Opinion ID: 2108883
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidence of Racial Motive

Text: At the pretrial conference held a month prior to the retrial, the State advised that it would offer evidence to show that the motive for the murder was revenge for the killing earlier that evening of a black bar owner, Leroy Holloway. At the first trial, the defense had argued that the State had not established any reason for Carter and Artis to have committed the murders. Now, the prosecution was prepared to advance evidence to demonstrate their motive. It is well established that the prosecution may introduce evidence of motive. See 1 Wigmore, Evidence § 118, at 558-59 (3d ed. 1940); 1 Wharton, Criminal Evidence § 170, at 314-15 (13th ed. 1972). Its purpose is to aid the jury, particularly in a case resting upon circumstantial evidence, in determining who the person was who committed the crime. A wide range is permitted with respect to the nature of the evidence that may be introduced. Wharton expressed this thought: In the introduction of evidence to show motive, a wide range is permitted. Thus, any evidence which logically tends to show a motive, or which fairly tends to explain the conduct of the accused, should be permitted. In order for evidence of motive to be admissible, it is not necessary that each part of it be sufficient to prove the motive. The facts supplying a motive may be adduced in connection with other evidence in the case. [1 Wharton, Criminal Evidence, supra, § 170 at 316-18] We have adhered to this doctrine. In State v. Rogers, 19 N.J. 218 (1955), the prosecution's introduction of evidence to show that the defendant had been indebted to the murder victim and was motivated at least in part by a desire to wipe out these loan obligations was permitted. Justice Wachenfeld, writing for a unanimous court, approved. He wrote: In criminal prosecutions, whenever the motive or the intent of the accused is important and material, a somewhat wider range of evidence is permitted in showing such motive or intent than is allowed in the support of other issues.... Otherwise there would often be no means to reach and disclose the secret design or purpose of the act charged in which the very gist of the offense may consist. Such intent or motive may be proved either by direct or circumstantial evidence. All evidentiary circumstances which are relevant to or tend to shed light on the motive or intent of the defendant or which tend fairly to explain his actions are admissible in evidence against him although they may have occurred previous to the commission of the offense. [ Id. at 228] Our courts have continued to follow Rogers. See State v. Baldwin, 47 N.J. 379, 391 (1966) (evidence that defendant killed victim to silence him as a prospective witness held proper); State v. Royster, 57 N.J. 472, 484-85 (1971) (evidence that defendant threatened victim several weeks before murder permitted). This is the majority rule throughout the country. See 22A C.J.S. Criminal Law § 614 (1961 & Supp. 1982); 29 Am.Jur. 2d, Evidence § 363 (1967). State v. Mathis, 47 N.J. 455 (1966), relied upon by the defendants, is not to the contrary. The prosecutor cross-examined the defendant with respect to how much money he had at the time of the murder and when he had last worked. The trial court ruled that it would not permit proof of financial need unless the State would also show that things of value were stolen and that thereafter defendant was affluent. In approving this ruling, Chief Justice Weintraub agreed that evidence of lack of money alone is not sufficient to prove motive because it would prove too much against too many. Id. at 471. Citing Rogers approvingly, he stated that there must be something more than poverty to tie a defendant into a criminal milieu. Id. at 472. By analogy the defendants argue that proof they are black and members of a class is not sufficient justification to tie them into the murders. However, the flaw in this position is their failure to acknowledge all the pieces in the pattern of this heinous crime. Defendants' membership in the class was not their only tie to the motive. Interestingly, racial revenge was first injected into the trial by the defendants when they put in evidence a taped interview of Bello by then Lieutenant Vincent DeSimone, which referred to the belief that the motive for the shootings was for the reason of revenge because there had been a shooting earlier. The defendant had also elicited on cross-examination of Detective LaConte that as part of his investigation of the murders he had been present at the funeral of Leroy Holloway. Holloway was the bartender and owner of the Waltz Inn, a bar frequented by black patrons and located in a predominantly black neighborhood. The tavern was situated a few blocks away from the Lafayette Bar. About 8:15 p.m. on June 16, 1966, a white man entered the Waltz Inn and killed Holloway with a blast from a shotgun. A little more than six hours later, two black men entered the Lafayette Bar located at the border between black and white areas and, using a shotgun, killed the white bartender and several patrons. This bartender had been known to refuse to serve blacks. There was also evidence that neither the bartender nor the patrons were robbed. There was money on the bar and those killed had money in their wallets when the police arrived. A series of events between these two crimes lend further support to the relationship between the murder and racial revenge. After Holloway's shooting, part of the local black community became enraged. A crowd gathered outside the Waltz Inn. News of the upset spread. Artis heard about it while on the street. Carter also knew there was going to be some trouble. Neither of them knew what had provoked the slaying. While in the Nite Spot Carter heard talk of a shaking (retaliatory action). Carter and Artis had more than a passing interest because of Eddie Rawls. Rawls, Holloway's stepson, was the bartender at the Nite Spot. Carter, a professional prizefighter, frequented the Nite Spot almost every day and had a special reserved table there known as the Champ's Corner. Carter and Rawls were pretty good friends. Artis was very friendly with Rawls. Holloway died around 10:00 p.m. An agitated Rawls, accompanied by two friends, went to the police station and demanded to know what was being done about the shooting of his stepfather. Rawls threatened that if the police did not take care of it, they would. Shortly thereafter Carter saw Rawls at the Nite Spot where Carter expressed his condolences to Rawls and they talked about the murder. Then Carter began a search for guns that had been stolen from his training camp. One of the missing guns was a 12-gauge shotgun. Thereafter, Carter and Artis stopped in at several local bars where they continued to hear talk of a shaking. At around 1:00 a.m. Carter again met with Rawls, this time at Ritchie's Hideaway. They remained there for about a half hour. Carter and Artis were later seen back at the Nite Spot which they had left at closing time, 2:15 a.m. Approximately fifteen minutes later, two black men entered the Lafayette Bar and Grill, and, without uttering a single word, shot and killed the white bartender and patrons. Rawls was seen in the group that gathered at the Lafayette Bar after the shootings at about 3:00 a.m. After Carter and Artis were charged with the murder, Rawls assisted in bringing alibi witnesses to defense counsel to be interviewed. Several of these witnesses later testified at the retrial that their alibi testimony in 1967 had been fabricated. Defendants contend that the evidence introduced in support of the racial revenge theory was not probative of defendants' guilt and, secondly, even if it were found to be probative, it was too prejudicial to be admitted. Moreover, in their petition to this Court, defendants stress that the State's summation improperly injected racial prejudice into the jury's consideration. For the reasons that follow, we reject each of these claims. Defense counsel err when they insist that the State's theory impermissibly casts all blacks as being motivated to seek retribution when a black person is murdered by a white person. There is no place in the courtroom for any such group labelling. The evidence offered by the State against Carter and Artis was admissible not because they are blacks, but because they were members of the particular local community involved and had a special relationship to Holloway through his stepson Rawls. Artis was a good friend of Rawls and Carter was well acquainted with him. Fueled by the racial overtone, the defendants may have been motivated to avenge the death of Rawls' stepfather. At least it was for the jury to decide whether, under these circumstances, Carter and Artis's relationship to Rawls could impel them to retaliate for one murder by randomly killing others. See State v. Rogers, 19 N.J. at 230 (any circumstance may be put in evidence that tends to make the proposition at issue either more or less probable); 1 Wigmore, supra, § 118 (test of relevance is whether the evidence offered tends to prove the emotion alleged by the prosecution to be present). The defendants claim that irrespective of the relevance of the motive evidence, its impact was so inflammatory that the jury was improperly swayed in its deliberations. However, evidence as to motive is admissible even though it may be prejudicial in the sense that it will arouse or inflame the jury against the defendant. 1 Wharton, Criminal Evidence, supra, § 170, at 316. There is nothing inherently wrong with advancing a theory of revenge as a motive for murder, if the facts bear out the theory. Whether the probative value of the evidence is outweighed by the potential prejudice is a decision left to the discretion of the trial judge. See Evid.R. 4, Comment 1. The party seeking to preclude the admission of evidence must convince the court that the factors favoring exclusion substantially outweigh the probative value of the contested evidence. Cf. State v. Sands, 76 N.J. 127 (1978) (whether prior convictions may be excluded as too prejudicial). On appellate review, the decision of the trial court must stand unless it can be shown that the trial court palpably abused its discretion, that is, that its finding was so wide of the mark that a manifest denial of justice resulted. See State v. Rogers, 19 N.J. at 229; Evid.R. 4, Comment 2. Here the trial court, having the feel of the case and after carefully considering the arguments of both the prosecution and the defense, decided to admit the evidence on motive. The Appellate Division found no abuse of discretion and no manifest denial of justice. We cannot say that on this record the Appellate Division's review of the trial court's action missed the mark so that a new trial is warranted. Related to the evidentiary argument is the defendants' claim that the State's summation was an unacceptable appeal to racial prejudice, and, as such, violated the defendants' due process rights to a fair trial. The summation must be considered as a whole. The prosecutor's argument tied in the racial aspect of the revenge motive and constituted proper comment. Moreover, we note that defendants' objection to this part of the summation was not directed to the comment concerning motive, but to the analogy of the antipathy between citizens of different countries as things outside this courtroom. Defendants have not established a case of plain error, the applicable standard under these circumstances. State v. Thornton, 38 N.J. 380, 396 (1962), cert. denied, 374 U.S. 816, 83 S.Ct. 1710, 10 L.Ed. 2d 1039 (1963). The defendants rely on a number of cases to show that the prosecutor's argument constituted an improper appeal to racial prejudice. We find those cases inapposite. In McFarland v. Smith, 611 F. 2d 414 (2d Cir.1979), the prosecutor urged the jury to credit a police officer's testimony because the probability of truthfulness was increased when one black person testified against another. The court held the remarks improper. As Judge Newman explained in that opinion, this notion, in the absence of any support in the evidence for the underlying assumption, is illogical because it is not probative of the likelihood that accusing testimony by someone within the same group is more credible than accusing testimony between people of different groups. See id. at 418. Here, the prosecutor's argument is logical; it attempts to make the racial revenge theory more credible by demonstrating how ethnic prejudice may cause people to engage in senseless acts. In Withers v. United States, 602 F. 2d 124, 126 (6th Cir.1979), the court found that a prosecutor's argument that not one white person had supported the defendant's story was improper. Similarly, in United States ex rel. Haynes v. McKendrick, 481 F. 2d 152, 155, 160 (2d Cir.1973), the court found that repeated, derogatory group references to blacks  their intelligence, their sexual promiscuity, their manner of dress  constituted a violation of defendant's right under the due process clause to a fair trial. Here, despite the defendants' repeated protestations in their briefs and appellate oral arguments to the contrary, the prosecutor's advocacy attributed no qualities to a generalized class of blacks. The prosecutor did not ask the jury to believe that blacks in general possess an instinct to commit senseless violence that would lead any one of them to murder whites. Rather, he urged them to find that these two particular black men, Carter and Artis, committed the Lafayette Bar murders in retaliation for the slaying of a friend's stepfather. His remarks were not tangential asides to the jury designed to arouse latent racial hostility, see Kelly v. Stone, 514 F. 2d 18, 19 (9th Cir.1975), but were directed to one element of the State's case. When a prosecutor's summation includes remarks in an effort to persuade a jury to return a guilty verdict, the resulting conviction is constitutionally unfair unless the remarks are abundantly justified. McFarland v. Smith, 611 F. 2d at 416-17 (emphasis added). We find that the argument set out in this case is justifiable because it was relevant to the issue of motive, there being evidence in the record to support that proposition.