Court Opinion

ID: 9465808
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:56:24.959179+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:23.032945
License: Public Domain

PER CURIAM.
Cornell Jones was convicted in the Ohio state courts of first degree murder in the shotgun killing of one Philip Underwood in the early morning hours of July 21, 1969. Seeking habeas corpus relief in the district court, Jones alleged that he was denied a speedy trial, in violation of his rights thereto under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution and in connection therewith, claimed that he was denied the equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment by reason of Ohio statutes which permitted the adoption of different time requirements for bringing an arrestee to trial in different counties of the state, to his prejudice.
Finally, Jones asserts that the evidence upon which his conviction rested was so deficient as to meet the “no evidence” test of Thompson v. City of Louisville, 362 U.S. 199, 80 S.Ct. 624, 4 L.Ed.2d 654 (1960). In the alternative Jones urges that even if there was some evidence to support his conviction, the evidence was, as a matter of federal constitutional law, insufficient to *130have permitted a jury to have found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt as required under In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970), and that he was, therefore, denied the due process of law. In this appellant urges our court to adopt the dissenting view of Mr. Justice Stewart in Freeman v. Zahradnick, 429 U.S. 1111, 97 S.Ct. 1150, 51 L.Ed.2d 566 (1977), in which he urged that the ‘‘no evidence” test of Thompson v. City of Louisville should be discarded in favor of a test more consonant with the reasonable doubt standard of Winship. Appellant further notes that the matter is once more before the United States Supreme Court in Jackson v. Virginia, cert. granted, 439 U.S. 1001, 99 S.Ct. 609, 58 L.Ed.2d 676 (1978).
Upon a careful review of the record, the court is of the opinion that the several contentions of the appellant are without merit and that the trial judge did not err in denying habeas corpus relief.
The state adduced a strong, if circumstantial, case against petitioner at trial. The evidence showed that petitioner had borrowed $10 from one Barkley, the key prosecution witness, to continue wagering in a crap game, delivering his watch as security. After losing the money, Jones demanded his watch back and was restrained by the decedent Underwood from striking the lender with a chair. The testimony showed that petitioner was furious with decedent for his interference and left the apartment, stating his intention to return. Later that morning there was a loud demand for the decedent to come outside the apartment. Upon stepping out the back door, he was struck by a fatal shotgun blast to the waist. While no direct eyewitness evidence to the killing was introduced, the prosecution adduced the testimony of Barkley, who had witnessed the night’s events and who identified the voice as petitioner’s. The witness indicated that the memory of petitioner’s voice was fresh in his mind and that it had a distinctive quality.
While the asserted inconsistencies in the evidence alleged by petitioner were proper arguments to present to the jury, they do not eliminate the factual basis for the jury’s finding of guilt, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government. Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942). The court agrees with District Judge William K. «Thomas that the evidence before the state court jury, although circumstantial, was fully adequate to support its verdict under either the test of Thompson v. City of Louisville, supra, or under the more demanding test urged by Justice Stewart’s dissent in Freeman v. Zahradnick, supra. It would, therefore, serve no useful purpose to defer consideration further until Jackson v. Virginia, supra, is decided. Accordingly,
IT IS ORDERED that the judgment of the district court is affirmed.