Beckley v. State

In August of 1974 the Grand Jury of Tuscaloosa County indicted the appellant for rape. This court reversed the appellant's first conviction for this crime due to an irregularity in the Tuscaloosa County juror selection process. See Beckley v. State, Ala.Cr.App., 342 So.2d 1330 (1976). On retrial the appellant was again convicted and sentenced to a term of one hundred fifty years imprisonment.1 Before the appellant was retried, the victim of the rape died. Therefore her recorded testimony in the first trial was read to the second jury.

On December 3, 1971, the eighty-three year old victim, who…