Strickland v. State
Decision Date | 12 May 1952 |
Docket Number | No. 17835,17835 |
Citation | 209 Ga. 65,70 S.E.2d 710 |
Parties | STRICKLAND v. STATE. |
Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court.
1. On the trial of a person charged with murder, the instruction given by the court, in answer to a question by the foreman of the jury, as to the probability of one serving a life sentence being released by the Parole Board after serving 7 years, was, under the circumstances of this case, calculated to influence the jury against a recommendation of mercy, and a new trial must be granted.
2. Where a new trial is granted, a complaint that the court unduly coerced the jury into reaching a verdict will not be considered, it being unlikely that such will occur on a retrial. Nor will the general grounds of the motion for a new trial be passed upon.
Robert J. Duffy, Savannah, for plaintiff in error.
Andrew J. Ryan, Jr., Sol. Gen., Sylvan A. Garfunkel, Thomas M. Johnson, Assts. Sol. Gen., Savannah, Eugene Cook, Atty. Gen., Rubye Jackson, Atlanta, for defendant in error.
Robert Remer Strickland, on the trial of an indictment for the murder of James Lawton Lewis, was found guilty without a recommendation, and sentenced to death by electrocution. His motion for new trial as amended was overruled, and the case is here on a bill of exceptions assigning error on this order.
1. Special ground A of the motion for a new trial assigns error on a recharge of the court to the jury. The record discloses that the case was submitted to the jury about 4 o'clock p. m., and, after they had been considering the case for about 3 hours, the court called the jury to the courtroom, and after inquiry as to whether they had been able to reach a verdict, the foreman informed the court that they had been unable to agree. After informing the court that the question bothering them was one of fact and not of law, the foreman asked the following question: The court thereupon replied:
Complaint is made that the court instructed the jury that where one is sentenced to life imprisonment, he would be 'entitled' to a parole after serving 7 years, when as a matter of fact and law, under the rules of the Board of Pardons and Paroles, he would only become 'eligible' for a parole; the charge was misleading, confusing, and prejudicial, in that the jury were led to understand that, if the defendant was given a life sentence, he would serve only 7 years, and such charge was the moving cause of the jury returning a verdict without a recommendation of mercy; that, at the time the recharge was given them, the jury had been unable to agree upon a verdict, and after the recharge, upon their retiring, they reached a verdict in 6 minutes, finding the defendant guilty without a recommendation; that the erroneous statement that, if the jury were to give a life sentence, the defendant would be entitled to a parole in 7 years, was the cause of their returning a verdict of guilty without a recommendation.
We are of the opinion that under the ruling in Thompson v. State, 203 Ga. 416, 47 S.E.2d 54, 55, this instruction was harmful and prejudicial error requiring the grant of a new trial. In that case, the defendant had been convicted of murder without a recommendation of mercy. After the jury had been out for a considerable length of time, they were called in by the court in regard to their progress in reaching a verdict, and a recharge was given by request of the jury on the subject of recommendation of mercy. They were called in a second time, but requested no instruction. At this time, the following took place: ...
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...by enacting a statute forbidding any jury argument concerning commutation or parole. Ga.Code Ann. § 27-2206. See Strickland v. State, 209 Ga. 65, 70 S.E.2d 710 (1952) (cases discussed therein). In 1958 the New Jersey Supreme Court reversed a line of decisions which had approved of jury cons......
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