Case Name: Thomas HUDSON v. J. D. McADORY, Sheriff of Hinds County, Mississippi
Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 1972-11-06
Citations: 268 So. 2d 916
Docket Number: No. 47224
Parties: Thomas HUDSON v. J. D. McADORY, Sheriff of Hinds County, Mississippi.
Judges: GILLESPIE, C. J., and SMITH, ROBERTSON and BROOM, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 268
Pages: 916–927

Head Matter:
Thomas HUDSON v. J. D. McADORY, Sheriff of Hinds County, Mississippi.
No. 47224.
Supreme Court of Mississippi.
Nov. 6, 1972.
Rehearing Denied Dec. 4, 1972.
John R. Poole, W. E. Gore, Jr., Jackson, for appellant.
A. F. Summer, Atty. Gen. by J. B. Gar-retty, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for ap-pellee.

Opinion:
SUGG, Justice.
Appellant was bound over without bail to await the action of the Grand Jury on the charge of murder after a preliminary hearing in the County Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi. Bail was also denied appellant by a Circuit Judge of Hinds County after a hearing on his petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
Appellant raises two issues on his appeal as follows:
(1) Since the United States Supreme Court has abolished capital punishment under existing statutes, the Mississippi Constitution gives a right to bond in all cases.
(2) Appellant's wife was not a competent witness against him, and without such testimony his guilt is not evident nor the presumption great within the meaning of the Constitution, and he is entitled to bail.
In three cases, Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (1972); Jackson v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (1972); and Branch v. Texas, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (1972), the United States Supreme Court in a five to four decision held that the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty in the cases before it constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. In its order the Court stated:
The judgment in each case is therefore reversed insofar as it leaves undisturbed the death sentence imposed, and the cases are remanded for further proceedings. (Decision rendered June 29, 1972.) (408 U.S. at 239, 92 S.Ct. at 2727, 33 L.Ed.2d at 350.)
Chief Justice Burger in the opening paragraph of his dissenting opinion summarized the holding of the majority of the Court in their separate opinions as follows :
At the outset it is important to note that only two members of the Court, Mr. Justice Brennan and Mr. Justice Marshall, have concluded that the Eighth Amendment prohibits capital punishment for all crimes and under all circumstances. Mr. Justice Douglas has also determined that the death penalty contravenes the Eighth Amendment, although I do not read his opinion as necessarily requiring final abolition of the penalty. For the reasons set forth in Parts I-IV of this opinion, I conclude that the constitutional prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishments" cannot be construed to bar the imposition of the punishment of death,
Mr. Justice Stewart and Mr. Justice White have concluded that petitioners' death sentences must be set aside because prevailing sentencing practices do not comply with the Eighth Amendment. For the reasons set forth in Part V of this opinion, I believe this approach fundamentally misconceives the nature of the Eighth Amendment guarantee and flies directly in the face of controlling authority of extremely recent vintage. (Decision rendered June 29, 1972.) (408 U.S. at 375, 92 S.Ct. at 2796-2797, 33 L. Ed.2d at 427-428.)
The decision binds this Court to the extent that statutes of Mississippi providing for capital punishment in certain classes or categories of crime are constitutionally unenforceable.
Appellant contends that since the infliction of the death sentence for murder constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the exception from granting bail for capital offenses contained in Article 3, Section 29 of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890 is thereby nullified because capital offenses no longer exist. Stated differently, appellant urges that Section 29 should be construed to read, "Excessive bail shall not be required, and all persons shall, before conviction, be bailable by sufficient sureties."
Since the establishment of the Mississippi Territory the provision for bail for all persons before conviction except for capital offenses when the proof is evident or presumption great, now appearing in Section 29 of the Mississippi Constitution has been an integral part of the law of this State.
A brief review of history reveals that, by an Act dated April 7, 1798, the Congress of the United States authorized the President to establish in the Mississippi Territory a government in all respects similar to that then exercised in the territory northwest of the Ohio River.
In Street v. State, 43 Miss. 1 (1870), this Court stated:
Perhaps the original of the section in our bill of rights, and in the constitutions of nearly all the states, is a clause in the ordinance of 1787 for the government of the territory northwest of the river Ohio. This ordinance was mainly prepared by Mr. Jefferson, it is said. The words of the ordinance are: "All persons shall be bailable, unless for capital offenses, where the proof shall be evident or the presumption great." . . . (43 Miss. 1 at 25.)
By Act of Congress of the United States adopted March 1, 1817, the inhabitants of the western part of the Mississippi Territory were authorized to form for themselves a Constitution and state government and to assume a name for the state; that such state when formed be admitted into the union upon the same footing with the original states, in all respects; that a constitutional convention should be held on the first Monday of July, 1817 in the town of Washington to form a constitution and state government.
As authorized by this Act of Congress, a convention was held and the Constitution of 1817 was the result thereof. Section 17, Article 1 of the Constitution of 1817 contained the following provision:
That all prisoners shall, before conviction, be bailable by sufficient securities, except for capital offences, when the proof is evident or the presumption great; and the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it.
This Court in Street, supra, pointed out that under the common law, the court of kings' bench and the judges authorized to hear and determine a case on habeas corpus had the power and discretion to grant •bail to all persons for all offenses, without regard to the degree of the crime or the nature of the punishment. This power to grant bail in a capital case was as unquestioned under the common law as when the punishment did not reach to the life of the accused.
The constitutional provision under consideration in its present form and as originally incorporated in the jurisprudence of the Mississippi Territory changed the common law in two important aspects: (1) Judges could not refuse bail in cases less than capital before conviction, and (2) judges could not grant bail before conviction in capital cases when the proof was evident or the presumption great.
During the time that Mississippi was a territory and at the time of the adoption of the Constitution of 1817 many crimes were punishable by death. See Mississippi Statutes 1816, pages 212, 213, 214, 216, 218 and 220. In all cases punishable by death, no lesser punishment was permitted until 1875 when the Legislature adopted an act authorizing a jury to declare the punishment could be life imprisonment rather than death. See Ex Parte Fortenberry, 53 Miss. 428 (1876).
The Legislature has, from time to time, changed the offenses which are punishable by death, and at the time of the decision of Furman, supra, the following crimes were punishable by death in Mississippi: Murder, Section 2217 Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (1956); Unlawful Use of Explosives, Section 2143 Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (1956); Rape, Section 2358 Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (1956); Kidnapping, Section 2238 Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (1956); Treason, Section 2397 Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (1956); Armed Robbery, Section 2367 Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (1956); Accessories Before the Fact to the Above Crimes, Section 1995 Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (1956).
Since the death penalty provision of the Mississippi Homicide Statute is unenforceable under the holding of Fur-man, supra, there is thrust upon this Court the question of deciding whether or not bail shall be denied before conviction in "capital offenses when the proof is evident or the presumption great."
Appellant urges that he is automatically, as a matter of right, entitled to bail before conviction because he is being held on a charge of murder which is no longer a capital offense. We are thus asked to hold meaningless the words "capital offenses" as they appear in Section 29 of our Constitution. If the words are meaningless in the constitutional provision under consideration, it is equally as logical to hold that said words and similar words are also meaningless as they appear in numerous statutes of this State.
Matters pertaining to procedure, punishment and rights of persons charged with "capital crimes" or "capital offenses," have been adopted from time to time by the Mississippi Legislature. If we hold that the term "capital offenses" as used in Section 29 of the Constitution has been nullified, unprecedented and unforeseen results would follow in construing the statutory law of this State where the same or similar terms are used. A few of the statutes that would be affected are discussed hereinafter.
If the contention of appellant were followed to a logical conclusion the number of peremptory challenges prescribed by Section 2520 Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (1956) would be reduced from twelve to six, thus taking away from an accused a valuable right.
Section 1795 Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (1956) provides that any person charged with a capital crime or with the crime of manslaughter is entitled to a special venire. Section 2505 Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (1956) provides that persons indicted for capital crime shall have the right before the completion and drawing of a special venire to have a copy of the indictment and the list of the special venire summoned for his trial delivered to him or his counsel at least one entire day before the trial.
If we were to hold that capital crimes or capital cases referred to those only where the death penalty can now be inflicted, consistency would require us to deprive a defendant of the right of a special venire in cases formerly capital, but grant one if the charge was the lesser offense of manslaughter.
A logical extension of the argument of appellant would have the effect of deleting the special oath for jurors in "capital cas es" as provided by Section 2507 Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (19S6); would change the requirement of Section 2514 Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (1956) providing that a motion for severance of persons jointly indicted for "capital cases" must be made before ordering a special ve-nire; would repeal by judicial decision Section 2512 Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (1956) which provides that a motion for change of venue in "capital cases" must be made before drawing a special ve-nire ; would limit the appointment of counsel for indigent persons charged with a "capital case" to one, instead of two as permitted by Section 2505-02 Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (1956); would reduce the fees that could be paid attorneys representing indigent defendants in a "capital case" from $1,000 to $500.
Under Section 2017 Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (1956), which has been a part of the law of this State in varying form since Hutchinson's Code of 1848; one charged with attempting to commit a capital offense may be punished by imprisonment in a penitentiary not exceeding ten years. The statute further provides that for other offenses the attempt to commit such offense shall be punished for a period, or for an amount, not greater than is prescribed for the actual commission of the offense so attempted.
A consistent holding that capital offenses did not refer to a classification of crimes would affect the sentence of one convicted of attempted murder so that the sentence would be life imprisonment rather than for a term not exceeding ten years, thus increasing the sentence, not by an Act of the Legislature, but by judicial decision.
The same situation would result under the armed robbery statute which provides that one convicted of robbery by the exhibition of a deadly weapon shall be punished by death if the penalty is so fixed by the jury, but where the jury fails to fix the penalty at death, the Court shall fix the penalty at imprisonment at the penitentiary for any term not less than three years. Thus, by judicial determination, rather than legislative enactment, the penalty for attempting to commit armed robbery would be changed, from a term of not more than ten years, to a term not less than three years, which would make it possible for one convicted of an attempt to commit armed robbery to be sentenced for a term of fifty years, or more.
It therefore becomes apparent that it is necessary to retain the classification "capital offenses," "capital crimes" and similar references so that utter chaos and confusion in the administration of criminal justice would not be the result of the abolition of the death penalty in certain classes and categories of crimes.
Appellant strongly urges that we should follow the reasoning of the recent case of State of New Jersey v. Johnson, 61 N.J. 351, 294 A.2d 245 (1972), construing Article 1, Paragraph 11 of the Constitution of New Jersey which is substantially the same as Section 29 of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890.
The New Jersey court held that since the death penalty was invalidated by Fur-man, the New Jersey Constitution requires that all persons must be released on bail before conviction. The court further held that release on bail is not simply a formal or automatic matter, but enumerated factors to be considered in fixing the amount of bail, which factors if considered, when granting bail would insure the presence of the accused at his trial.
The only two states that have passed on the question presented to this Court have reached different conclusions. New Jersey in a decision after Furman, supra, has construed its constitution as permitting bail in all offenses before conviction. California in People v. Anderson, infra, a pre-Fur-man case, in a footnote reserved the right for further consideration of preconviction bail in capital cases, but denied bail in offenses formerly punishable by death, because the underlying gravity of the offenses endured and the determination of their gravity for the purpose of bail continued unaffected by its decision.
We are of the opinion that the proper approach is to apply the term "capital offenses," and similar terms appearing in our statutes, as a term designating a class of cases where the Legislature has authorized the infliction of the death penalty.
We are of the opinion that such treatment is necessary, not only to preserve and give meaning to the statutory law of this State, but also because neither Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the provision for bail for the government of the Northwest Ter- ' ritory, later incorporated as a part of the government of the Mississippi Territory, nor the framers of any of the Constitutions of the State of Mississippi which all contained a similar provision, had any foreshadowing of the possibility that a court would declare the death penalty constitutionally unenforceable.
In the recent case of P.eterson v. State, 268 So.2d 335, No. 46,821, we stated: "Punishment is essentially a legislative question", but also recognized that this Court had the power and authority to review punishment prescribed by the Legislature to determine if such punishment is permissible under our Federal and State Constitutions.
Historically the term "capital offense" has meant an offense punishable by death and in the recent case of Shorter v. State, 257 So.2d 236 (Miss. 1972) this Court stated:
Any case where the permissible punishment is death is a capital case, and in such cases the state and the defendant are each entitled to twelve peremptory challenges. Section 2217, Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (1956).
The Constitution of Mississippi neither defines the term "capital offenses" appearing in Section 29 thereof, nor prescribes the punishment for these or any other crimes; therefore, the designation of "capital offenses" was left to the Legislature. The Legislature has done this by prescribing the death penalty as punishment for certain crimes. This designation by the Legislature is as effective today as before Furman. The classification of crimes as capital is a legislative rather than a judicial function.
In order to retain the constitutional plan for the designation of capital offenses, we hold that a capital case is any case where the permissible punishment prescribed by the Legislature is death, even though such penalty may not be inflicted since the decision of Furman, supra.
Appellant's second assignment of error is without merit because if the testimony of the ex-wife of appellant is excluded, there remains sufficient evidence to support the finding on the petition for writ of habeas corpus that the proof was evident or the presumption great.
The record shows that, at the time of the homicide, appellant and his wife were divorced and appellant had appealed the divorce case to this Court. The record does not reflect whether such appeal is from the granting of the divorce, or if it is from the provisions of the decree dealing with alimony, child custody and support of such children.
Since the parties were divorced at the time of the homicide, the wife was competent to testify as to the acts of the husband.
For the foregoing reasons the denial of the writ of habeas corpus is affirmed.
Denial of writ of habeas corpus affirmed.
GILLESPIE, C. J., and SMITH, ROBERTSON and BROOM, JJ., concur.
RODGERS, P. J., and JONES, PAT- TERSON and INZER, JJ., dissent.
. Excessive bail shall not be required, and all persons shall, before conviction, be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for capital offenses when the proof is evident or presumption great.
. Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That in all cases where any person, or persons, upon conviction of crime, shall, or may be punished with death, the jury may, in their discretion, in their verdict, declare that the penalty, or punishment, shall be imprisonment in the Penitentiary for life; but if the jury shall omit to so declare the penalty in their verdict, then the Court shall pronounce the death penalty. (Acts of 1871, page 79.)
. Section 2017 Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (1966).
Every person who shall design and endeavor to commit an offense, and shall do any overt act toward the commission thereof, but shall fail therein, or shall be prevented from committing the same, on conviction thereof, shall, where no provision is made by law for the punishment of such offense, be punished as follows: If the offense attempted to be committed be capital, such offense shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not exceeding ten years; if the offense attempted be punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary, or by fine and imprisonment in the county jail, then the attempt to commit such offense shall be punished for a period or for an amount not greater than is prescribed for the actual commission of the offense so attempted.
. In capital eases the defendant and the state shall each be allowed twelve peremptory challenges. In cases not capital the accused and the state each shall be allowed six peremptory challenges; but all peremptory challenges by the state shall be made before the juror is presented to the prisoner; and in all cases the accused shall have presented to him a full panel before being called upon to make his peremptory challenges.
. When any person charged with a capital crime, or with the crime of manslaughter, shall have been arraigned and the plea of not guilty entered, it shall be the duty of the court, upon the demand of the accused or the district attorney, to cause to be drawn, in open court, from the jury-box as many names as the judge in his discretion may direct, not to be less than forty; and it shall be the duty of the clerk to issue a special venire facias, commanding the sheriff to summon the persons whose names are so drawn, to attend the court on a particular day to be named in the writ; and in case the special venire be exhausted without a jury being impaneled from those summoned and in attendance, the court shall proceed to make up the jury for the trial of the case from the regular panel and tales jurors who may have been summoned for the day; and if, after exhausting said regular panel and tales jurors, a competent jury be not obtained, the court shall direct the sheriff to summon forthwith as many tales jurors as shall be sufficient to complete the jury.
And in the event that there should be no such box, or the same should be mislaid, or the names therein have been exhausted, then the court may order a special venire facias to be issued by the clerk, directing the sheriff to summon as many jurors as may be necessary, not less than forty, and, after exhausting the same, to impanel the jury as hereinbefore directed; and the slips containing the names of all jurors drawn or summoned on a special venire, and not impaneled on the jury, shall be returned to the box from which they were drawn immediately after the jury shall be impaneled; and if the special venire be not demanded, the jury shall be composed of the regular venire for the week and as many talesmen and bystanders as may be required, to be summoned under the order of the court.
.Any person indicted for a capital crime shall, if demanded by him by motion in writing before the completion of drawing of the special venire, have a copy of the indictment and list of the special venire summoned for his trial delivered to him or his counsel at least one (1) entire day before said trial.
. Inasmuch as today's decision is fully retroactive, any prisoner now under a sentence of death, the judgment as to which is final, may file a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the superior court inviting that court to modify its judgment to provide for the appropriate alternative punishment of life imprisonment or life imprisonment without possibility of parole specified by statute for the crime for which he was sentenced to death. Petitions should be filed in the court of territorial jurisdiction in the first instance and transferred by that court to the sentencing court in the event the court with territorial jurisdiction was not the sentencing court.
The issue of the right to bail in cases in which the law has heretofore provided for the death penalty has been raised for the first time by the People and amici curiae on petition for rehearing. Although this question was never an issue in this case, we deem it appropriate to note that article I, section 6, of the California Constitution and section 1270 of the Penal Code, dealing with the subject of bail, refer to a category of offenses for which the punishment of death could be imposed and bail should be denied under certain circumstances. The law thus determined the gravity of such offenses both for the purpose of fixing bail before trial and for imposing punishment after conviction. Those offenses, of course, remain the same but under the decision in this case punishment by death cannot constitutionally be exacted. The underlying gravity of those offenses endures and the determination of their gravity for the purpose of bail continues unaffected by this decision. Accordingly, to subserve such purpose and subject to our future consideration of this issue in an appropriate proceeding, we hold that they remain as offenses for which bail should be denied in conformity with article I, section 6, of the Constitution and Penal Code section 1270 when the proof of guilt is evident or the presumption thereof great, (footnote 45, 6 Cal.3d 628 at 657, 100 Cal.Rptr. 152 at 171-172, 493 P.2d 880 at 899-900 (1972).)