Court Opinion

ID: 9688511
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 17:52:53.115516+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:39.857998
License: Public Domain

BLOODWORTH, Justice
(concurring in part, dissenting in part).
I concur in Part II of Mr. Justice Embry’s opinion for the Court (affirming the Court of Criminal Appeals) and holding there was no showing of systematic exclusion of blacks from the Lawrence County jury venire from which the jury was chosen to try Beecher.
I dissent from the holding as to Part I because I do not think the “it” in “No one took the stand to deny it” is sufficiently identified so that it could be said to refer to the inculpatory statement testified to by Deputy Sheriff Phillips as having been made by Beecher to him. I would not go so far as the majority do and hold that “where there is the possibility that a prose*685cution’s comment could be understood by the jury as reference to failure of defendant to testify, § 6 [Alabama Constitution] is violated.” I would affirm the Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision in this regard.
MERRILL and FAULKNER, JJ., concur.