State v. Perkins

• Decision Date: 26 May 1947
• Docket Number: 38457.
• Citation: State v. Perkins, 211 La. 993, 31 So.2d 188 (La. 1947)
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE v. PERKINS.

31 So.2d 188

211 La. 993

STATE v. PERKINS.

No. 38457.

Supreme Court of Louisiana

May 26, 1947

Rehearing Denied June 16, 1947.

Appeal from Nineteenth Judicial District Court Parish of East Baton Rouge; Charles A. Holcombe Judge.

A P. Tureaud, of New Orleans, and Louis Berry, of Baton Rouge, for defendant-appellant.

Fred S. LeBlanc, Atty. Gen., M. E. Culligan, Asst. Atty. Gen., Dewey J. Sanchez, Dist. Atty., and B. B. Croom, Asst. Dist. Atty., both of Baton Rouge, for the State.

McCALEB Justice.

Jessie Perkins, a negro, was indicted, tried and convicted for the crime of aggravated rape upon a white woman and was sentenced to death by electrocution. He has appealed.

The record reveals that, during the course of the proceeding below, Perkins reserved two bills of exception. One of these bills, which was taken to the refusal of the judge to grant a new trial on the allegation that the verdict of the jury was contrary to the law and the evidence, has been abandoned inasmuch as it presents nothing for review. The other bill was taken to the action of the trial judge in denying a motion to quash the indictment, the general venire and the grand and petit jury panels on the ground that members of the negro race had been arbitrarily and systematically excluded from jury service solely because of their race and color. This claim of discrimination is founded upon an alleged violation of Article 172 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Article I, Section 2 of the Louisiana Constitution and the Equal Protection Clause contained in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

A legion of cases involving alleged racial discrimination in selection of grand and petit juries are to be found in the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of the United States and this court. These adjudications have settled all legal problems here presented and they have been many times cited and discussed by us in kindred matters. State v. Gill, 186 La., 339, 172 So. 412; State v. White, 193 La. 775, 192 So. 345; State v. Dorsey, 207 La. 928, 22 So.2d 273. Hence a comprehensive review of the authorities would be superfluous. Suffice it to say that the Supreme Court of the United States has declared, in substance, that equal protection of the law requires that a colored person shall be afforded an opportunity to have members of his race serve upon the grand and petit jury in cases involving his life or liberty and, therefore, any denial of this guarantee, either by a law which does not provide a fair mode of selection or by officers who systematically administer a valid law so as to accomplish gross inequalities, cannot be countenanced. See Hill v. State of Texas, 316 U.S. 400, 62 S.Ct. 1159, 86 L.Ed. 1559 and our comparatively recent decision in State v. Anderson, 205 La. 710, 18 So.2d 33, where a lengthy review of much of the jurisprudence is set forth. In every case, the basic question for determination is whether there has been a discrimination, either by statute or by practice of the officers charged with administration of the Law. And, as said by the Supreme Court of the United States in Smith v. State of Texas, 311 U.S. 128, 61 S.Ct. 164, 166, 85 L.Ed. 84: 'If there has been discrimination, whether accomplished ingeniously or ingenuously, the conviction cannot stand.'

In the matter at hand, counsel for appellant concede that our statutes, relative to the qualification of persons for jury service and the procedure for the selection of juries, are fair and that no racial discrimination will occur if they are administered properly. ^[1] But counsel contend that the Jury Commission for the Parish of East Baton Rouge has not administered the laws fairly and impartially.

The pertinent allegations of the motion to quash the indictment are that the general jury venire was illegally drawn for the reason that the Jury Commission deliberately and systematically excluded the names of negroes therefrom solely because of their race; that the jury Commissioners have indulged in this practice over a period of years, it being their policy and custom to select one negro from each drawing of petit jurors as a sham to make it appear that they complied with constitutional and lawful mandates; that said Commission devised a system of employing two jury boxes, one containing the names of white persons qualified for jury duty and the other containing the names of a few negroes and that, when the petit juries were drawn, 29 names would be taken out of the jury box containing the names of white persons and the name of one negro drawn out of the box containing the names of negroes.

The foregoing charges are of a most serious nature and, if true, would exhibit unconscionable acts practiced by the Jury Commissioners emanating solely from racial prejudice. However, an examination of the record reveals that appellant did not offer a word of proof to sustain the specific allegations of wrongdoing on the part of the Jury Commissioners set forth in the motion to quash. His counsel acknowledge that he had the burden of proving the charges of discrimination as it is well settled that, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, it will be presumed that the list selected by the Jury Commission has been compiled fairly and not with any view of discrimination on account of race or color. See State v. Gill, supra and State v. Pierre, 198 La. 619, 3 So.2d 895.

Since appellant utterly failed to offer any proof of the specific allegations of fact contained in the motion to quash, we examine the evidence tendered by him to sustain his general charge that negroes have actually been excluded from jury service in the Parish of East Baton Rouge on account of their race and color. In support of this contention, appellant placed three members of the jury commission, viz., Mr. J. M. Cadwallader, Mr. St. George Hines and Mr. J. D. Reynolds on the stand as witnesses in his behalf.

Mr. Cadwallader stated that he has been a member of the Jury Commission for approximately two years; that, during his tenure, the general venire list has been made up of persons selected from the Parish registration list of voters; that he was sure that the names of negroes were placed on each general venire list but that he, personally, could not recall that he had ever submitted the name of a colored man. He denied that there was any discrimination in the selection of negroes for jury service maintaining that each list contained the names of negroes.

The testimony of Mr. Hines is that he has been a Jury Commissioner for about two years; that, during that period, he has personally submitted the names of negroes for jury service but is unable to state the number submitted by him; that there has been no discrimination whatever by the Jury Commissioners and that it has been the policy of the Commission to select negroes as well as whites for both grand jury and petit jury service. To the same effect is the testimony of Mr. J. D. Reynolds.

While it is difficult to see that the statements of the above named Jury Commissioners can be regarded as proof supporting appellant's general charge of exclusion of negroes from jury service, the evidence tendered by the State makes it apparent that the allegations of discrimination was mere fancies of the pleader not founded on the slightest sort of accurate information. Mr. S. Y. Watson Clerk of Court and Ex Officio member of the Jury Commission of East Baton Rouge Parish for 15 years, testified that it has been the policy of the Commission to select all juries from the registration rolls; that those rolls show that there are...