Brown v. State

The defendant failed to show that the pretrial publicity of his case created an inherently prejudicial atmosphere or affected the jurors' ability to be fair and impartial.

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Defendant Darrell Brown was convicted of two counts of armed robbery, three counts of kidnapping and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.1 He was sentenced to five consecutive life terms without parole, plus an additional 15 consecutive years for the firearms count. Brown appeals, asserting, inter alia, that the trial court erred in overruling his motion to change venue and his general demurrer attacking the constitutionality of OCGA § 17-10-7 b, a subsection of Georgia’s repeat offenders’ sentencing statute. In 2005 Brown and his co-defendant Andre Lee held at gunpoint three employees of the Cinemark Tinseltown theater in Fayetteville, seeking access to the building safe. Pressed to open the safe, the manager of the theater used the duress code, alerting the police. When officers arrived at the scene, the two defendants attempted to secure escape by climbing into the ceiling. Lee was arrested when a ceiling tile disintegrated beneath him and he fell to the floor. Brown remained in a ceiling crawl space for several hours, garnering significant media publicity, before finally surrendering to police.

At trial, potential jurors were polled as to their knowledge of the case through the media. Of the 57 potential jurors questioned by the court, only six claimed to have no knowledge of the case. One juror was excused for indicating pretrial publicity had tainted his view of the case, and a second was excused for indicating he could not be impartial. After individualized questioning, an additional 13jurors were excused for cause. Of the jurors selected, all assured the trial court that they had no bias or prejudice against Brown and had not formed or expressed any opinion in regard to his guilt or innocence.

Brown v. State

The defendant failed to show that the pretrial publicity of his case created an inherently prejudicial atmosphere or affected the jurors' ability to be fair and impartial.

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