Williams v. State

• Decision Date: 23 January 1991
• Docket Number: No. 69147,69147
• Citation: 804 S.W.2d 95
• Parties: Arthur Lee WILLIAMS, Jr., Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 95

804 S.W.2d 95

Arthur Lee WILLIAMS, Jr., Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 69147.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas En Banc.

Jan. 23, 1991.

Rehearing Overruled Feb. 27, 1991.

James Stafford, Carol J. Carrier, Houston, for appellant.

John B. Holmes, Jr., Dist. Atty., and Timothy G. Taft and Keno Henderson, Asst. Dist. Attys., Houston, Robert Huttash, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

Before the court en banc.

OPINION ON REMAND

OVERSTREET, Judge.

The appellant, Arthur Lee Williams, Jr., was convicted of capital murder pursuant to V.T.C.A. Penal Code, § 19.03(a)(1). The death penalty was imposed by the trial court after the jury answered affirmatively the special issues submitted under Article 37.071(b), V.A.C.C.P. This Court on original submission affirmed appellant's conviction and death sentence. Williams v. State, 682 S.W.2d 538 (Tex.Cr.App.1984). Subsequently, appellant requested a writ of certiorari from the United States Supreme Court. The basis of his application to the High Court was that in his direct appeal to this Court he claimed, inter alia, that the "trial court committed reversible error by not quashing the venire where it was shown that the Prosecutor exercised six peremptory challenges against black jurors in violation of appellant's Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment Rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution." This contention was indeed rejected under Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 85 S.Ct. 824, 13 L.Ed.2d 759 (1965), as appellant failed to demonstrate that the exercise of the questioned peremptory challenges were made pursuant a systematic scheme of exclusion.

Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), was decided while appellant's petition for writ of certiorari was pending before the United States Supreme Court. Batson, in essence, held the "State's purposeful or deliberate denial of jury participation to black persons because of race violates a defendant's rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution." Keeton v. State, 749 S.W.2d 861 (Tex.Cr.App.1988). Therefore, the prosecutor's exercise of a peremptory challenge solely on the basis of the venireperson's race is expressly forbidden. Subsequently, the Supreme Court concluded that the dictates of Batson are to be retroactively applied to all cases on direct appeal and to those cases that were not final at the time that the Batson decision was issued. Griffith v. Kentucky, 479 U.S. 314, 107 S.Ct. 708, 93 L.Ed.2d 649 (1987). This case was remanded to this Court and in turn we remanded it to the trial court to conduct what is now commonly called a Batson hearing. Williams v. State, 731 S.W.2d 563 (Tex.Cr.App.1987). The transcription of the Batson hearing and the trial court's pertinent findings of fact and conclusions of law have now been forwarded to this Court for review.

In the case sub judice, the record reveals that appellant, Arthur Lee Williams, Jr., was a black person and no black individual served upon the jury which convicted him of capital murder and answered all the special issues submitted to them at the punishment phase of the trial in the affirmative. It is undisputed that the State had exercised six of their twelve expended peremptory challenges on black members of the venire: Mansfield Nelson, Jennie Henley, Pearlie Keller, Gussie Jones, Wilburn Gibson, and Nan Roque.

The fundamental holding of Batson was set out in Griffith when the Supreme Court opined:

In Batson, id., at 94-99, 106 S.Ct. at 1722-1724, this Court ruled that a defendant in a state criminal trial could establish a prima facie case of racial discrimination violative of the Fourteenth Amendment, based on the prosecution's use of peremptory challenges to strike members of the defendant's race from the jury venire, and that, once the defendant had made the prima facie showing, the burden shifted to the prosecution to come forward with a neutral explanation for those challenges. ¹

Thus, the Supreme Court rejected the "crippling burden of proof" previously required under Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 85 S.Ct. 824, 13 L.Ed.2d 759 (1965), necessary to establish a prima facie case of purposeful racial discrimination in the exercise of the peremptory challenges by the State. However, as in any equal protection case, the burden of production as well as persuasion remains with the appellant who is asserting the claim that the prosecutor engaged in a discriminatory selection process to arrive at the petit jury, and therefore must "prove the existence of the purposeful discrimination." ² See Whitus v. Georgia, 385 U.S. 545, 87 S.Ct. 643, 17 L.Ed.2d 599 (1967). Subsequent to the Batson hearing ordered in this cause, the trial court reviewed the evidence adduced therein, and the record established during the initial voir dire and in pertinent part entered the following findings of fact and conclusions of law:

8. The defendant is an identifiable minority, i.e. black.

9. There were no blacks on the jury that tried the defendant and assessed the death penalty.

10. Six of the State's twelve peremptory challenges were exercised against the following black veniremen: Mansfield Nelson, Jennie Henley, Pearlie Keller, Gussie Jones, Wilburn Gibson and Nan Roque.

11. Although prosecutors Henderson and Davidson both conducted voir dire of the above-referenced veniremen, prosecutor Henderson had ultimate responsibility for exercising the peremptory strikes. Accordingly, Mr. Henderson provided the reasons for the State striking the six black veniremembers. (Hearing, p. 58.)

12. The court finds that the prosecutor's general strategy in selecting a capital jury, including the jury in the instant case, is to accept the first twelve (12) people who can return a death penalty verdict under the unique set of facts presented in the subject case. (Hearing, p. 51). In the case at bar, the prosecutor looked for a juror who was: (a) intelligent; (b) capable of understanding the issues and concentrating on them without outside interference; (c) capable of making an informed decision based upon the evidence; and, (d) not prejudiced against either police officers or the State. (Hearing, pp. 51-54).

13. This court further finds that the above-referenced method of jury selection employed by the prosecutor in the instant case is race-neutral and does not utilize race, creed or color as a means of purposefully or deliberately denying jury participation to any person, including black persons.

14. The prosecutor exercised a peremptory challenge against Mansfield Nelson for the following race-neutral reasons:

(a) Mr. Nelson did not believe in the death penalty under any circumstances and did not believe that a person's life should be taken by lethal injection;

(b) his beliefs against the death penalty were based on personal and religious convictions and were beliefs which he had held for many years;

(c) Mr. Nelson's responses indicated to the prosecutor that Mr. Nelson would find it difficult, if not impossible, to answer the special issues "yes" knowing that the court would assess the death penalty, and would conceivably answer one of the special issues "no" to avoid giving the death penalty, even if he was convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the answer to the special issue should be "yes";

(d) he could not take part in a proceeding where the death penalty was involved and did not want a death sentence "on his conscience";

(e) Mr. Nelson's feelings against the death penalty were strong and indicated that he could not follow or apply the law concerning capital punishment, even if the person charged had killed a half-dozen people;

(f) he became agitated with the prosecutor during the course of the voir dire, leaving the prosecutor with the feeling that he had poor rapport with Mr. Nelson;

(g) during cross-examination by defense counsel, Mr. Nelson changed many of his answers concerning the death penalty, causing the prosecutor to doubt both Mr. Nelson's candor and his ability to follow the law and fairly decide the case upon the facts.

(R. IX, 756-810; Hearing, 54-58).

15. The prosecutor exercised a peremptory challenge against Jennie Henley for the following race-neutral reasons:

(a) Ms. Henley demonstrated a predisposition against the punishment sought by the State when she stated that she preferred life imprisonment over the death penalty and indicated that she would not be able to sleep at night if she participated in a decision that resulted in the death penalty;

(b) she had difficulty understanding simple questions and could not express herself in a coherent manner, problems the prosecutor believed would impair her ability both to understand and apply the law to the facts of the case, as well as her ability to make informed, intelligent decisions;

(c) Ms. Henley referred to "other words" and frequently made no sense, indicating a lack of appreciation for, and understanding of, both the jury's role and the trial process in general;

(d) Ms. Henley had previously served as a juror in a robbery case in which the jury failed to reach a verdict. Her characterization of the robbery case as "no big thing" indicated lack of concern and appreciation for the seriousness of crime, including the instant offense;

(e) she believed that once confronted by another, a person should fight and not worry about whether that person is a police officer, a belief that concerned the prosecutor since a major issue in the instant case was whether the defendant knew the person he killed was a police officer.

(R. XI, 1326-1358; Hearing, pp. 58-62).

16. The prosecutor exercised a peremptory challenge against Pearlie Keller for the following reasons:

(a) the fact that Ms. Keller was unemployed and failed to list any employment history, despite her acknowledgment of three dependents, caused concern about her ties to the community;

(b) Ms. Keller stated that she had asthma, hearing difficulties and three youngsters at...