# Coleman v. State

> Supreme Court of Alabama · May 28, 1964 · 276 Ala. 513

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9686241

## Case

- **Full name:** John COLEMAN v. STATE of Alabama
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Alabama
- **Decided:** May 28, 1964
- **Citations:** 276 Ala. 513; 164 So. 2d 704; 1964 Ala. LEXIS 390
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence
- **Judges:** Simpson, Reversal
- **Cited by:** 8 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- **Red flag:** Reversed by Coleman v. Alabama, 377 U.S. 129 (1964).
- Negative treatments: 1
- Distinguished by: 0
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9686241

## Opinion text

PER CURIAM.
The appellant, a Negro, was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering a white man. The judgment here was affirmed on May 9, 1963 but on certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States the writ was granted with opinion (May 4, 1964, 84 S.Ct. 1152 , 12 L.Ed.2d 190 ), the judgment was reversed and the cause remanded.
It seems that the Federal Supreme Court, contrary to long-established legal principles (see Code of Ala.1940, Tit. 15, §§ 278, 279; Ball v. State, 252 Ala. 686 , 42 So.2d 626 , cert. den. 339 U.S. 929 , 70 S.Ct. 625 , 94 L.Ed. 1350 ), has reversed the cause because the trial court did not permit proof of systematic exclusion of Negroes from the jury roll in Greene County on a hearing of a motion for new trial by Coleman. The point was not raised on arraignment, nor during the trial. The rationale of the opinion would impress a legal scholar as rather sophistical.
But regardless of our disagreement with the Court’s decision, we are left under no alternative but to reverse the judgment of the lower court overruling the motion for new trial and remand the cause to the Circuit Court of Greene County so that evidence on appellant’s motion for a new trial may be taken.
Execution on the judgment of conviction is stayed pending final disposition of the cause on a hearing below on the motion for new trial.
Judgment on the motion for new trial reversed and cause remanded.
All the Justices concur.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9686241. Public record. Not legal advice.