Court Opinion

ID: 9687775
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:48:19.003513+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:31.745566
License: Public Domain

*133PER CURIAM.
Appellant was indicted along with Patricia Louise Neal Aycock in Houston County for murder in the first degree. He was there tried separately, convicted of the offense with fixation of punishment at life imprisonment. After due allocution, the trial court sentenced him in accordance with the jury’s verdict and entered lawful judgment therefor. Appellant, represented at trial and here by court appointed counsel, appeals from the judgment.
ON MOTION FOR CHANGE OF VENUE
Defendant by motion and a hearing thereon prior to trial contended that he could not receive a fair and impartial trial in Houston County for the reason that the news media of that County — newspaper, television and radio — in their reports of the alleged arrest of the defendant and of the crime charged against him generated so much prejudice against him that the trial should be moved to another county as authorized by Tit. 13, § 267, Code of Alabama, 1940, recompiled 1958.
We have examined the newspaper articles and other news publications in evidence. These newspaper articles carried routine news statements about the alleged offense and the arrest of the defendants. We are not impressed that they were sensational or carried undue emphasis on the alleged offense or any of the details. They were not in our judgment calculated to stir up per se undue emotions of their readers. They did not carry any editorial implications that the defendants were guilty of the crime. The television and radio accounts about the crime and the arrest of defendants likewise were free of implications of guilt. They, too, were just news items carrying usual publicity about the nature of the alleged crime and the arrest of the defendants.
On motion for a change of venue in a criminal case defendant has the burden of showing to the reasonable satisfaction of the court that a fair and impartial trial cannot be had and an unbiased verdict cannot reasonably be expected. Tiner v. State, 271 Ala. 254, 122 So.2d 738. Jurors, under the admonition of the trial court, usually enter the jury box free of influence and bias generated by the news media or otherwise and try a criminal case with an open mind that responds to the evidence adduced and free of bias or prejudice. We do not think that the defendant met the responsibility or burden cast upon him that he could not obtain a fair and impartial trial in Houston County. There was no error on the part of the court in overruling defendant’s motion for a change of venue. Mathis v. State, 280 Ala. 16, 189 So.2d 564.
MOTION FOR INVESTIGATION OF DEFENDANT’S SANITY, VEL NON
The trial court heard evidence ore tenus which was favorable and unfavorable to defendant’s motion to have his sanity vel non investigated in accordance with Tit. 15, § 425, Code, supra. After considering the evidence the trial court overruled the motion. The judge hearing the motion had an opportunity to observe the defend*134ant in court. He was not impressed with the merits of the motion and denied it.
The Supreme Court of Alabama in Campbell v. State, 257 Ala. 322, 58 So.2d 623, said the following:
“No written report by three or more reputable specialist practitioners in mental and nervous diseases was filed or requested by the court nor was a written report of the Superintendent of the Alabama State Hospitals filed or requested by the court. The court is under no duty to appoint such a commission nor to direct the Superintendent to make a report. The court simply has the inherent right to seek these aids for advisory purposes when the court in its discretion thinks such aids will be helpful. Oliver v. State, 232 Ala. 5, 166 So. 615; Reedy v. State, 246 Ala. 363, 20 So.2d 528; Benton v. State, 245 Ala. 625, 18 So.2d 428; Burns v. State, 246 Ala. 135, 19 So.2d 450, certiorari denied 324 U.S. 843, 65 S.Ct. 589, 89 L.Ed. 1405.”
We are unwilling to disturb the court’s denial of the motion for a sanity investigation.