Case Title: Kerlin v. State

Citation: 352 So. 2d 45

Docket Number: 

State: florida

Court: Florida Supreme Court

Date: 1977-06-30T00:00:00Z

Document:
352 So. 2d 45 (1977)
David KERLIN, Petitioner,
v.
STATE of Florida, Respondent.
No. 50211.

Supreme Court of Florida.
June 30, 1977.
*46 Joe M. Mitchell, Jr., Melbourne, and Kenneth A. Studstill, Titusville, for petitioner.
Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., and A.S. Sid Johnston and Harry M. Hipler, Asst. Attys. Gen., for respondent.
KARL, Justice.
We have for review, on petition for writ of certiorari granted, the decision of the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, in Kerlin v. State, reported at 351 So. 2d 1026 (Fla. 4th DCA, 1976), which purportedly conflicts with Mercer v. State, 40 Fla. 216, 24 So. 154 (1898). We have jurisdiction pursuant to Article V, Section 3(b)(3), Florida Constitution.
After a first trial resulted in a hung jury, petitioner, David Kerlin, a/k/a David Giglietti, was convicted of second degree murder and was sentenced to thirty years imprisonment for the killing of one George Fitch, who was found in his bedroom shot to death by a .22 caliber rifle.
During the course of petitioner's trial, his wife, the state's chief witness who had been *47 given immunity for her testimony, testified as to her observation of the criminal actions (non-verbal communications) of her husband surrounding the murder of Fitch.
Petitioner's wife testified that she and petitioner arrived in Florida in 1974 as hitchhikers from Virginia; that, upon arriving in Florida, they met Fitch and subsequently temporarily moved in with him in his home in Titusville; that, approximately one week prior to Fitch's death, she observed petitioner take from Fitch's mailbox what appeared to her to be a government check; and that petitioner gave her Fitch's savings book and, thereafter, requested it back, at which time she accompanied him to the bank where he filled out a withdrawal slip, approached the teller and received a sum of money. After being cautioned not to repeat any conversations her husband had had with her, she testified, as to her observations of petitioner's actions on the morning of the murder, that petitioner, she and the victim were alone in Fitch's house, several persons having left the house earlier that morning; that the defendant put down the newspaper he was reading, went into one of the two bedrooms, came out with a rifle which she identified as State's Exhibit Number 12, and walked into the victim's bedroom; that she heard a muffled shot; that petitioner came out of the bedroom and reloaded the gun in front of her; that he went back into her bedroom and that she heard another shot; that, momentarily, petitioner came out and said, "Let's go," at which they ran from the house. She observed that petitioner had the victim's wallet and checkbook and that he had blood on his face which did not appear to be occasioned by any cut or scratch.
To this testimony by the wife relating to petitioner's conduct, the defense did not expressly object when the testimony was being taken. There does appear in the record a vague "stipulation" which applied to petitioner's first trial, to the effect that, before the jury was sworn during the course of the first trial, the defense made a motion in limine whereby he made objection to the possibility of testimony being elicited by the state attorney from Sandra Kreps Giglietti, the wife of the petitioner, as to matters protected as privileged communications between husband and wife. The stipulation further provided that the state attorney was cautioned not to inquire of said witness as to matters protected as privileged communications between husband and wife.
Petitioner testified at trial that he stole the check belonging to Fitch; that his wife knew of the stealing of the check and voluntarily went with him to the bank to cash it; that he was living at Fitch's house the morning of the murder; but that he did not murder Fitch. On cross-examination, he testified that he did not get along well with Fitch and argued with him on several occasions, and that he forged Fitch's signature. He further testified on cross-examination as follows:
It was only at this point that the defense objected to the prosecutor's remark. Although all the activities of petitioner relative to the stolen check had been explored on direct examination, the basis of his objection was that this remark constituted an alleged violation of the confidential relationship between a man and his wife. After lengthy debate, the trial judge denied the objection, and on further cross-examination, petitioner could not recall the content of any conversation with his wife.
The District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, affirmed the judgment and sentence "on the authority of Gates v. State, 201 So. 2d 786 (3d D.C.A., Fla. 1967) and Ross v. State, 202 So. 2d 582 (1st D.C.A., Fla. 1967)."
This cause brings before us the application of the privilege for communications between husband and wife and, more particularly, the question of whether this privilege extends to observation of criminal conduct (actions) of one spouse by the other.
In this Court's early decision of Mercer v. State, supra, it was held that written communications between a husband and wife are inherently privileged from the character of the communication itself, and the privilege for marital communications protects them from introduction into evidence. Therein, this Court explained the rationale or public policy of the privilege to be the preservation of the peace, good order and limitless confidence between the heads of the family so as to promote a well-ordered, civilized society and opined:
Even at common law, this communications privilege was recognized to be subject to limitations and exceptions which grew out of necessity, inter alia, to avoid harsh injustice to the excluded spouse which would follow from a strict enforcement of the rule. Explaining the nature of the exception, Dean Wigmore states in Wigmore on Evidence, Section 2239:
The Supreme Court of the United States, in Wolfle v. United States, 291 U.S. 7, 54 S. Ct. 279, 78 L. Ed. 617 (1933), wherein the court held that a written communication in the form of a letter from a husband to his wife dictated by the husband to a stenographer was not privileged, opined:
In an annotation to Blau v. U.S., 340 U.S. 332, 71 S. Ct. 301, 95 L. Ed. 306, 317 (1950), on the marital communications privilege in federal courts, it was stated that, in the absence of a statute which expands the common law privilege of confidential marital communications, seemingly, such privilege protects only utterances but not observations of facts.
The tendency in this state has been to take a restrictive view of the privilege,[2] not permitting it to preclude from evidence a spouse's observation of another spouse's criminal actions, i.e. independent facts gained by his or her own observation and knowledge and not from any written or oral communications of his or her spouse.[3]
Defendant in Porter v. State, 160 So. 2d 104 (Fla. 1963), was charged with the first degree murder of his mother-in-law by severing her head with a machete. During the course of the trial, Porter's common-law wife, the only eyewitness to the crime other than the defendant himself, was permitted to testify in detail as to her observation of his criminal activities surrounding the murder, over defense objection that one spouse cannot testify against the other unless he or she be an interested party to the suit pending. This Court found the argument that this testimony should have been excluded to be without merit, determined that no reversible error had been made to appear and that the ends of justice did not require a *51 new trial, and affirmed the judgment and death sentence.
Gates v. State, 201 So. 2d 786 (Fla. 3rd DCA, 1967), was a battered child syndrome case in which the defendant was charged with murder in the second degree of his wife's minor daughter. This wife was permitted to testify at trial over defense objections about a previous act of violence committed by Gates against the deceased child. Finding that the wife's testimony was to an event, not to a communication, the district court held the testimony of the wife to be properly admissible, not falling within the husband and wife privilege.
Appellant in Ross v. State, 202 So. 2d 582 (Fla. 1st DCA, 1967), argued that the physical act of delivering a stolen sweater to his wife was a confidential privileged communication, just as a statement to her as to how he had acquired the sweater would have been, and therefore, his objection to her testimony should have been sustained. In response to the posited question as to the trial judge's failure to sustain the objection, Judge Wigginton, speaking for the unanimous court, opined:
Most recently, in Smith v. State, 344 So. 2d 915 (Fla. 1st DCA, 1977), filed April 6, 1977, the district court held that testimony of the wife as to certain oral communications made to her by her husband after the shooting, regarding his killing of one Jose Fernandez, were improperly admitted into evidence over objection of the defense that such testimony invaded the confidential privilege between husband and wife. The wife testified in vivid detail as to the homicide and the cover-up. The district court noted that the numerous activities of the defendant, about which his wife testified, are not covered by the marital privilege which, the district court explained, applies only to communications and not actions.
We approve the restricted interpretation of Dean Wigmore, an eminent authority on evidence, which limits the privilege of communications between husband and wife to spoken or written statements, signs or gestures, a view which has been adopted by the courts in this state. He explicitly stated, in Wigmore on Evidence, § 2337:
McCormick on Evidence argues for a movement toward restriction of the privilege since extensions beyond verbal or written communications are unjustified. Generally, the acts which would be protected by the privilege are acts done in furtherance of a crime or fraud and, therefore, under the principle developed for the attorney-client privilege, should not be protected. McCormick on Evidence, § 79.[5]
*52 Public policy favors such a restrictive construction of the privilege since observations of criminal actions is not the type of communication contemplated by the privilege of confidential communication as being in the public interest to preserve a well-ordered, civilized society by preserving the peace and harmony of a family.
Although not necessary to the disposition of this cause since we find that the wife's observation of petitioner's criminal activities was not excludable from evidence on the basis of privileged communications, we note that the privilege was waived because the defense failed to object to the introduction of this testimony. The vague stipulation, which relates to the first trial and describes a general objection and a cautionary instruction by the judge, was not sufficient to constitute a proper objection to the wife's testimony as to petitioner's conduct.
The privilege existing between husband and wife as to their communication is a personal privilege which may be waived by the communicating spouse. Tibado v. Brees, et al., 212 So. 2d 61 (Fla. 2d DCA, 1968). Waiver occurs by failure to assert the privilege by objection or a voluntary revelation by the holder of the communication, or a material part thereof. Cf. 8 Wigmore on Evidence, § 83.
In Tibado, supra, appellant, at oral deposition prior to trial, voluntarily and without objection testified to confidential communications between him and his wife but, at trial, objected to the introduction of the deposition. The court held that, when he testified without objection on deposition to the privileged communications, they lost their confidential nature. Cf. Savino v. Luciano, 92 So. 2d 817 (Fla. 1957). The trial judge has no duty to exclude confidential communications in the absence of timely objection thereto. Cf. State v. Foster, 164 La. 813, 114 So. 696 (1927). By not objecting to the line of questioning relating to the conduct of petitioner, were such conduct contemplated by the privilege, petitioner effectively waived the privilege.
The next point involves the questions directed to petitioner on cross-examination by the state relative to certain oral conversation with his wife. After petitioner responded, "No, sir," to inquiry by the state as to whether petitioner made a certain statement to his wife, defense objected as follows:
With regard to this specific objection, we note that the privilege does not protect testimony as to the fact of communicating or not communicating. If the purpose of the questioning was to show the act of communicating and not the disclosure of the substance of the communications, the testimony elicited does not come within inhibition of the privilege. An annotation to People of State of New York v. Daghita, 299 N.Y. 194, 86 N.E.2d 172, 10 A.L.R.2d 1385, 1391-2, discussing acts as confidential communications, explains:
However, it appears that this objection was intended to exclude the conversation itself as being within the confidential communications privilege. The state posits that the trial court was correct in ruling that, once petitioner testified, he waived the husband-wife privilege as to confidential communications.[6]
*53 We cannot agree with this broad general assertion by the state. As previously stated, this privilege may be waived by the communicating spouse by voluntary revelation of the communication or a material portion thereof, but the fact that the defendant testifies in his own behalf without revealing the contents of the confidential revelation to his or her spouse does not constitute a waiver. Wharton's Criminal Evidence, § 567. When a defendant testifies to conversations with his or her spouse, he thereby waives the privilege and may be cross-examined concerning such conversations. Sub judice, on direct examination of petitioner, no inquiry had been made into oral communications made by him to his wife. However, although the trial court erred in denying petitioner's objection, it merely constituted harmless error because no privileged communications were forthcoming from petitioner who did not recall the contents of any conversation with his wife, if there was any.
Accordingly, we hold that the wife's testimony as to observed conduct was properly admitted into evidence; that her testimony as to any conversations with petitioner, i.e., his statement, "Let's go," was properly admissible since not timely objected to by the defense; and that the trial judge erred in overruling petitioner's objection to confidential oral communications, but such error was harmless under the totality of the circumstances.
Accordingly, the decision of the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, is approved, and the writ heretofore issued is discharged.
It is so ordered.
OVERTON, C.J., and ADKINS, BOYD and SUNDBERG, JJ., concur.
[1]  McCormick on Evidence, Section 79, explains Greenleaf's view as follows:

"Greenleaf arguing in 1842 for a privilege distinct from marital incompetency, and furnishing the inspiration for the later statutes by which the privilege was formally enacted, spoke only of `communications' and `conversations.' Those later statutes themselves (except one or two) sanctioned the privilege for `communications' and for nothing beyond. Accordingly it would seem that the privilege should be limited to expressions intended by one spouse to convey a meaning or message to the other. These expressions may be by words, oral, written or in sign-language, or by expressive acts, as where the husband opens a trunk before his wife and points out objects therein to her... ."
[2]  We note with interest that the Florida Legislature in the 1976 Legislative Session codified the marital communications privilege recognized in Florida since 1889. Section 90.504, Florida Statutes, effective July 1, 1978, provides:

"(1) A spouse has a privilege during and after the marital relationship to refuse to disclose, and to prevent another from disclosing, communications which were intended to be made in confidence between the spouses while they were husband and wife.
"(2) The privilege may be claimed by either spouse or by the guardian or conservator of a spouse. The authority of a spouse, or guardian or conservator of a spouse, to claim the privilege is presumed in the absence of contrary evidence.
"(3) There is no privilege under this section:
"(a) In a proceeding brought by or on behalf of one spouse against the other spouse.
"(b) In a criminal proceeding in which one spouse is charged with:
"1. A crime committed at any time against the person or property of the other spouse, or the person or property of a child of either; or
"2. A crime committed at any time against the person or property of a third person, which crime was committed in the course of committing a crime against the person or property of the other spouse.
"(c) In a criminal proceeding in which the communication is offered in evidence by a defendant-spouse who is one of the spouses between whom the communication was made."
The comment to Subsection (1) provides:
"This subsection permits one spouse to refuse to disclose, and to prevent the other spouse from disclosing, confidential communications made during coverture. To be privileged, the communications must be made when confidentiality could be anticipated. The privilege is limited to expressions intended by one spouse to convey a meaning or message to the other and not to other `actions' or `facts.' See Ross v. State, 202 So. 2d 582 (Fla. 1st Dist. 1967); Gates v. State, 201 So. 2d 786 (Fla. 3rd Dist. 1967); McCormick, Evidence § 79 (2nd ed. 1972). The privilege survives death or divorce, to insure total freedom of communication by removing the apprehension of disclosure. 8 Wigmore, Evidence § 2340 (McNaughton rev. 1961).
"Similar provisions are contained in Calif. Evid.Code § 980; N.J.Evid.Rule 28; Kansas Code of Civ.Pro. § 60-428." (Emphasis supplied.)
[3]  Signs or gestures used to convey meaning are entitled to the same status as words spoken or written. 10 A.L.R.2d 1389, 1391.
[4]  In Kneale v. Williams, 158 Fla. 811, 30 So. 2d 284 (1947), this Court held that the perpetration of a fraud is outside the scope of the professional duty of an attorney, and no privilege attaches to a communication between attorney and client with respect to a transaction constituting the making of a false claim or perpetration of a fraud.
[5]  McCormick on Evidence, speaking to the policy and future of the privilege, states:

"Accordingly, we must conclude that, while the danger of injustice from suppression of relevant proof is clear and certain, the probable benefits of the rule of privilege in encouraging marital confidences and wedded harmony, is at best doubtful and marginal." § 86.
[6]  After much debate on the objection, the trial court ruled:

"I think I am prepared to make a ruling in this instance that the privilege will not be invocable. The discussion here and the rest of this chapter in McCormick's follows the line of Wigmore and the Model Code, and I don't think the point has yet to have been reached in Florida. Therefore, the trial judge has the duty to face up to the problem and the future of this rule is said to be that if the evidence of a communication inquired into the administration of justice, the privilege should yield. The husband and wife privilege, historically grows out of a policy consideration designed to promote peace and harmony in the marriage, and it's a poor public policy, and yet there is another public policy where society is involved in the prosecution for crime it should be examined  the way I take it that if the evidence of a communication is necessary for enforcement of laws against crimes, then the institution of marriage has to take second place. That's a pretty extreme rule. It should make a basis for either upsetting a verdict in judgment on appeal or make some clarification on the law in the State of Florida. I don't know the State wants to go that far."