Title: Ex Parte Williams
Citation: 627 So. 2d 999
Docket Number: 1911047
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: April 2, 1993

627 So. 2d 999 (1993)
Ex parte Herbert WILLIAMS, Jr.
(Re Herbert Williams, Jr. v. State).
1911047.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
April 2, 1993.
Rehearing Denied August 27, 1993.
*1000 W. Gregory Hughes of Hale, Hughes &amp; Teague, Mobile, for petitioner.
James H. Evans, Atty. Gen., and Sandra J. Stewart and Melissa G. Math, Deputy Attys. Gen., for respondent.
ADAMS, Justice.
The defendant, Herbert Williams, Jr., was convicted of capital murder in regard to the 1988 death of Timothy Hasser and was sentenced to death by electrocution. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed, Williams v. State, 627 So. 2d 985 (Ala.Cr.App.1991). This Court granted certiorari review. Rule 39, Ala.R.App.P.
The facts of this case, as set out by the Court of Criminal Appeals, are, for the reader's convenience, repeated below:
627 So. 2d  at 987-988.
Williams argues that venue was improper in Mobile County, and, therefore, that his conviction must be reversed. We disagree. Although Williams was stopped near Jackson, outside Mobile County, in one of his statements, he said that the murder of Timothy Hasser occurred in Creola, Alabama, which is in Mobile County.
Jackson v. State, 516 So. 2d 726, 738 (Ala. Crim.App.1985), remanded on other grounds, 516 So. 2d 768 (Ala.1987). Thus, venue was proper in Mobile County.
Williams also contends that the statements made by him to the police were not made voluntarily and, therefore, that they were erroneously admitted into evidence.
Jackson v. State, 516 So. 2d 726, 741 (Ala.Cr. App.1985), remanded on other grounds, 516 So. 2d 768 (Ala.1987). It is clear from the record that the defendant was given the warnings required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966), prior to his making each statement to police and investigators concerning the murder. First, Williams was given the Miranda warnings three times by Officer Harrell at the scene of the crime, with a fourth explanation of his rights in "street language," and he indicated to Harrell that he understood those rights and voluntarily waived them. Then, at the station, he was again informed of his rights, before he made another statement. At one point, Williams stopped the questioning and requested an attorney. Later, his mother and father requested that an investigator speak with Williams; his parents were told that Williams had requested an attorney and that the investigators were not allowed to question him further unless he initiated contact with them. After meeting with his parents, Williams initiated contact with the investigator and indicated that he wanted to make a statement. He was again given the Miranda warnings and was asked to sign a statement indicating that he requested to see the investigator.
Payne v. State, 424 So. 2d 722, 724 (Ala.Crim. App.1982). Clearly, Williams initiated the statement given to the officers and no violation of his rights occurred.
In addition, Williams questions the admissibility of a handwritten statement provided to the State by Golliday Miller, a fellow inmate during Williams's incarceration. An expert testified at trial that the statement was written by Williams; however, Williams argues that the statement was inadmissible because, he says, the State failed to prove that it was voluntarily given. A review of the record reveals that Golliday Miller contacted Officer Richardson with regard to a confession Miller said had been written by Williams. The State offered testimony tending to show that Miller was not an agent of the State when the statement was written and that Miller did not receive any reward from the state for turning over the statement to the State.[1]
Jackson v. State, 502 So. 2d 858, 862 (Ala.Cr. App.1986).
Williams next contends that he was examined by a State psychiatrist without his attorney being present, and that this examination violated his rights under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The findings of the psychiatrist were not admitted into evidence, and Williams offered nothing to substantiate his claim that the prosecutor used those findings as a springboard for discovery. We find no error in this regard.
We have considered the fact that Williams was only 19 years old at the time of the murder and his contention that the statute allowing the imposition of the death penalty is unconstitutional as applied to him. First, we note the following:
Jackson v. State, 516 So. 2d 726, 756 (Ala. Crim.App.1985), remanded on other grounds, 516 So. 2d 768 (Ala.1987). See also Ex parte Davis, 554 So. 2d 1111, 1113-14 (Ala.1989) (for a discussion as to the constitutionality of imposing the death penalty on defendants who are 16 or 17 when they commit their crimes). Williams's age when he committed the murder was not a bar to the imposition of the death penalty.
Williams also argues that the State violated Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S. Ct. 1712, 90 L. Ed. 2d 69 (1986), in using peremptory strikes to remove four blacks from the jury venire.[2] The reasons proffered by the State for those four strikes were that an arrest warrant was pending with regard to one of those veniremembers; that one of them knew a defense witness; that one had been arrested for harassment;[3] and that the other admitted to "[f]ighting, cutting," saying, "I've been cut. I've got cut and I've cut people." In justifying his strike of the latter veniremember, the district attorney stated that the veniremember's statement indicated illegal activity.
Heard v. State, 584 So. 2d 556, 560 (Ala.Crim. App.1991). See also Warner v. State, 594 So. 2d 664, 670 (Ala.Cr.App.1990), reversed, 594 So. 2d 690 (Ala.Cr.App.1992). See also Hawkins v. State, 594 So. 2d 181, 187 (Ala.Cr. App.1991) (race-neutral strike of a black veniremember who knew an expert witness for the defense). We have considered the prosecutor's reasons for striking the four blacks on the jury venire, and we find all the reasons to be race-neutral.
As to the other arguments raised by Williams, we conclude that the Court of Criminal Appeals correctly answered them. In addition, we have searched the record for plain error pursuant to Rule 45, A.R.App.P., and we have found none.
This Court is required by § 13A-5-53, Code of Alabama 1975, to review the propriety of the sentence of death. Our review of the record indicates that the sentence was not the result of "passion, prejudice, or any other arbitrary factor," § 13A-5-53(b)(1). Furthermore, we have considered the single aggravating circumstance, that the murder was committed while the defendant was engaged in a robbery, and have weighed it against the mitigating factors of no prior criminal history, an abusive father, and Williams's age when he committed the crime. We find the sentence of death to be proper and not disproportional to the crime. § 13A-5-53(b)(2) and (3). The judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
HORNSBY, C.J., and MADDOX, SHORES, HOUSTON, STEAGALL and INGRAM, JJ., concur.
[1]  According to the State, Miller is presently serving a life sentence for the crime he committed (which was not related to Williams's crime), and he received no reward and no reduction in sentence for turning Williams's statement over to the State. In fact, at trial, Miller "forgot" all facts relating to the written statement, evidently because the State did refuse to give him a "deal."
[2]  Three blacks served on the jury.
[3]  The prosecutor also stated that a white person had been struck from the venire for a previous arrest.