Title: Barnes v. State

State: mississippi

Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court

Document:

457 So. 2d 1347 (1984) Rachel Henderson BARNES v. STATE of Mississippi. No. 55109. Supreme Court of Mississippi. October 31, 1984. *1348 T. Larry Wilson, Ransom P. Jones, III, Pascagoula, for appellant. Edwin Lloyd Pittman, Atty. Gen. by Walter L. Turner, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee. Before ROY NOBLE LEE, P.J., and DAN M. LEE and ROBERTSON, JJ. DAN M. LEE, Justice, for the Court: This appeal stems from a shooting incident which occurred in front of Freeman's Bar in Pascagoula. As a result of that shooting the appellant, Rachel Henderson Barnes was found guilty in the Circuit Court of Jackson County of the murder of Audrey Faye Malone Stevens. Ms. Barnes was subsequently sentenced to a term of life imprisonment in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. It is undisputed that Ms. Barnes fired the two pistol shots which killed Ms. Stevens; however, there is considerable dispute as to who the aggressor was at the time of the shooting. Four of the state's witnesses testified that Stevens made no threatening actions toward Barnes. Three other witnesses, including Barnes, testified that Stevens provoked Barnes and attacked her with various implements including a knife and liquor bottles. Obviously, Barnes' claim that she shot Stevens in self defense was critical to her case. For that reason she objected to, and now assigns as error, the granting of Instruction S-5 which reads: On numerous occasions this Court has cautioned that an instruction such as S-5 is to be given only in exceedingly rare circumstances *1349 where the facts of the case meet all of the elements necessary to cut off a defendant's right to claim self defense. In McMullen v. State, 291 So. 2d 537 (Miss. 1974) this Court addressed the issue and held: 291 So. 2d at 540, 541. The state contends that Barnes armed herself in the afternoon after she received a phone call telling her that Stevens had been sitting on Barnes' boyfriend's lap at another bar earlier in the day. The state's theory is explained by Mr. Guirola of the district attorney's office in his argument urging the granting of Instruction S-5: Theory without proof simply cannot support the granting of an instruction. Our review of the record leads us to the conclusion that the state failed to support its theory with evidence. The state never established at what point Barnes armed herself, indeed the only testimony in that regard is that of Barnes herself. She stated that she took her gun with her when she left her house early in the morning the day of the shooting. She testified that she did so because she knew she would be out late *1350 and that she had been robbed on several prior occasions. There is simply no evidence to suggest that she armed herself after receiving a call reporting her boyfriend's and Stevens' activities. Based on the foregoing we are of the opinion that the facts of this case do not warrant it being labeled one of those "few, very rare, cases" wherein an instruction depriving the accused of asserting a claim of self defense should have been granted. Therefore, we hereby reverse and remand this cause to the Circuit Court of Jackson County for proceedings consistent with this opinion. We find no merit to the other assignments of error; however, upon retrial we caution all the attorneys involved as to what we said in Scott v. State, 446 So. 2d 580 (Miss. 1984) and its progeny, about instructions such as S-4: 446 So. 2d at 584. REVERSED AND REMANDED. ROY NOBLE LEE, P.J., and BOWLING, HAWKINS, PRATHER, ROBERTSON and SULLIVAN, JJ., concur. WALKER, P.J., dissents. PATTERSON, C.J., not participating.