State v. Mann
| Decision Date | 08 December 1997 |
| Citation | 959 S.W.2d 503 |
| Parties | STATE of Tennessee, Appellee, v. Glenn Bernard MANN, Appellant. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
William P. Redick, Jr., Whites Creek, Peter D. Heil, Nashville, Charles S. Kelly (Trial Only), Lyman Ingram, Assistant District Public Defender (Trial Only), Dyersburg, for Appellant.
John Knox Walkup, Attorney General and Reporter, Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General, Amy L. Tarkington, Assistant Attorney General, Nashville, C. Phillip Bivens, District Attorney General, for Appellee.
In this capital case, the defendant, Glenn Bernard Mann, was convicted of premeditated first degree murder, aggravated rape and aggravated burglary. 1 In the sentencing hearing, the jury found two aggravating circumstances: (1) "[t]he murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel in that it involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death;" and (2) "[t]he murder was committed while the defendant was engaged in committing ... burglary." Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(5) and (7) (1991). Finding that the two aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt, the jury sentenced the defendant to death by electrocution.
On direct appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals, the defendant challenged both his conviction and sentence, raising nine claims of error, some with numerous subparts. After fully considering the defendant's claims, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the trial court's judgment. Thereafter, pursuant to Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-206(a)(1) (1996 Supp.), 2 the case was docketed in this Court.
The defendant raised numerous issues in this Court, but after carefully examining the entire record and the law, including the thorough opinion of the Court of Criminal Appeals and the briefs of the defendant and the State, this Court, on April 25, 1997, entered an Order setting the cause for oral argument at the June term of Court in Nashville and stating that "[i]n addition to the statutorily mandated issues ... the Court will consider ... [w]hether the District Attorney's offer of a life sentence in exchange for a plea of guilty to capital murder and subsequent seeking of the death penalty upon the defendant's rejection of the offer violates the constitutional rights of the defendant." See Tenn. S.Ct. R. 12. 3
For the reasons explained below, we have determined that the defendant's constitutional rights were not violated by the State's decision to seek the death penalty after the defendant rejected the plea offer. Moreover, the evidence supports the jury's findings as to aggravating and mitigating circumstances, and the sentence of death is not disproportionate or arbitrary. Accordingly, the defendant's conviction for first degree murder and sentence of death by electrocution are affirmed.
The defendant, Glenn Bernard Mann, was convicted by a jury of the premeditated murder of Annie Lou Wilson, a sixty-two-year-old widow who lived alone in her home in Dyer County, Tennessee. The evidence presented at the guilt phase of the trial established that Wilson was last seen alive on Friday night, July 2,1993, by two friends who gave her a ride home from the West Tennessee Opry or "Boogie Barn." According to the proof at trial, Wilson, along with her two friends, regularly attended the Boogie Barn on Friday and Saturday nights. Wilson could not drive and would get a ride to the Boogie Barn with her daughter or her friends and would usually ride home with her friends when the establishment closed at 11:00 p.m.
After dinner on July 2, Wilson's daughter dropped her off at the Boogie Barn. Wilson rode home with her friends, arriving at approximately 11:30 p.m. After making arrangements to pick her up the next evening and waiting until she was safely inside her home, they left. The next day when her friends stopped by at the designated time, Wilson was not waiting for them on the porch, as was her habit, and they were unable to get a response at the front door. Believing that Wilson had decided to ride with her daughter, they continued to their destination, but Wilson never arrived at the Boogie Barn that evening.
Wilson's daughter, Lottie McPherson, also testified that she was unable to contact her mother by telephone on Saturday, July 3, but assumed her mother was out visiting friends. The next day, after attempting several times more to reach her mother by phone, McPherson became concerned and drove to Wilson's home to check on her. When she arrived, McPherson noticed that the mail had not been removed from the mailbox on Saturday. Fearing that her mother was physically ill, McPherson proceeded to the front door with a key ready, but found that the door was not locked. Upon entering the house, McPherson saw her mother's body lying in the floor of the bedroom, on the left side of the bed. McPherson said her mother's skin was cold and there was blood all around her body. After seeing her mother, McPherson went outside and called 911.
Upon arriving at the scene, police found Wilson's partially nude body on the floor to the left of the bed. Wilson was lying on her back, with her left arm over her head. She had been stabbed numerous times and severely beaten. The front of her night gown and panties had been torn. A large amount of blood was on her head and chest. Blood also was on her legs and arms and at various places in the room, including on the carpet and bed. Investigating officers found several items near the body, including a broken ceramic cat, a brassiere, pieces of white underwear, and a box containing Wilson's hearing aid. From the kitchen floor, officers removed a piece of linoleum which contained a bloody shoe print.
After securing the scene, officers began interviewing neighbors. Tammy Palmer, who lived four houses down from the victim, gave a statement and thereafter testified at trial that, as she was leaving for work on Saturday, July 3, 1993, at approximately 5:00 a.m., she noticed a man walking down the street. He was wearing orange shorts and no shirt and appeared to weigh 180 to 200 pounds and be between 5'10" and 6'0" in height. Palmer said that when she came out of her house, the man stopped for a few seconds and looked up the driveway toward her. Shortly after the murder, police asked Palmer if she could identify the man she had seen from a group of photographs. Palmer selected a person other than the defendant, but told officers she was not sure that the person in the chosen photograph was actually the man she had seen. Palmer informed the officers that she would need to see the man in person to positively identify him. At trial, Palmer identified the defendant as the man she had seen that morning. Palmer had never seen Mann prior to the morning of the murder, and had not seen him since that time until the day of her testimony.
Officers also spoke with the defendant, who lived about six houses down from the victim and was sitting on his porch the morning of the murder. Mann acknowledged that he knew the victim and said that he and his wife were friends of Wilson and previously had eaten dinner at her home. Mann consented to a search of his house and allowed the officers to take a pair of tennis shoes, some shoe strings, red shorts, and a shirt for further testing. A few days later, the officers obtained a search warrant to collect blood and saliva samples from the defendant.
On July 7, 1993, police investigators asked the defendant and several members of his family to accompany them to the police station for questioning. Although no charges had been brought, the defendant was advised of his constitutional rights. During the initial interview, Mann denied any involvement in Wilson's murder. Mann said that Wilson had been generous to him and his family by providing them meals and allowing them to use her phone. He claimed that he had not even been in the neighborhood at the time of her murder. When confronted with inconsistencies in his alibi, however, Mann admitted that he had broken into Wilson's home and killed her. However, this interview was not tape-recorded due to an oversight 4 by the investigating officers. Though he initially refused, after being allowed to speak with his wife, Mann gave another statement which was recorded.
During this interview, Mann said that he awoke on Saturday, July 3, and decided to walk around his neighborhood. He was wearing red shorts, white "K-Swiss" shoes, and no shirt. He remembered seeing a woman standing in her driveway as he walked through the neighborhood. He stopped for a moment, but continued walking and at some point, decided to go to Wilson's home, intending to steal her television and pawn it to get money to pay his rent. He arrived at Wilson's home at approximately 6:00 a.m. After knocking on the front door several times and receiving no answer, Mann shoved the door open with his shoulder and walked toward the television. When Mann saw Wilson coming out of the bedroom, he grabbed a sheet off the couch, threw it over her head so that she could not see him, and ran towards the front door. When Wilson pulled the sheet off her head and called out his name, Mann ran back and pushed Wilson into the bedroom and onto the bed.
The precise order in which events occurred thereafter is not exactly clear, but the evidence established that Wilson, who was hearing impaired, reached for the box containing her hearing aid. Mann knocked it out of her hand. As Wilson continued to call Mann's name, he grabbed a sheet from the bed, covered her face, and held her down by placing his hand around her neck. At some point while she was on the bed, and before she was struck in the head, Mann tore off Wilson's underwear, digitally penetrated her vagina while masturbating, and ejaculated onto her body. Mann grabbed a ceramic cat statue and struck the victim twice in the head with...
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