Opinion ID: 484261
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Opening statement by prosecution at trial9

Text: 15 In his opening statement at trial, the prosecutor emphasized the conspiracy charge, count 1. His statement of what he expected the evidence to show is summarized in the following portion of this section B of this opinion. 16 Defendants had been active in the Perry County Civic League. In the September 4, 1984 primary, the League's principal interest was the defeat of Reese Billingslea and Warren Kynard, both candidates for re-election as officials of Perry County. When Billingslea had been elected for the first time, Albert Turner told him to appoint Hogue as supervisor of the road gang. Billingslea responded that he would hire Hogue, but not as supervisor. When Kynard had been elected for the first time, Albert Turner and his family had demanded jobs with the county, and Kynard responded that they should submit applications and that Kynard intended to appoint the most qualified applicants. These incidents gave rise to a vendetta on the part of Albert Turner against Billingslea and Kynard, and the League's 1984 opposition to their nomination and its efforts to deprive them of votes were in implementation of this vendetta. 17 Law enforcement and election officials had been alerted to an attempt by the League to steal the election from Billingslea and Kynard by the use of absentee ballots. The post office was monitored on the eve of the primary and the absentee ballots were handled by election officials in such a manner that it was possible to identify the absentee ballots placed in the mail by the Turners and those placed in the mail by Hogue. Those ballots were scrutinized and various alterations of ballots were noted. The ballots were later turned over to the FBI, which interrogated various persons whose ballots appeared to have been altered. 18 The conspiracy included a plan that Albert Turner or Evelyn Turner or Hogue would vote more than once in the sense that they would alter more than one ballot, without the voters' consent. 19 The prosecutor stated that the issue in this case is whether or not these voters gave permission to the Perry County Civic League to change their ballots.