Whitaker v. State

• Decision Date: 16 July 1980
• Docket Number: No. 36070,36070
• Citation: Whitaker v. State, 246 Ga. 163, 269 S.E.2d 436 (Ga. 1980)
• Parties: WHITAKER v. The STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

Page 436

269 S.E.2d 436

246 Ga. 163

WHITAKER v. The STATE.

No. 36070.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Argued May 13, 1980.

Decided July 16, 1980.

Jerry Boykin, Macon, John W. Karr, Washington, D. C., Walter James Gordon, Hartwell, for appellant.

Dupont K. Cheney, Dist. Atty., Arthur K. Bolton, Atty. Gen., Harrison Kohler, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

MARSHALL, Justice.

The appellant was indicted in Tattnall County for the murders of a correctional officer and two fellow inmates, and for aggravated assaults upon two officers, arising out of a racially motivated riot and attempted prison break at the state prison in Reidsville. By the parties' consent, the venue was changed to Evans County. This appeal is from the convictions of three counts of murder, with three consecutive life sentences, and one count of simple battery and one count of simple assault, with two 12-month sentences to be served concurrently with the life sentences.

1. Enumerated errors, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 and 43 are deemed waived by failure to be supported by argument or citation of authority under Rule 45 of this court. 242 Ga. 1009, Code Ann. § 24-4545.

2. In enumerated errors 6 through 14, the appellant challenges the quantum of the evidence which the trial court ordered turned over to him after an in camera inspection, pursuant to Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963) and its progeny. Pursuant to the court's order, the state provided the appellant with: his own statements; the criminal records of the state's witnesses; 51 exculpatory statements; the names, pictures, nicknames, and location of all inmates housed in B-1 and B-2 dormitories (two of those involved in the alleged crimes) at the state prison; the appellant's medical files, classification and admission summary, and psychological report; and a floor plan of the west side of the prison.

"The Constitution does not require police to provide a defendant with all police investigatory work, and the mere possibility that an undisclosed item of information might have helped the defendant or might have affected the outcome of a trial, is not sufficient . . . under Brady v. Maryland . . ." Taylor v. State, 243 Ga. 222, 223, 253 S.E.2d 191 (1979). The material made available to the appellant met or exceeded the requirements of Brady, supra. The appellant has not shown the existence of any material required to be disclosed under Brady that was not so disclosed.

3. Enumerated error 15 is the denial of the appellant's motion for funds to hire investigators, and to obtain psychological and psychiatric expert witnesses.

"The granting or denial of a motion for appointment of expert witnesses lies within the sound discretion of the trial court. Unless there has been an abuse of discretion, the trial court's ruling will be upheld." Patterson v. State, 239 Ga. 409, 412, 238 S.E.2d 2 (1977). At trial, the appellant was represented by four retained counsel, who had a salaried investigator work on the case. The ACLU of Georgia provided $6,402.29. The National Jury Project provided $4,394 plus 260 hours of volunteer time. The Anti-Death Penalty Project had its legal worker and paid interns working for the appellant on this case. A large number of witnesses, many of whom were experts, testified in the appellant's behalf. Teams of volunteers conducted telephone surveys in two counties. The above, plus the material made available pursuant to the Brady motion, constituted an adequate investigation, discovery and representation.

4. Enumerated errors 21 through 36 contend that the appellant's voir dire of the jury was unduly restricted in various specified particulars. The only aspect of the alleged limitation which is argued, however, is that pertaining to determination of possible racial prejudice.

The record does not support the contention of either the restriction of voir dire concerning, or the existence of, racial prejudice. The state objected only to one question to one juror regarding race, which required the juror to prejudge the evidence. There were no objections to any of the appellant's other questions concerning race. A trial court is not required to permit questions regarding race in a particular form, or to permit a specific number of questions simply because of the desire of the accused. Ham v. South Carolina, 409 U.S. 524, 527, 93 S.Ct. 848, 850, 35 L.Ed.2d 46 (1973). ¹ Under the above circumstances, we cannot say that there was any abuse of discretion in the conduct of the voir dire.

5. In enumerated errors 44, 45 and 48, it is contended that the trial court unduly restricted cross-examination of GBI Agent Butler concerning statements taken by the agent from inmates and others who were present at the prison on the day in question, and erroneously excluded those statements from evidence. The appellant argues that the effect of this and similar rulings was to prevent him from showing that he had been singled out for prosecution, not because of substantial evidence inculpating him, but rather because he emerged during the latter phase of the attempted prison outbreak as a vocal and visible spokesman for other inmates.

Although defense counsel stated in oral argument that the state had objected to these statements on the grounds of relevancy, the record is clear that the ground of the objection was hearsay. Nevertheless, the judge permitted Agent Butler to testify that inmates World, Walls, Diaz, Gay, Evans and Cobb had given statements which did not implicate the appellant. Thus, in spite of the fact that the appellant cites no exception to the hearsay rule whereunder these statements were admissible, the appellant was given the benefit of their admission at the expense of the state's right of confrontation and cross-examination. We find no error harmful to the appellant.

Notwithstanding the appellant's argument that the prosecution was motivated by considerations unrelated to the question of his guilt or innocence of the crimes charged, the evidence, including the testimony of eyewitnesses, supports the verdict.

6. In enumerated error 46, the appellant complains of the admission in evidence of 23 photographs taken at the autopsies of the three murder victims.

"This court has held many times that photographs of the victim of a crime are admissible, where they are relevant on the issues in the case, although they may be inflammatory and prejudicial to the accused." Edwards v. State, 233 Ga. 625, 627, 212 S.E.2d 802 (1975). See also Florence v. State, 243 Ga. 738, 741, 256 S.E.2d 467 (1979); Mooney v. State, 243 Ga. 373, 394(6), 254 S.E.2d 337 (1979) and cits. In the present case, with three murder victims with 167 different wounds, the 23 photographs were not an excessive number to establish the cause of death.

7. It is contended in enumerated error 47 that defense counsel was erroneously denied the opportunity to demonstrate to the jury the actual value of certain promises made to inmate witnesses by the prosecution in exchange for their testimony.

It is undisputed that the only promise made was that such inmate-witnesses would be transferred from Georgia State Prison if they so desired. The state complied with the requirements of Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 92 S.Ct. 763, 31 L.Ed.2d 104 (1972), by informing the jury of the state's promise before each witness testified. The appellant contends that he should have been allowed to go into great detail as to the alleged despicable conditions at the prison so as to illustrate the value of the promises. However, three of these witnesses testified that the prisons to which they had been transferred had more privacy, less violence, and were safer than Georgia State Prison. We do not find that the trial court abused its discretion by refusing to allow the appellant to present additional witnesses to testify to the conditions at the prison. This enumeration is without merit.

8. Enumerated errors 49, 50 and 51 pertain to the contention that the appellant was prevented from presenting his theory of the case to the jury, i. e., that he was singled out for prosecution because of his visibility as a spokesman. We have dealt with this issue in Division 5, hereinabove.

9. In a statement to GBI Agent Butler, the appellant said that he had seen two white inmates stabbed. This statement was admitted in evidence without objection. However, during cross-examination by the prosecutor, the appellant repudiated that statement and testified that he had seen only one "white boy that got stuck." In enumerated error 52, the appellant complains of the court's refusal to admit in evidence the written portion of his earlier statement, as to the contents of which the prosecutor had cross examined him.

We do not agree that the trial judge refused to allow evidence of this statement to be admitted. The appellant's statement was read into evidence, and the jury was instructed that it could ask the court to replay the statement if necessary. The refusal to allow the written statement to be admitted could not have been harmful to the defense. Cf., Proctor v. State, 235 Ga. 720, 723, 221 S.E.2d 556 (1975) and cits. This...