State v. Ramsey

• Decision Date: 11 November 1946
• Docket Number: 39998
• Citation: 197 S.W.2d 949,355 Mo. 720
• Parties: State v. Van Lee Ramsey, Appellant
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

197 S.W.2d 949

355 Mo. 720

State v. Van Lee Ramsey, Appellant

No. 39998

Supreme Court of Missouri

November 11, 1946

Rehearing Denied December 9, 1946.

Appeal from Circuit Court of City of St. Louis; Hon. Wm. B Flynn, Judge.

Affirmed.

Silas E. Garner for appellant; Wm. H. Hutchinson of counsel.

(1) The selection of the grand jury did not protect rights of negroes and the indictment was a nullity and the information issued in its place was invalid. Akins v. State of Texas, 65 S.Ct. 1276; State v. Horn, 79 S.W.2d 1044; Sec 843, R.S. 1939; Norris v. Alabama, 294 U.S. 587; State v. Logan, 111 S.W.2d 110. (2) Was Ramsey's confession a free and voluntary act? Was there any other evidence against him other than the confession on which to predicate a conviction? Did the court properly instruct the jury and was the proper cross-examination of Sgt. Cliffe cut off? Chambers v. State of Florida, 60 S.Ct. 472, 309 U.S. 227; Enoch v. Commonwealth of Va., 126 S.E. 222; Wood v. United States, 128 F.2d 265; Bram v. United States, 168 U.S. 532; Ashcraft v. State of Tenn. 64 S.Ct. 921. (3) Were the statements made to the newspaper representative competent in view of the circumstances under which the confession was made? (4) Did the Assistant Circuit Attorney on voir dire bind the jury to the death penalty? State v. Pinkston, 97 S.W.2d 1048. (4) The court did not err in overruling Assignment No. 3 of defendant's motion for new trial, which is as follows: (5) "The Court overruled challenges for cause that should have been sustained, because of fixed opinions as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant." Sec. 4125, R.S. 1939; State v. Tomasitz, 144 Mo. 86, 45 S.W. 1106; State v. Harrison, 263 Mo. 642, 174 S.W. 57. (6) The court did not err in overruling Assignments numbered 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 14 of defendant's motion for new trial (these assignments all deal with the defendant's statement or confession). Sec. 4125, R.S. 1939; State v. Ellis, 193 S.W.2d 31; Ashcraft v. Tennessee, 322 U.S. 143, 64 S.Ct. 921, 88 L.Ed. 1192; Lyons v. Oklahoma, 322 U.S. 596, 64 S.Ct. 1208, 88 L.Ed. 1481; State v. Butts, 349 Mo. 213, 159 S.W.2d 790; State v. Gibilterra, 342 Mo. 577, 116 S.W.2d 88; State v. Golden, 353 Mo. 585, 183 S.W.2d 109; State v. Barrington, 198 Mo. 23, 95 S.W. 235; State v. Hoskins, 327 Mo. 313, 36 S.W.2d 909; State v. Gibilterra, 342 Mo. 577, 116 S.W.2d 88; State v. Williamson, 339 Mo. 1038, 99 S.W.2d 76; State v. Gibilterra, 342 Mo. 577, 116 S.W.2d 88; State v. Brooks, 92 Mo. 542; State v. Clark, 147 Mo. 20, 47 S.W. 886; State v. Thomas, 250 Mo. 189, 157 S.W. 330; State v. Baker, 278 S.W. 987; State v. Hancock, 340 Mo. 918, 104 S.W.2d 241. (7) The court did not err in refusing to permit defendant's counsel to argue to the jury what the Supreme Court of the United States has said constitutes a voluntary confession. State v. Johns, 124 Mo. 379, 27 S.W. 1115; State v. Fitzgerald, 130 Mo. 407, 32 S.W. 1113; State v. Dent. 170 Mo. 398, 70 S.W. 881.

J. E. Taylor, Attorney General, and W. Brady Duncan, Assistant Attorney General, for respondent.

(1) The substitute information is in proper form, follows the language of the statute and properly charges murder in the first degree. Sec. 4376, R.S. 1939; State v. Cole, 174 S.W.2d 172; State v. Kenyon, 343 Mo. 1168, 126 S.W.2d 245. (2) The court did not err in overruling defendant's motion to quash the indictment, because the grand jury was improperly constituted. Secs. 843, 3903, 3904, R.S. 1939; State v. Pinkard, 318 Mo. 751, 300 S.W. 748; State v. Short, 337 Mo. 1061, 87 S.W.2d 1031; State v. Crane, 202 Mo. 54, 100 S.W. 422; State v. Washington, 242 Mo. 401, 146 S.W. 1164; State v. Christopher, 327 Mo. 1117, 39 S.W.2d 1042; Carter v. Texas, 177 U.S. 442, 20 S.Ct. 687, 44 L.Ed. 839; Williams v. State of Mississippi, 170 U.S. 213, 18 S.Ct. 583, 42 L.Ed. 1012. (3) The court did not err in overruling Assignment No. 2 of defendant's motion for new trial, which is as follows: "Because defendant has never been properly charged with murder in the 1st degree nor any other degree because the indictment, for which the information against him was substituted was and is a nullity, for the reasons mentioned in assignment one, of this motion, and for the further reason, said indictment is and was void because it was defective as a matter of substance in that it does not and did not fix the time of the death of the victim, and for the further reason it was not signed by the Circuit Attorney." Sec. 3953, R.S. 1939. (8) The court did not err in overruling defendant's demurrer, filed at the close of the State's case; it was also error to overrule defendant's renewed demurrer at the close of the entire case. State v. Lebo, 339 Mo. 960, 98 S.W.2d 695; State v. Lyle, 353 Mo. 386, 182 S.W.2d 530; State v. Skibiski, 245 Mo. 459, 150 S.W. 1038; State v. Knowles, 185 Mo. 141, 83 S.W. 1083. (9) The court did not err in overruling Assignment No. 11 of defendant's motion for new trial, which is as follows: "It was error for the Court to permit the Circuit Attorney and the Assistant Circuit Attorney to obligate the prospective jurors, on their voir dire examination to the death penalty in the event they found defendant guilty." State v. Pinkston, 336 Mo. 614, 79 S.W.2d 1046; Sec. 4058, R.S. 1939. (10) The court did not err in refusing to permit counsel for defendant to cross-examine witness Walter Cliffe, concerning newspaper articles and other questions as set out in Assignment No. 12 of defendant's motion for new trial. State v. Loahmann, 58 S.W.2d 309; State v. Stuart, 316 Mo. 150, 289 S.W. 822; State v. Wahl, 137 Mo.App. 651, 119 S.W. 453. (11) The court did not err in overruling defendant's motion to quash the jury panel, because of alleged inflammatory articles appearing in a newspaper. Secs. 4060, 4061, R.S. 1939; State v. Biswell, 352 Mo. 698, 179 S.W. 61; State v. Walton, 255 Mo. 232, 164 S.W. 211.

OPINION

Hyde, J.

Defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death. He has appealed from the judgment imposing this sentence.

Defendant was found guilty of the murder of Lena A. Davidson by stabbing her in the throat while attempting to rob her. Miss Davidson, nineteen years old, was employed as a waitress in a lunch room at Grand Avenue and Natural Bridge Avenue in St. Louis. She worked from 4:00 P.M. to 1:00 A.M. On the morning of May 1, 1945, after finishing work, she boarded a street car there, about 1:27 A.M., and rode to Grand and Meramec. She got off the car there to go to her room on 37th Street, walking alone to the corner of Osceola and Grace Avenues.

Mrs. Iza L. Bishop, who lived at 4328 Grace (on the corner) and Arthur J. Krings, who lived at 4312 Grace, were awakened by screams between 1:30 and 2:00 A.M. From her window, Mrs. Bishop saw a woman reeling and tottering and then fall to the sidewalk. She ran out into the yard and saw a man come up, stoop and peer at the girl on the ground. When she appeared, he went north to an automobile which was parked on the west side of Grace Avenue headed south. He backed the car to turn around in Grace Avenue and head north. In doing so, he backed against a light standard causing the globe to fall off and break. Mrs. Bishop immediately called the police. Mr. Krings also saw the automobile back against the light standard, which was directly across the street from his house, and drive away without lights.

The police arrived about 2:00 A.M. Radio calls were received by two police cars at 1:58 A.M. They found Miss Davidson dead from a deep stab wound in her throat. They identified her by articles in her purse, which was near her body. Later her body was identified at the morgue by a woman with whom she had lived and also by her mother. The lamp post, which had been struck by the car, was observed and it was found that there was a long scrape mark on it and an indentation below the scrape mark. Defendant was arrested on July 10th and the car he was driving was placed against this lamp post. It was found that marks on the rear bumper of the car matched the scrape mark on the post; and that the exhaust pipe, which was bent, fitted the indentation on the post. A butcher knife with a four inch blade was found under the seat cover of the driver's seat. When this knife was shown to defendant at police headquarters he fainted.

On the evening of the day he was arrested, defendant signed a written confession in question and answer form. An assistant circuit attorney asked the questions and these, together with defendant's answers, were written on the typewriter by a police officer in the presence of outside witnesses and newspaper reporters. The following account of the crime of May 1, 1945 appears from this confession. Defendant worked until midnight at the St. Louis Malleable Casting Company. He left in his car, a blue 1936 Pontiac coach which he had owned since December 1944, and while on Grand Avenue he saw Miss Davidson alone on the street car. He followed the car to Meramec, where she got off and walked west on Grand. When he saw her turn up Osceola, he got out of his car and met her. He told her "this was a stickup, take it easy, and she started hollering," and struck him with her pocketbook. Then he stabbed her "around the right side of her neck." He said that after she fell and "while laying down she turned over on her face." He said he thought he heard someone open a door and started to leave. Then he did not hear anything and "started back to see how bad she was hurt." "Then somebody did come out of a house door there" and he "went on and got back into the car, started the motor, backed up," hitting the lamp post.

After the confession was signed, defendant went with the officers to show them his movements on the night of the crime. He showed them...