Case Title: Lester v. State

Citation: 121 So. 2d 110

Docket Number: 

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 1960-06-02T00:00:00Z

Document:
121 So. 2d 110 (1960)
David E. LESTER
v.
STATE of Alabama.
1 Div. 878.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
June 2, 1960.
*111 MacDonald Gallion, Atty. Gen., and Geo. D. Mentz, Asst. Atty. Gen., for petitioner.
Harry Seale, Mobile, opposed.
COLEMAN, Justice.
David E. Lester was convicted of murder in the second degree and appealed to the Court of Appeals. That court reversed because of error in a portion of the oral charge of the trial court to which exception was reserved. The State now applies for certiorari and complains that the Court of Appeals erred because that court failed to consider the entire oral charge and also misconstrued the meaning of the phrase "burden of proof."
In brief the State quotes at length from Jones on Evidence (5th Edition), Vol. 1, §§ 204 and 205. A portion of the quoted text recites as follows:
"`The modern authorities are substantially agreed that, in the strict primary sense, "burden of proof" signifies the duty or obligation of establishing, in the mind of the trier of facts, conviction on the ultimate issue; * * *.
"`In its secondary sense, the expression "burden of proof" signifies the duty that rests upon a party of going forward with the evidence at any given stage of the casealthough eminent authority holds that this is, or should be, its primary sense. * * *'"
That portion of the oral charge held erroneous by the Court of Appeals recites in part:
In brief, the State argues:
We do not think a jury can be expected to understand that a trial court means one thing at one time when it says "burden of proof" and a different thing at another time when the court again uses the identical phrase. We do not think the Court of Appeals has misconstrued the meaning of "burden of proof." See the cases cited in the opinion of that court.
The State insists that the portion of the oral charge held erroneous by the Court of Appeals was rendered innocuous by the following portion of the oral charge which immediately followed the portion excepted to and which was not set out by the Court of Appeals, to wit:
We are not persuaded that the last quoted portion of the oral charge is itself a clear and correct statement of the law.
A plea of self-defense in a criminal trial is not an affirmative plea of confession and avoidance on which defendant has the burden of proof as he does on such a plea in a civil case. Because he who asserts must prove, the party who takes the affirmative of an issue has the burden of proof. On trial of an issue of fact, if the evidence is evenly balanced, the party on whom the burden of proof rests must lose. What is the duty of the jury if the evidence is evenly balanced on the issue of self-defense? This court has said:
We are not unmindful that in McGhee v. State, 178 Ala. 4, 12, 59 So. 573, this court expressly overruled the holding in Henson v. State, supra, to the effect that refusal of charge 2 was error because the charge failed to set out the elements of self-defense, but in so doing the court said:
This court has not departed from the rule that if from all the evidence the jury have *113 a reasonable doubt whether defendant acted in self-defense the jury should acquit. In 1955 this court said:
The following statements appear in the books:
It is clear that if the evidence on the issue of self-defense is evenly balanced, the jury should acquit, and although the evidence preponderates against self-defense, the jury should acquit if "all the evidence raises in the minds of the jury a reasonable doubt as to whether or not [he] acted in self-defense." Henson v. State, supra [112 Ala. 41, 21 So. 81]. How can the defendant ever be required to carry the "burden of proof" on the issue of self-defense under the rule above stated? We are of opinion that defendant does not have the "burden of proof" as to self-defense, as the phrase "burden of proof" is used in charges to the jury.
In the oral charge here, considering that part insisted on by the State as well as the part condemned by the Court of Appeals, the court is charging both ways on a proposition of law. As the Court of Appeals noted, the charge is confusing because the jury would not know whether the burden of proof is on defendant as stated *115 in one part of the charge, or on the State as stated in another part of the charge. In Ex parte Williams, 213 Ala. 121, 104 So. 282, all the Justices concurred in an opinion where Somerville, J. wrote for the court concerning self-defense as follows:
The fault of the charge in the case at bar is that the court tells the jury that "burden of proof is on defendant" and then tells the jury that "When the defendant has proven * * * the burden shifts to the State * * * etc.," which are conflicting and erroneous statements. Moreover, the clause, "* * * if he is required under the law to prove the same, * * *" does nothing to clarify the conflict as to where the burden of proof on the issue of self-defense really rests.
Writ denied.
LAWSON, SIMPSON, STAKELY and MERRILL, JJ., concur.