Title: Street v. State

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

96 So. 2d 686 (1957)
George Perry STREET
v.
STATE of Alabama.
8 Div. 898.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
June 27, 1957.
Howell T. Heflin, Tuscumbia, for petitioner.
John Patterson, Atty. Gen., and Robt. P. Bradley, Asst. Atty. Gen., opposed.
GOODWYN, Justice.
We granted certiorari to review the decision of the Court of Appeals in Street v. State, 96 So. 2d 680. The writ was granted to review that portion of the Court of Appeals' opinion holding that the remarks of the solicitor in his argument to the jury were not comments upon defendant's failure to testify, in violation of § 305, Tit. 15, Code 1940, as amended by Act No. 124, appvd. June 23, 1949, Acts 1949, p. 150. We quote the following from the opinion of the Court of Appeals, viz.:
It is apparent that the solicitor, in making the statements, was referring to a written statement or confession signed by appellant which had been introduced in evidence.
The position taken by petitioner is that the State's evidence with respect to the statement or confession could have been denied only by the defendant; that the remarks of the solicitor could have only referred to the defendant; and that, therefore, the remarks were clearly a reference to the failure of the defendant to testify.
*687 In Broadway v. State, 257 Ala. 414, 60 So. 2d 701, 702, the solicitor made the following statement:
In commenting on the propriety of this remark, this court said:
It is difficult to see how the solicitor's remarks could reasonably be interpreted other than as referring to the failure of defendant himself to take the stand and deny the confession. It is certainly not the usual thing for witnesses to a written confession to be produced by the defendant to disprove its execution. In the instant case the confession was witnessed by the sheriff and two police officers. These and the defendant are the only persons who might reasonably be expected to be called as witnesses to prove or disprove its execution. The sheriff did not testify but the two police officers testified to the execution of the confession. To say that the remarks were intended to reflect only on the failure of defendant to produce the sheriff as a witness to deny the execution is beyond our reach. In this case the only person who could be expected to deny the confession was the defendant. Being so, his failure to deny clearly means his failure to testify. It seems to us that this interpretation of the remarks is one naturally flowing from them under the circumstances. And we do not think we would be justified in assuming that the jury did not give to the remarks the same interpretation.
We are constrained to hold, in the light of the circumstances, that the remarks of the solicitor were violative of § 305, Tit. 15, as amended, supra, and that the judgment of the Court of Appeals is due to be reversed and the cause remanded to that court.
Judgment of Court of Appeals reversed and the cause remanded to that court.
All the Justices concur except STAKELY, J., not sitting.