Parish v. State
Parish v. State
Opinion
The appellant, O.C. Parish, was indicted and convicted for the offenses of theft of property in the first degree, as proscribed by §
Parish contends that the trial court erroneously denied his motion for mistrial made on the ground that juror Derivaux failed to disclose during voir dire examination her possible acquaintance with him, thus denying him his right to an informed exercise of his peremptory strikes. After the prosecution *Page 30 had rested, Mrs. Derivaux informed the court that, although she had no recognition of Parish during the voir dire examination, she later recognized the defendant's name. During a hearing on this issue, Mrs. Derivaux explained that, after the defendant's name was said several times and when a police officer who was testifying said the name, she recognized it. It appears that she informed the trial court of her recollection at the earliest possible time.
Upon the trial court's examination, Mrs. Derivaux testified that when she worked at the Mental Health Center, she received telephone calls from a man by the same name as the defendant, and she also typed psychologicals on him. She remembered him as a "threatening, troubled client." However, she cautioned that the person of whom she was thinking might not have been the defendant. Mrs. Derivaux further testified that her only contact with the man was by phone and that, although she recognized his name, she did not recognize his voice or his face. In substance, she assured the court that none of the phone calls or psychologicals pertained to the guilt or innocence in this particular case; that she did not intend to inform her fellow jurors of this information; that she would consider the evidence that came from the stand and the law as instructed by the court; and that she would disregard her recollections. Upon this testimony, the court denied Parish's motion and allowed Mrs. Derivaux to continue serving as a juror.
Certainly, we recognize that parties have a right to have questions answered truthfully by prospective jurors to enable wise and informed exercise of their peremptory strikes and that when jurors fail to answer questions correctly, the parties are denied the exercise of that right. See O'Leary v. State,
"Certainly appellant was entitled on voir dire to examine the venire in regard to [the undisclosed information]; however, the record before us shows no such inquiry. Veniremen cannot be expected to reveal information not elicited by the litigants."
It has been stated by our supreme court that "[t]he failure of a party to test prospective jurors, as to matters which *Page 31
might disqualify them, operates as a waiver of the peremptory right to a new trial on that account." Parkinson v. Hudson,
Moreover, even if the record disclosed that juror Derivaux had falsely answered or neglected to answer a question calling for the specified information, we would still find that the trial court properly denied Parish's mistrial motion. In Brownv. State,
"`Although a defendant has a right to have questions answered truthfully by prospective jurors, the failure of a juror to make a proper response to a question regarding his qualifications does not automatically entitle a defendant to a new trial. The proper inquiry by this court in such cases is whether the appellant's rights were [probably] prejudiced by the juror's failure to respond properly. Beauregard v. State, Ala.Cr.App.,
372 So.2d 37 (1979), cert. denied, Ala.,372 So.2d 44 , and cases cited therein. In Freeman v. Hall,286 Ala. 161 ,238 So.2d 330 (1970), our supreme court stated:"We hold that the proper inquiry for the trial court on motion for new trial, grounded on allegedly improper responses or lack of responses by prospective jurors on voir dire, is whether this has resulted in probable prejudice to the movant. This appears to be the general rule throughout the country [see Annotations, 38 A.L.R.2d 624, and 63 A.L.R. 2d 1061]. . . ."
The supreme court in that case likewise held that the trial court's application of the probable prejudice test is subject to review only for abuse of discretion.'"
392 So.2d at 1264 (quoting Bufford v. State,
In emphasizing that the trial court is in the best position to make findings on the question of probable prejudice, the court in Freeman suggested factors to aid the lower courts in their task of determining probable prejudice.
"Although the factors upon which the trial court's determination of prejudice is made must necessarily vary from case to case, some of the factors which other courts have considered pertinent are: temporal remoteness of the matter inquired about, the ambiguity of the question propounded, the prospective juror's inadvertence or willfulness in falsifying or failing to answer, the failure of the *Page 32 juror to recollect, and the materiality of the matter inquired about."
Furthermore, the court stated the following:
"[Mrs. Derivaux] states that in good conscience she can go ahead and disregard this and not discuss it with the other Jurors, I believe I have to accept her judgment of the matter. I don't believe there is any other method by which courts can determine the integrity and honesty of Jurors, other than by their words and actions, and I think this defendant is as safe with this particular Juror as any person that could be impaneled. . . ."
We agree with the trial court's assessment of the situation before it. It heard and observed Mrs. Derivaux. Thus, it was in a better position to evaluate her answers in light of the particular circumstances of the case to determine the probable prejudice. Because the substance of juror Derivaux's testimony supports the trial court's finding that her recollections would not affect her judgment, we hold that the trial court was correct in concluding that Mrs. Derivaux's extrinsic knowledge would not and did not result in probable prejudice to Parish. Accordingly, there was no abuse of the discretion of the trial court in its ruling.
Finally, we are justified in considering the fact that the jury's verdict was overwhelmingly justified by the testimony.Cf. Worley v. State,
Snellgrove v. State,"Without stultifying themselves, the jury could not have returned a verdict of acquittal.
"So, misconduct on their part . . . could not have worked prejudice to appellant."
This cause is hereby due to be affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
All Judges concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- O.C. Parish v. State.
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- 34 cases
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- Published