Jackson v. StateJackson v. State
- Reporters:
- , ,
- Before:
- Felton
The defendant was convicted of rape with no recommendation of mercy, thereby receiving a death sentencе by law. He appeals from the judgment denying his motion for new trial, containing 22 special grounds, and enumerates as error: (1) The оverruling of his motion for new trial as amended, (2) The denial of his motion for a change in venue, (3) The court’s refusal to allow defеndant or his counsel to appear before the grand jury to present evidence and to cross examine witnesses who appeared before it, (4) The exclusion of veniremen who stated their opposition to the death penalty, (5) The simultaneous submission to the jury of the issues of guilt and punishment, the statute permitting same being unconstitutional, (6) The court’s permitting the death penalty to be imposed upon defendant in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, (7) The court’s permitting the deаth penalty to be unequally applied to defendant because of his race (Negro), (8) The court’s failure to grant a thоrough psychiatric examination of defendant.
In support of his motion for a change in venue, the defendant introduced in evidence nine local newspaper articles published during the month of October, 1968, prior to the December 10, 1968, trial of thе case. A reading of the articles reveals that all are merely factual accounts of the events in which the defendant allegedly participated and that the defendant was consistently reported to have been “accused” оr “allegedly” guilty of various crimes, rather than actually to have committed the crimes. The report of the angry reactiоn of the local residents to the failure of the prison and police of
The court did not err in refusing to allow defendant or his counsel to appear before the grand jury to present evidence and to cross examine witnesses. The defendant was not on trial at this stage of the proceedings and therefore this refusal denied him neither the right of confrontation (Harper v. State, 131 Ga. 771, 773 (63 SE 339); Duke v. United States, 90 F2d 840, 841, cert. denied, 302 U. S. 685, rehearing denied, 302 U. S. 649), nor equal protection of the laws. Buchanan v. State, 215 Ga. 791, 792 (113 SE2d 609). Enumerated error 3 is without merit.
Under Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U. S. 510 (88 SC 1770, 20 LE2d 776) the trial court did not err in excluding for cause those prospective jurоrs who unmistakably answered that their reservations toward capital punishment were such that they would never vote to impose the death penalty regardless of the facts in the case. Whisman v. State, 224 Ga. 793 (164 SE2d 719); Hakala v. State, 225 Ga. 629 (1) (170 SE2d 406). Cf. Miller v. State, 224 Ga. 627, 636 (163 SE2d 730). Enumerated error 4 is without merit.
Code Ann.
§ 26-1302 (Ga. L. 1960, p. 266) is not subject to the constitutional attacks presеnted that it violates the Eighth and the Fourteenth Amendments to the Federal Constitution by simultaneously submitting the issues of guilt and punishment to the same jury аnd imposing the death penalty on one convicted for rape.
Miller v. State,
224 Ga. 627, 630,
It is contended in enumerated error 8 that the defendant was denied due process and equal protection of the laws by the court’s ordering of a psychiatric examination of the defendant, in connection with his special plea of insanity, by a court-appointed psychiatrist, rather than one selected by the defendant or his counsel. An expert witness appointed by the court for a sanity examination of a defendant may not be regarded as a prosecution witness, but is instead a witness for the court, and the denial of a defendant’s request to furnish a psychiatrist at public expense to assist the defense, when the court-appointed doctor has reported the defendant is sane, has been held not to constitute a denial of due process. McCarty v. O’Brien, 188 E2d 151 (1 Cir. 1951), affirming 96 FSupp. 704, cert. denied, 341 U. S. 928 (71 SC 794, 95 LE 1359), rehearing denied, 341 U. S. 957 (71 SG 1005, 95 LE 1378); United States v. Baldi, 192 F2d 540 (3rd Cir. 1951), affirmed, 344 U. S. 561 (73 SC 391, 97 LE 549). The professional qualifications of the court-appointed psychiatrist are stated in the record and are unchallenged. The basing of the psychiatrist’s opinion of sanity merely upon an oral interview of about one hour does not show an inadequate examination, since the witness testified that this is the normal time such an examination takes, that he had obtained the past history from the defendant during the interview and that, in his opinion, in this partiсular defendant’s case, no written or other tests were necessary. This enumerated error is without merit.
Appellant apрealed from the judgment overruling his motion for a new trial, enumerated as error generally the overruling of said motion as amended, and enumerated as error specifically some, but not all, of the special grounds of said motion. His failure to arguе in this court, either orally or by brief, the
While the general grounds of the motion for a new trial were technicаlly waived for the foregoing reason, nevertheless, in a capital felony case such as this one, we feel constrаined to rule on them, even though they have not been properly argued. See Dixon v. State, 224 Ga. 636, 637 (163 SE2d 737). An examination of the record reveals that the verdict was amply authorized by the evidence, which shows that the defendant was apprehended just one block аway from the scene of the crime only a few hours after its perpetration and was positively identified by the victim and by his fingerprints inside the victim’s home.
The court did not err in its judgment overruling the motion for a new trial for any of the reasons assigned.
Judgment affirmed.
All the Justices concur.