Title: Glover v. State

State: arkansas

Issuer: Arkansas Supreme Court

Document:

455 S.W.2d 670 (1970) Clyde Ray GLOVER, Appellant, v. The STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. No. 5479. Supreme Court of Arkansas. June 29, 1970. *671 W. B. Howard, and Jack Segars, Jonesboro, for appellant. Joe Purcell, Atty. Gen., Mike Wilson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Little Rock, for appellee. *672 BYRD, Justice. Appellant Clyde Ray Glover was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death for the alleged killing of Judy Evans. The gruesome facts, as related by an accomplice and as told by appellant to his own sixteen year old son, will not be reiterated because the evidence is clearly sufficient to sustain the verdict. In fact the sufficiency of the evidence is recognized in appellant's brief as follows: Because we are reversing the judgment for failure of the trial court to excuse from the jury talesmen Ralph Shoe, Glenn T. Boyd, Wayne L. Britewell and Alvin Jackson White we do not discuss Points IV and VI. They are not likely to arise on a new trial. The record, with respect to talesmen Shoe, Boyd, Britewell and Jackson, is as follows: Juror Ralph Shoe when interrogated by the court stated: When interrogated by defendant's counsel the juror stated: Juror Glenn T. Boyd when questioned by the court said that he had formed an opinion and that he realized whatever he read in the paper was hearsay and if selected as a juror he would disregard it and try the appellant on the evidence he heard in court. But when interrogated by defendant's counsel, he said: Juror Wayne L. Britewell testified as follows: Interrogation by court: Interrogation by appellant's counsel: Interrogation by court: Interrogation by counsel: Juror Alvin Jackson White after interrogation by the court finally stated to appellant's counsel: Both the U. S. Constitution, Amendment No. 6, and the Arkansas Constitution, Art. 2, § 10, guarantee the accused in all criminal prosecutions trial "by impartial jury". In a case involving a sensational killing and newspaper publicity it is almost impossible to find an informed citizen to serve on the jury who has not heard about the case and who has not formed some opinion based upon the newspaper accounts. In such cases it is the duty of the trial court to determine whether an opinion has been formed and whether the jurors can lay aside such opinion and give to the accused the benefit of all doubts that the law requires while trying him on the law and the evidence given to them during the trial. When a venireman states *674 that he can lay aside such preconceived opinions and give to the accused the benefit of the doubts to which he is entitled under law, it is generally conceded that the venireman qualifies as "impartial" under the constitutional requirements. See Rowe v. State, 224 Ark. 671, 275 S.W.2d 887 (1955), where we said: In Irvin v. Dowd, 366 U.S. 717, 81 S. Ct. 1639, 6 L. Ed. 2d 751 (1961), the U.S. Supreme Court, speaking through Mr. Justice Tom Clark, discussed the "impartial" juror requirement in this language: Thus it appears to us that talesmen Shoe, Boyd, Britewell and White, in stating, that they would keep their opinion formed from reading the newspaper until they heard evidence to the contrary, did not qualify as "impartial" jurors within the meaning of either the U.S. Constitution or the Constitution of Arkansas. It follows that the trial court erred in not discharging the four talesmen for cause. The error is clearly before us because the appellant used four of his peremptory challenges on the four talesmen involved and after all of his peremptory challenges were exhausted, he caused the record to show that if he had not been required to so exhaust his challenges on these four talesmen, he would have peremptorily challenged talesman Burns who sat on the jury. In examining the points raised by the appellant, we find no error in the trial court's refusal to quash the search warrant and exclude the evidence obtained thereby. Both the appellant and the state rely on our decision in Walton and Fuller v. State, 245 Ark. 84, 431 S.W.2d 462 (1968), for their respective positions on this point. In Walton we said: It will be noted that while an affidavit for a search warrant may be based upon personal observation of the affiant, it may also be based on hearsay information. When the affidavit is based upon hearsay, the magistrate must be informed of some of the underlying circumstances from which an informant concluded that the object of the proposed search was where he said it was. The rule, as we announced it in Walton, is simply designed to eliminate issuance of search warrants on mere suspicion expressed to the issuing magistrate by affiants based on hearsay. The affiants must give the magistrate the benefit of their personal observation when the warrant is sought on that basis, and the affiant must pass on to the magistrate the facts and circumstances the affiant obtained on hearsay information, when the warrant is sought on that basis. The rule as set out in Walton, goes no further than good common sense directs in the interest of justice and fair play. Neither this court nor any other court, insofar as we have been able to determine, has held that an affiant must prove beyond a reasonable doubt the truth of the contents of his affidavit for a search warrant *676 before a valid search warrant may be issued by the magistrate. The object of the search in the case at bar was a revolving red light and the affidavit states that the officers had reasonable grounds for believing that "a revolving red light, DC current, was owned by Ray Glover and that said revolving red light is now located upon the property and premises of the said Ray Glover on Highway 1 North of Paragould, in Greene County, Arkansas; and that said revolving red light was used upon the highway in this county on or about March 1, 1969, to stop a vehicle driven by one Judy Evans; and the affiants have reasonable grounds for believing said Judy Evans was killed and murdered on that date by Ray Glover together with other person or persons." Now, concerning the information furnished by the officers in their affidavit as to the underlying circumstances from which their informant concluded that the red light was where he said it was; and as to the advice of some of the circumstances from which the officers concluded that the informer was credible or his information reliable, the officers state in their affidavit as follows: We simply hold that the affidavit in the case at bar furnished the magistrate all that it was necessary for him to know, and the court did not err in refusing to quash the search warrant or exclude the evidence obtained thereunder. As to appellant's third point, the State's witness, Peggy Pitcher, admitted that she was involved in civil litigation with the appellant and she readily admitted that she disliked him. Mrs. Pitcher and her husband had purchased a house trailer from appellant which he repossessed with its contents, which Mrs. Pitcher says was purchased from other parties and belonged to her. Mrs. Pitcher's dislike for the appellant and not the reason for her dislike, might have been such cause that would affect her credibility as a witness. Perkins v. State, 168 Ark. 710, 271 S.W. 326 (1925). Mrs. Pitcher had already admitted her dislike for appellant and we find no error in the court's refusal to permit appellant to cross-examine Peggy Pitcher concerning what she had been told about double-dating by her husband and appellant. The offer of proof on this point indicates an obvious effort to prove Peggy Pitcher's bias *677 against appellant. Under offer of proof, Mrs. Pitcher denied that she knew anything about her husband and appellant double-dating with one Alice Cannon and the decedent Judy Evans. We hold that the trial court was in the proper exercise of its discretion in limiting the scope of cross-examination of Peggy Pitcher as to what had been told her about double-dating. We find no merit in appellant's fifth point. There was no objection to Latham's testimony that he was present when the appellant drew a ring off decedent's finger and when appellant subsequently wrapped the ring in masking tape and buried it at the end of a bridge near Corning. Appellant concedes that a picture of Latham, offered in evidence and depicting him showing C.I.D. men where the ring was buried, was not objectionable because its reception would have been harmless, absent the testimony to which the appellant does object. Latham's testimony to which appellant objects appears as follows: We do not follow appellant's reasoning in connection with his objection to this testimony, as we do not consider the testimony of Latham as constituting "acts and declarations after the termination of the conspiracy." Latham simply testified as to what he himself saw and did. In appellant's seventh and last point, we find no error in the trial court's refusal to give appellant's requested Instruction No. 1, which was: *678 Its content was sufficiently covered by other instructions, especially Instruction No. 14, as follows: For the reasons stated in Point II, this matter is reversed and remanded. FOGLEMAN, J., not participating. HARRIS, C. J., and JONES, J., dissenting. JONES, Justice (dissenting). I am unable to agree with the results reached by the majority in this case and I respectfully dissent for two reasons. In the first place, I find nothing in the record before us nor in the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Irvin v. Dowd, 366 U.S. 717, 81 S. Ct. 1639, 6 L. Ed. 2d 751, cited and relied on by the majority, which should make the case at bar immune to the rules this court followed long before the United States Supreme Court ever heard of the Indiana case of Irvin v. Dowd. In the second place, the appellant was not tried by any juror he challenged for cause. In effect, the appellant contends that had he not wasted four of his peremptory challenges on prospective jurors who should have been excused under his challenges for cause he would have exercised a peremptory challenge on a Mr. Burns who sat on the jury but who was not challenged by the appellant for cause. Judy Evans was twenty years of age when the charred remains of her still smouldering body were discovered on the floor of her parents' 1966 Pontiac automobile which was found burning in a gravel pit off a county road in Greene County, Arkansas. Automobile tire and human footprints, together with the position of the automobile and other evidence surrounding the scene, even prior to autopsy, made it perfectly clear that Judy did not die as a result of her own negligence in the operation of her automobile, as someone had obviously attempted to make it appear. The physical evidence, even prior to the multiple skull fractures revealed on autopsy, pointed unmistakably to a stupid and thinly veiled effort to submerge the crime of murder in a crime of arson, and to destroy all evidence of the former by cremation aided by an ample supply of gasoline generously applied. James Allen Latham and Clyde Ray Glover were soon apprehended and charged with the crime of murdering Judy Evans. From the record before us the above facts are all that any prospective juror knew, or could have known, prior to the trial of this case. At the trial, Latham admitted his part in the murder and explained in gruesome detail how Glover felt that Judy knew too much about automobile thefts, as well as house burglaries and arson in which Glover and others, including the witness, were involved. Latham explained in detail how he and Glover used a revolving red light to apprehend and stop Judy on the highway; how Glover drove Judy's automobile to a little used road while he followed in the automobile he and *679 Glover were using; how Glover started "pecking" at Judy in her automobile and how Judy ran to the automobile occupied by Latham and sought his protection against Glover, whom she erroneously thought to be drunk. Latham then gave a blow by blow description of how Glover beat Judy unconscious with his fist and how when she revived, he beat her head with an automobile bumper jack until they thought she was dead; how then, when they noticed that her heart was still beating, Glover pulled her head over by her hair and beat her head some more with the bumper jack, remarking at the time that it didn't bother him a bit. Latham explained how he, at Glover's request, went for the four gallons of gasoline he had purchased several days before for the purpose of cleaning an automobile part. Latham explained how they placed Judy's body upright in the automobile with her foot on the accelerator; how they then accelerated the automobile into the gravel pit; how they saturated the automobile and Judy's body with gasoline and how Glover ignited the gasoline. He related in minute detail how he and Glover disposed of the loot from Judy's purse. They divided the small change and he chewed the chewing gum. Latham testified as to how he helped Glover clean the blood from Glover's black leather coat. He described how Glover prepared and buried a ring he took from Judy's finger before they set her body on fire, and how he led the officers to the ring where he had seen Glover bury it. Latham attempts to explain his own participation in this crime by asserting his physical fear of Glover, but he denies that his testimony was prompted to any degree at all by his fear of the electric chair. Latham's testimony was fully corroborated by circumstantial evidence and the testimony of other witnesses, including that of Randy Ray Glover, the appellant's own sixteen year old son, who testified that on the day following the ghastly night's work related by Latham, his father casually remarked that they had killed Judy Evans and had missed some money because she had not cashed her pay check. Such was the nature of the crime committed, and such was the nature of the testimony offered by the state. The appellant heard all of the testimony offered against him by the state in grisly detail and he failed to deny that he said and did everything the state's witnesses testified that he said and did. The burden was on the state to prove that Glover was guilty as charged and, of course, Glover was well within his rights in not testifying in his own defense. In failing to testify, or offer any other evidence to contradict the testimony of the state's witnesses however, the appellant leaves the state's evidence uncontradicted and unimpeached except as to such lack of credibility that may attend the casual commission of such a ghoulish crime by individuals who claim all the rights and privileges of civilized men; and such lack of credibility that may attend the testimony of an admitted thief and accessory to such crime. Unlike the case of Irvin v. Dowd, supra, relied on by the majority, there is no evidence that any of the jurors, or any of the prospective jurors, heard anything at all about the details of Judy's murder until they heard it from the witnesses at the trial of the case. In so far as the record reveals, all they knew or could have known, was that Judy had been murdered and her body burned in her automobile; but the record does not reveal that they even knew she had been murdered. Unlike Irvin v. Dowd, the record is silent in the case at bar as to what was published in the newspapers from which the jurors could have formed opinions. I fully agree with Glover and the majority of this court that Glover was entitled to a fair and impartial trial, but I do not agree with Glover and the majority of this court that Glover did not receive a fair and impartial trial. Glover contends, and the majority agrees, that the trial court erred in overruling appellant's challenges for cause to the talesmen Ralph Shoe, Lynn T. Boyd, Wayne L. Britewell, and Alvin Jackson *680 White. Each of these gentlemen stated on voir dire that they had formed opinions as to the guilt or innocence of the appellant by reading newspapers and hearing the case discussed by people in general, none of whom were witnesses or purported to actually know anything about the case. The news articles and the substance of general discussion are not in the record, but under questioning by the court these gentlemen stated that they could and would lay aside the opinions they had formed and render their verdict according to the law as instructed by the court and the evidence as presented at the trial. Under examination by appellant's counsel, these prospective jurors stated that it would take some evidence to change the opinion they had formed. They were not asked, nor did they state, what their opinions were; neither did they sit on the jury before whom the appellant was tried. These jurors were summarily discharged by the appellant through the exercise of his peremptory challenges. The appellant's actual contention, therefore, is that the trial court committed prejudicial error by causing him to waste four of his twelve peremptory challenges on talesmen who should have been discharged for cause. This contention is ingeniously conceived and expertly presented; it has apparently impressed the majority of this court. The majority points out that the appellant caused the record to show that if he had not been required to exhaust his peremptory challenges on the four talesmen, he would have peremptorily challenged talesman Burns who did sit on the jury. It appears to me that if the appellant had been as concerned with the qualifications of juror Burns, as he now appears, he would have at least challenged Burns for cause, if he felt that Burns was not qualified, instead of asking for additional peremptory challenges which the law does not, and the court can not, give. In Rowe v. State, 224 Ark. 671, 275 S.W.2d 887, the first eight assignments of error related to the court's action in permitting jurors to serve when, from the defendant's point of view, the answers given on their voir dire disclosed prejudice, fixed opinion as to the defendant's guilt, or were in some position or relationship calculated to influence jury action irrespective of the evidence. In passing on the "fixed opinion" assignment in that case, this court said: In Leggett v. State, 227 Ark. 393, 299 S.W.2d 59, the crime, as in the case at bar, was a sensational one. The assignment of error relating to the selection of the jury was so near on all fours with the case at bar, I feel justified in quoting fully from our opinion in that case on the point involved, as follows: In the case of Howell v. State, 220 Ark. 278, 247 S.W.2d 952, error was assigned in the court's refusal to dismiss on voir dire examination one L. L. Mack as one of the jurors, and particularly in view of the fact that all peremptory challenges were exhausted by appellant before the full jury was finally selected. Mr. Mack was asked and answered questions in that case as follows: The Court then asked: In that case this court said: Presumptions may attend the source of information from which a juror may form an opinion as was clearly set out in the case of Rush v. State, 238 Ark. 149, 379 S.W.2d 29. In that case Fred Rush was being tried for the murder of his stepfather, Paul Rush, who owned and operated a furniture company in Fort Smith. On voir dire examination one of the veniremen stated that he rented a building to the furniture company and had discussed the case with *682 an employee of the company who was also listed as a witness in the case, and that he (the venireman) had an opinion which would take evidence to remove. He also stated that he could set aside his opinion and try the case on the law and on the evidence introduced at the trial. The defendant challenged the qualification of the venireman but the trial court held that he was qualified. In holding that the trial court erred, this court distinguished between opinions formed by reading newspaper accounts and hearing the case discussed generally, and opinions formed as a result of discussing the case with a prospective witness, in the following language: As we said in Stout v. State, (1970), 448 S.W.2d 636, and later in Pointer v. State, (1970), 454 S.W.2d 91, an accused does not have the right to have a jury of his choice from the panel selected, but an accused only has the right to a competent, fair and impartial jury. As stated in Stout, the privilege of peremptory challenge in selecting a jury is not a right of selection, it is a privilege of rejection. 47 Am.Jur.2d, Jury, § 233. I recognize, as I think everyone must, that intelligent inquiring minds acquire ideas and form opinions from what is read and heard, and that practically every law-abiding citizen is prejudiced to varying degrees against crime and criminals. Consequently, in the selection of a jury to try a criminal case, the important question is not so much whether a juror has formed an opinion or is prejudiced; the important question is whether the citizen, when carrying out his duties as a juror, can lay aside his opinions and prejudices and give the accused a fair trial. An accused is not entitled to a trial before a jury of robots, he is entitled to a trial before honest jurors who are intelligent enough to recognize their own opinions and prejudices and honest enough to say so if they are unable to fairly and impartially try the accused. I feel that the majority have overreacted to the United States Supreme Court decision in Irvin v. Dowd, supra, and have let the results reached by the court on the facts in that case stand as a solemn mandate and rigid rule of law to be applied and followed in the case at bar under an entirely different set of facts. In other words, it appears to me that the majority are reading more into the decision in Irvin v. Dowd, than I am able to read out of it. In the Irvin case it is perfectly clear that the news media had fanned the flames of normal prejudice against crime and criminals to the point where mere opinions were converted into fixed and established facts, and reason was consumed, lost or abandoned in the process; even the reason of prospective *683 jurors. In other words, the newspapers had successfully kindled a fire of public opinion against Irvin and then fanned and fed the flame until no amount of cold reason could cool its searing effect, and nothing less than the life of Irvin could extinguish it. Such was the situation in the Irvin case, but such was not the situation in the case at bar. As I view the decision in the Irvin case, it is actually a scorching, and well deserved indictment of the news media, aided and abetted by a sheriff and a prosecuting attorney, in pre-trying Irvin to the extent that he stood convicted before trial, not only for the crimes with which he was charged in Indiana, but for all the crimes and misdemeanors ever committed by him or of which he was ever accused. The syllabus alone in Irvin v. Dowd, sets it poles apart from the case at bar for it contains the following statement: Irvin was accused of murdering six people; he was tried and convicted in Indiana and his case reached the United States Supreme Court by certiorari. The build up of prejudice through the newspapers in Irvin v. Dowd, went much further than the average person would conceive that responsible news media would go. As pointed out by Mr. Justice Clark, it was alleged, in the motion for a new trial, that curbstone opinions were solicited and recorded by the newspapers on the public streets and not only as to the appellant's guilt, but even to what punishment he should receive. A barrage of newspaper headlines, articles, cartoons and pictures were unleashed against the appellant during six or seven months preceding his trial. The news stories revealed the details of the appellant's background including reference to crimes committed when he was a juvenile, his convictions for arson almost 20 years previously, for burglary and by a court martial on AWOL charges during the war. He was accused of being a parole violator. The headlines announced his police lineup identification; that he faced a lie detector test, had been placed at the scene of the crime, and that the six murders were solved but petitioner refused to confess. The newspapers later announced his confession to the six murders and the fact of his indictment for four of them in Indiana. They reported petitioner's offer to plead guilty if promised a 99-year sentence, but also the determination on the other hand of the prosecutor to secure the death penalty, and that petitioner had confessed to 24 burglaries (the modus operandi of these robberies was compared to that of the murders and the similarity noted). One story dramatically relayed the promise of a sheriff to devote his life to securing petitioner's execution by the state of Kentucky, where the petitioner was alleged to have committed one of the six murders, if Indiana failed to do so. Another article characterized petitioner as remorseless and without conscience but also as having been found sane by a court-appointed panel of doctors. In many of the stories petitioner was described as "the confessed slayer of six," a parole violator and fraudulent-check artist. Petitioner's court-appointed counsel was quoted as having received "much criticism over being Irvin's counsel" and it was pointed out, by way of excusing the attorney, that he would be subject to disbarment should he refuse to represent Irvin. On the day before the trial the newspapers carried the story that Irvin had orally admitted the murder of Kerr (the victim in the case) as well as "the robbery-murder of Mrs. Mary Holland; the murder of Mrs. Wilhelmina Sailer in Posey County, and the slaughter of three members of the Duncan family in Henderson County, Kentucky." On the second day of Irvin's trial, which was devoted to the selection of the jury, the newspapers reported that "strong feelings, *684 often bitter and angry, rumbled to the surface," and that "the extent to which the multiple murders three in one family have aroused feelings throughout the area was emphasized Friday when 27 of the 35 prospective jurors questioned, were excused for holding biased pretrial opinions. * * *" A few days later the feelings were described as "a pattern of deep and bitter prejudice against the former pipe fitter." Spectator comments, as printed by the newspapers, were "my mind is made up"; "I think he is guilty"; and "he should be hanged." The news reporting in Irvin v. Dowd was almost as revolting as the crime itself in the case at bar, and certainly I have no quarrel with the results reached in Irvin under the facts of that case. In Irvin we have only the facts as reported through the news media, and in the case at bar we have only the facts as testified by witnesses at the trial of the case. An additional important distinction stands out in Irvin in the following language: The important and decisive point in Irvin v. Dowd, as well as further distinction from the case at bar, is stated in Irvin v. Dowd. as follows: In my opinion the court in Irvin v. Dowd, indicates it would probably have reached a different result had the facts in that case been such as we have in the case at bar. Quoting from Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145, 155, 25 L.Ed 244, the court in Irvin v. Dowd, states: I fail to find authority, or even a suggestion in Irvin v. Dowd, that would justify us, on the facts in the case at bar, in abandoning the procedure we have followed in our own cases, supra, and adopting as a procedural rule of law, the results reached by the United States Supreme Court on the bizarre facts of an Indiana case completely different and foreign to the facts in the case at bar. I would continue to follow the rules we have heretofore followed, and continue to inquire in each given case, whether the application of the rule works a deprivation of the prisoner's life or liberty without due process of law. In the case at bar, I am convinced that it did not. I would affirm the trial court on all points.