State v. Poindexter
| Decision Date | 10 December 1956 |
| Docket Number | No. 43058,43058 |
| Citation | 92 So.2d 390,231 La. 630 |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. James POINDEXTER. |
Sam J. D'Amico, Baton Rouge, Leon A. Picou, Jr., St. Francisville, for defendant-appellant.
Jack P. F. Gremillion, Atty. Gen., M. E. Culligan, Asst. Atty. Gen., Richard Kilbourne, Dist. Atty., Clinton, for appellee.
From conviction of the murder of John H. Green and sentence to death, James Poindexter has appealed.
The accused Poindexter and the deceased Green were both inmates of the Louisiana State Penitentiary and as trusty guards carried arms. In the early morning of July 28, 1955, Green was shot in the back and killed. Poindexter admits the shooting but pleads self-defense, contending that Green reached for his pistol and that he fired one shot at Green as the latter turned away.
After the State had rested its case and while the case was with the defendant, counsel for the defendant wished to place on the stand a witness named Robert Beardon, an inmate of the penitentiary, who was present in the courthouse where the trial was going on. Counsel requested the judge to remove from the courtroom certain penitentiary personnel before this witness was called because, counsel informed the judge, Beardon could not speak freely in the presence of penitentiary personnel. The judge, without questioning counsel or making any inquiry into the matter, promptly refused the request. Counsel for the defendant excepted to this ruling and reserved a bill. At that time counsel informed the court that there were but three penitentiary personnel involved, one of whom was on duty in the court and the other two spectators, and that it would be highly prejudicial to the defense of the accused not to obtain the testimony of the witness Beardon out of the presence of the penitentiary personnel. Further in support of their request, one of defendant's attorneys was sworn as a witness to explain the position of the defense with reference to the calling of Beardon. This attorney testified under oath that the witness Beardon refused to testify in the case because of the presence of penitentiary personnel in the courtroom. Thereupon the district attorney stipulated, and agreed that his stipulation was to form a part of this bill, that one of the defense attorneys had talked to the witness, and that he refused to testify unless the penitentiary personnel were removed from the courtroom.
In their motion for a new trial counsel for defendant strenuously urge, among other things, that the court erred in its ruling denying their request to have the penitentiary personnel removed from the courtroom so that the witness Robert Beardon might be called to testify in defendant's behalf. They attached to this motion an affidavit of Beardon stating, in effect, that he had refused to testify because he was afraid to testify freely on account of the presence of the penitentiary personnel in the courtroom. This affidavit also avers that Beardon was an inmate of the penitentiary, and that on the night of July 27, only a few hours before the killing, he heard the deceased Green threaten the accused Poindexter, telling Poindexter that he would 'straighten him up', that he would kill him, and that one of them 'would did before morning'.
The trial judge in his per curiam tells us that he refused the request of defendant's counsel to have the penitentiary personnel removed from the courtroom because 'such an act by the court would be highly irregular and against custom'. We do not think that the reasons given by the trial judge justify his ruling in law and under the facts of this case. It is our opinion that such a ruling denied to the defendant a fair and impartial trial, in that it denied to him the right to have the jury hear the testimony of the witness Beardon and to give to it such weight as it, the jury, may have thought proper.
It is well settled in the jurisprudence of the United States that a trial judge may, in his discretion, exclude spectators from the courtroom while the testimony of a witness in a criminal case is being taken if such a step appears reasonably necessary to prevent the embarrassment or emotional disturbance of the witness or to enable the witness to testify to facts material to the case. See People v. Jelke, 308 N.Y. 56, 123 N.E.2d 769, 48 A.L.R.2d 1425; Commonwealth v. Principatti, 260 Pa. 587, 104 A. 53; State v....
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...found that she was psychically unable to testify in public about the sexual acts and ordered the trial closed. In State v. Poindexter, 231 La. 630, 92 So.2d 390 (1956), the Louisiana Supreme Court held it reversible error for the trial court to refuse to exclude spectators whose presence wo......
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