court denied those motions. The court did limit media photographs of defendant in order that shackles did not appear.

Jury selection occurred between October 10, 1995, and January 3, 1996. Defendant made several motions during voir dire (the process of questioning of potential jurors), relating principally to the court's termination of attorney-conducted voir dire, the court's limitation on inquiry into the racial attitudes of prospective jurors, and death-qualification. The trial court refused to delay the voir dire further to consider these motions. The Appellate Division, taking an interlocutory appeal on an emergency basis, affirmed that [716 A.2d 465] refusal, but one member of the appellate panel expressed concern at oral argument about the scope of the voir dire on racial bias. The trial court thereafter questioned more extensively concerning racial bias.

After voir dire was complete, the trial court denied defendant's motions to dismiss the entire jury panel because of the allegedly faulty selection process, to reconsider various other pretrial issues raised, and to increase juror security in order to protect the jury from pervasive publicity, which included newspaper headlines displayed prominently at courthouse newsstands.

The guilt phase began on January 10, 1996. The jury reached its verdict on February 20, 1996. Dunn's testimony provided the only direct evidence linking defendant to the crime. From the evidence a jury could have found the following facts. Dunn and defendant met several months before the murder and had spoken on several occasions thereafter. Harris offered to give her drugs and to "pop" an ex-boyfriend who was giving her trouble.

In late November 1992, defendant asked Dunn to take part in a holdup. She hesitated at first but agreed to participate in return

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for a...