Title: Ex Parte Smith
Citation: 756 So. 2d 957
Docket Number: 1971580
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: January 21, 2000

756 So. 2d 957 (2000)
Ex parte Ronald Bert SMITH, Jr.
(Re Ronald Bert Smith, Jr. v. State).
No. 1971580.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
January 21, 2000.
*959 Charles H. Pullen, Huntsville, for petitioner.
Bill Pryor, atty. gen., and J. Clayton Crenshaw, asst. atty. gen., for respondent.
PER CURIAM.
The opinion of July 30, 1999, is withdrawn, and the following is substituted therefor.
Ronald Bert Smith, Jr., was charged with and convicted of the capital murder of Casey Wilson. The jury recommended, by a vote of 7 to 5, a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The trial judge, however, sentenced Smith to death, and the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Smith's conviction and sentence. Smith v. State, 756 So. 2d 892, 904 (Ala. Crim.App.1998). This Court granted Smith's petition for certiorari review and heard oral arguments.
The facts of this case are adequately set out in the trial court's sentencing order, which is attached as Appendix A to the opinion of the Court of Criminal Appeals. Smith, 756 So. 2d  at 946-57. Smith has raised 22 issues for this Court's consideration. The Court of Criminal Appeals adequately addressed and correctly resolved the majority of those issues in its thorough, well-reasoned, and unanimous opinion. We will, however, address a few of those issues.
Smith argues that the trial court improperly allowed the jury to separate over his objection. He makes the same argument on this issue that the defendant made in Stewart v. State, 730 So. 2d 1203 (Ala.Crim.App.1996) (opinion on third return to remand). The Court of Criminal Appeals rejected that argument in Stewart, and this Court affirmed. Ex parte Stewart, 730 So. 2d 1246 (Ala.1999). See also Ex parte Smith, 727 So. 2d 173 (Ala. *960 1999). We must likewise reject the defendant's argument in this present case.
Smith complains of the conclusions the Court of Criminal Appeals reached in Part IV.C. of its opinion, in which that court addressed certain testimony the trial court admitted over Smith's objection. The Court of Criminal Appeals, in effect, held that Smith waived his objection to this testimony by arguing, after it was admitted, that the jury should draw from it inferences favorable to him. The Court of Criminal Appeals held:
Smith, 756 So. 2d  at 913. The Court of Criminal Appeals misapplied the rule regarding a party's taking inconsistent positions. Smith could not comment to the jury or argue with the trial court about the court's action in overruling his objection and admitting the testimony. Rather, Smith, through his lawyer, attempted to make the best of the situation, and his lawyer owed him a duty to argue to the jury any favorable inferences the testimony would allow. Smith did not, by his efforts in this regard, waive his objection. See Porter v. Jolly, 564 So. 2d 434 (Ala. 1990). His position on the question whether this testimony was admissible has not been inconsistent at all. However, the other reasons given by the Court of Criminal Appeals for its holding that the admission of this testimony was not prejudicial error are correct.
In Part IX of its opinion, the Court of Criminal Appeals addressed the admission of testimony by Officer Renfroe in which he narrated to the jury what he understood to be depicted on a videotape of the incident during which the killing occurred; that videotape was made by security-surveillance cameras mounted inside the premises where the killing occurred. Although Officer Renfroe did investigate the incident and did extensively examine the scene, he had not been present during the incident to observe it personally. Nonetheless, the trial court, over the defendant's objections, allowed Officer Renfroe to describe not only the physical layout and features of the scene but also the positions, movements, and actions of the people participating in the incident. The Court of Criminal Appeals stated:
756 So. 2d  at 919.
On the one hand, Officer Renfroe could legally identify the layout and features of the scene as they were depicted on the videotape, because the law allows a witness with personal knowledge of things depicted in a photograph (whether taken by videotape recorder or otherwise) to identify those things as they appear in the photograph. See Ex parte Rieber, 663 So. 2d 999, 1011 (Ala.1995), and McFarland v. State, 581 So. 2d 1249 (Ala.Crim.App. 1991). On the other hand, Officer Renfroe could not legally testify about his impressions of the locations, movements, and actions of the people depicted by the videotape, things that were outside his own personal knowledge. He was incompetent to testify to matters outside his own personal observation. Sheridan v. State, 591 So. 2d 129 (Ala.Crim.App.1991); Lewis v. State, 535 So. 2d 228 (Ala.Crim.App.1988); Charles W. Gamble, McElroy's Alabama Evidence, § 105.01 (5th ed.1996).
Officer Renfroe, in that incompetent testimony, invaded the province of the jury by stating his conclusions of ultimate facts, insofar as he purported to describe the presence and actions of the defendant and his accomplice. Allen v. State, 472 So. 2d 1122 (Ala.Crim.App.1985); Wyatt v. State, 405 So. 2d 154, 157 (Ala.Crim.App. *961 1981); McElroy's Alabama Evidence, supra, §§ 115.01 and 127.01.
For the reasons stated by the Court of Criminal Appeals, however, any error in the admission of this testimony by Officer Renfroe was harmless. Therefore, like the Court of Criminal Appeals, we conclude that Officer Renfroe's testimony did not deprive Smith of a fair trial.
Part XIII.D. of the opinion by the Court of Criminal Appeals concerns a statement made by the prosecutor in his closing argument: "It is a rare occasion that you have as much evidence to prove a case of this nature as we have here." The Court of Criminal Appeals held that the "prosecutor's comment [was] simply a permissible comment on the evidence." Smith, 756 So. 2d  at 929 (emphasis in original).
As the Court of Criminal Appeals correctly held, the prosecutor's statement was not tantamount to vouching for the credibility of the prosecutor's witnesses, as the defendant had claimed in his objection. However, the prosecutor's words "It is a rare occasion" constitute a comparison between the weight of the evidence presented in this case and the weight of the evidence generally presented in other cases, although no evidence presented in this present case related to the weight of the evidence generally presented in other cases. Thus, the appellate courts should not approve, as a permissible comment on the evidence, the prosecutor's statement here: "It is a rare occasion that you have as much evidence to prove a case of this nature as we have here."
The defendant's objection, however, stated an improper groundthat the prosecutor was vouching for his witnesses. The defendant did not object on the ground that the prosecutor was commenting on facts not in evidence. Thus, the trial court's failure to sustain the defendant's objection was not error. An objection specifying one ground excludes others. Floyd v. State, 82 Ala. 16, 2 So. 683 (1887); Lee v. State, 562 So. 2d 657 (Ala.Crim.App. 1989); Snider v. State, 406 So. 2d 1008 (Ala.Crim.App.1981). Under the plain-error rule, the absence of an apt objection weighs against any claim of prejudice. Ex parte Kennedy, 472 So. 2d 1106 (Ala.1985), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 975, 106 S. Ct. 340, 88 L. Ed. 2d 325 (1985). Further, under the plain-error rule, we will reverse only when an "error has or probably has adversely affected the substantial rights of the [defendant]." Rule 39(k), Ala. R.App. P. As the Court of Criminal Appeals observes early in its opinion, "`[The] plain-error exception to the contemporaneous-objection rule is to be "used sparingly, solely in those circumstances in which a miscarriage of justice would otherwise result,"'" quoting United States v. Young, 470 U.S. 1, 15, 105 S. Ct. 1038, 84 L. Ed. 2d 1 (1985) (quoting in turn United States v. Frady, 456 U.S. 152, 163, 102 S. Ct. 1584, 71 L. Ed. 2d 816 (1982)). In the context of this defendant's long and carefully conducted trial, any error in allowing this argument does not approach the degree of error the plain-error rule would require for a reversal.
Smith argues that the trial court inappropriately attached the "aggravating" label to evidence that should be considered mitigating. See Zant v. Stephens, 462 U.S. 862, 885, 103 S. Ct. 2733, 77 L. Ed. 2d 235 (1983) (holding that if a state has "attached the `aggravating' label to ... conduct that actually should militate in favor of a lesser penalty," due process would require that the death sentence be set aside). Specifically, Smith argues that the trial court used his evidence of good character against him. In support of this claim, Smith points to the following portion of the trial court's sentencing order:
Smith, 756 So. 2d  at 955 (Appendix A).
The Court of Criminal Appeals did not directly address this argument, although it did conclude that the trial court considered all of the mitigating evidence Smith offered. After considering the trial court's sentencing order, however, we find this argument to be without merit. The excerpt quoted above was not part of the trial court's determination that an aggravating circumstance existed. Instead, that excerpt is contained in the trial court's discussion of how much weight should be given to Smith's argument that the killing was inconsistent with his character. The trial court determined that the killing was inconsistent with Smith's character prior to his high-school graduation. In fact, the trial court expressly found that Smith had substantially proven this nonstatutory mitigating circumstance. The trial court, however, concluded that the weight to be given this circumstance was affected by Smith's dramatic reversal of character during the five and a half years between his high-school graduation and the murder. Accordingly, it is clear that the trial court was not attaching the "aggravating" label to any conduct that should be considered mitigating. Rather, the trial court concluded that the evidence offered was mitigating, but not as mitigating as Smith would have the trial court believe. Thus, the trial court did not violate the principles set out in Zant, and the due-process guaranty does not require this Court to set aside Smith's sentence.
Smith argues that the trial judge erred by failing to charge the jury on any lesser-included homicide offense that would not have required the jury to find that Smith had intended to kill the victim. As the Court of Criminal Appeals pointed out, Smith did not object on this point at trial, although he did include this objection in his motion for a new trial. Rule 21.3, Ala. R.Crim. P., however, provides:
Because Smith failed to object before the jury retired, we consider this argument only in the context of plain-error review. By that review, as mentioned above, we notice plain error that "has or probably has adversely affected the substantial rights of the [defendant]." Rule 39(k), Ala. R.App. P.
Ex parte Woodall, 730 So. 2d 652, 657 (Ala. 1998).
*963 As this Court has held: "A defendant is entitled to a charge on a lesser-included offense if there is any reasonable theory from the evidence that would support [his theory of the case]." Ex parte Oliver, 518 So. 2d 705, 706 (Ala.1987); § 13A-1-9(b), Ala.Code 1975. To state that rule differently, a charge on a lesser-included offense is not required if there is no "reasonable theory from the evidence that would support" giving that instruction.
This Court has stated the standard to be applied by the fact-finder in considering evidence of intoxication in a case where a defendant is charged with a crime including intent as an element:
Ex parte Bankhead, 585 So. 2d 112, 120-21 (Ala.1991); see also Chatham v. State, 92 Ala. 47, 9 So. 607 (1891).
Should the trial court have instructed the jury on the lesser-included offense of manslaughter? It should have "if there [was] any reasonable theory from the evidence that would support the position"[1] that the defendant's level of intoxication was "so extreme as to render it impossible for the defendant to form the intent to kill."[2]
Smith testified that he drank 32 ounces of gin before the killing. One of his codefendants, however, testified that Smith drank only half a can of beer before the killing. That codefendant also testified that Smith appeared to be sober at the time of the offense and that Smith drove home after the incident and did so without apparent difficulty. Further, according to the Court of Criminal Appeals:
756 So. 2d  at 907. The Court of Criminal Appeals held that there was "no reasonable theory under the facts of this case to support an instruction on manslaughter," 756 So. 2d  at 907, and held that it was not, therefore, reversible error for the trial court not to give an instruction on manslaughter.
*964 In Fletcher v. State, 621 So. 2d 1010 (Ala. Cr.App.1993), the Court of Criminal Appeals discussed the evidentiary threshold that must be met to trigger the requirement that the court give a charge on intoxication[3] and adopted a test applied by the New York Court of Appeals:
621 So. 2d  at 1020-21 (emphasis added in Fletcher). In Fletcher, the Court of Criminal Appeals held that a trial judge invaded the province of the jury when he concluded that the defendant had not been so intoxicated as to negate the element of intent. The trial judge had instructed the jury on felony murder but had not instructed the jury on intoxication or on manslaughter. The Court of Criminal Appeals, holding that the trial judge had erred, reversed the defendant's conviction. In that case, the Court of Criminal Appeals wrote:
621 So. 2d  at 1021-22. (Some emphasis in Fletcher; some emphasis added.) Because it concluded, in light of the felony-murder charge, that the trial judge erred to reversal by failing to charge the jury on intoxication, the Court of Criminal Appeals in Fletcher did not directly address the question whether it was plain error for the trial judge not to also charge the jury on manslaughter. However, the Fletcher court implied that where a defendant is charged with murder and a charge on intoxication is required, a charge on manslaughter will, as a matter of law, also be required.
However, in Hutcherson v. State, 677 So. 2d 1174 (Ala.Crim.App.1994), a case decided after Fletcher, the Court of Criminal Appeals held, in a case in which the defendant had been charged with murder, that a charge on manslaughter was not required even though the trial judge had charged the jury on intoxication. In that case, the Court of Criminal Appeals reviewed the evidence presented and concluded that there was not sufficient evidence of intoxication to require the charge on the lesser-included offense.
In this present case, the Court of Criminal Appeals held that even if the trial judge erred in failing to charge the jury on manslaughter, that error was harmless. The court cited Gaddy v. State, 698 So. 2d 1100 (Ala.Crim.App.1995), for the proposition that because the trial judge charged the jury on the lesser-included offenses of intentional murder and robbery, and because the jury found Smith guilty of capital murder, "it is reasonable to conclude that an instruction on any other lesser included offense would not have affected the outcome of the case." 756 So. 2d  at 907.
We do not address the question whether the law requires an instruction on manslaughter or any other lesser-included homicide offense where the facts are such that a charge on intoxication is required, because we conclude that the intoxication instruction was not required under the facts of this case. In large part, we reach that conclusion based on the defendant's own testimony, which was, in part, as follows:
(R.T. 1242-59.)
On cross-examination, Smith testified:
(R.T. at 1281-82.) The defendant himself testified that he had the intent to kill the victim. Given that testimony, and the rest of the evidence presented, we conclude that the law did not require the trial judge to instruct the jury on intoxication.
Because the intoxication instruction was not required, there is no need to consider whether, in a case where the defendant is charged with murder and an intoxication instruction would be required, a jury instruction on manslaughter or some other lesser-included homicide offense would also be required. Because we do not reach that issue, we should not be understood as agreeing that, if the intoxication instruction had been required in this case, it would have been harmless error to fail to instruct the jury on manslaughter.
Smith has raised other issues here, but we conclude that the Court of Criminal Appeals correctly decided those issues. Further, we have searched the record for plain error, but we have found none. The judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals is due to be affirmed.
OPINION OF JULY 30, 1999, WITHDRAWN; OPINION SUBSTITUTED; APPLICATION OVERRULED; AFFIRMED.
MADDOX, HOUSTON, COOK, SEE, LYONS, and JOHNSTONE, JJ., concur.
BROWN, J., recuses herself.[*]
[1]  Oliver, 518 So. 2d  at 706.
[2]  Bankhead, 585 So. 2d  at 121.
[3]  The trial judge in this present case did charge the jury on intoxication, as follows:

"Now, there was some testimony that the defendant was drinking and under the influence of intoxicating liquors or beverages at the time that the offense occurred. And because of that, it is necessary for me to say something to you about voluntary intoxication and whether that excuses a person of a crime.
"Under our law the definition of the word `intoxication' is a broad one, and it includes the disturbance of a person's mental or physical capabilities resulting from the introduction of any substance into the body, regardless of whether that substance is alcohol, drugs, or some other mind-altering substance or compound. Voluntary intoxication, regardless of whether that intoxication is produced by beer, gin, any other liquor, or drugs or some other substance is never a defense to a crime. However, our state Supreme court has said that voluntary intoxication may be considered by the jury if it is relevant on the question of whether the fact of intoxication negates an element of the offense charged, meaning such as intent.
"Now, let me repeat that. Voluntary intoxication is not a defense to a criminal charge. However, if you, the jury believe that the defendant's voluntary intoxication was of such a degree or to such an extent that it absolutely prevented him from forming or acting with a specific intent, then such finding would relieve him of responsibility for any crime which required a specific intent such as the intent to kill another person.
"In other words, if at the time a person performs some criminal act he was so intoxicated, either from alcohol, [drugs], or a combination, that he absolutely is incapable of forming a criminal intent, then he would not be legally responsible for any criminal action which required the State to prove a specific criminal intent to kill another person as one of the elements of the crime."
(R.T. 1435-37.)
[*]  Justice Brown was a member of the Court of Criminal Appeals when that court considered this case.