Title: Meeks v. State

State: florida

Issuer: Florida Supreme Court

Document:

339 So. 2d 186 (1976)
Douglas Ray MEEKS, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 47533.

Supreme Court of Florida.
October 28, 1976.
*187 John F. Howard, Fort Lauderdale, for appellant.
Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., Wallace E. Allbritton and Andrew W. Lindsey, Asst. Attys. Gen., for appellee.
PER CURIAM.
This is a direct appeal from a murder conviction and death sentence. Our jurisdiction vests under Article V, Section 3(b)(1), Florida Constitution.
Appellant was convicted of murder in the first degree, robbery, assault with intent to commit murder, and possession of a firearm during commission of a felony. For these crimes he was sentenced respectively to (1) death, (2) life imprisonment, and (3) two consecutive terms of 15 years imprisonment.
At 8:00 p.m. on the night of November 6, 1974, the appellant and another man entered the Jr. Food Store in Perry, Florida. Appellant drew a gun on Dianne Allen, the cashier, while his companion grabbed Lloyd Walker, a 16-year-old boy who had been talking to Miss Allen before the two men entered. Miss Allen gave the appellant approximately $35 from the cash register. The robbers marched Allen and Walker to the bottle storage room, where the victims were forced to lie on the floor on their stomachs. Several shots were fired; Lloyd Walker died from his wounds six days later, but Dianne Allen survived her wounds and testified for the State at trial. She was unable to say that appellant Meeks actually fired the shots, although she identified him as the man with gun at the time the cash register was emptied.
*188 At trial the prosecution produced witnesses who identified the decedent from a photograph marked for identification as "Exhibit No. 2." Then a pathologist testified for the State that he had performed the autopsy on the body identified to him as Lloyd Walker, and the doctor proceeded to identify the exhibit as a picture of a person upon whom he had performed the autopsy. This photograph, along with two others marked for identification as State's Exhibits 3 and 4, respectively, was then admitted into evidence over defense objection that a proper predicate had not been laid. The trial court also denied a request to strike testimony of another witness to the effect that he had learned of the fact and time of Lloyd Walker's death "from Tallahassee."
After the jury verdict of guilty on all four counts was returned, the second phase of the bifurcated trial mandated by Section 921.141, Florida Statutes (1975), was entered. Counsel for defendant objected to the prosecutor's use of conviction on the other three counts as constituting aggravating circumstances, but this objection was overruled by the court. Another statement of the prosecutor referring to creating a great risk of death to many persons, even though there were only two victims in the instant crime, was objected to and overruled as well. The jury came back with a recommendation of the death penalty, and the judge announced the sentences discussed above.
On this appeal Meeks raises four points which he contends require reversal of his conviction for first degree murder. The only issue which we find to merit any discussion is his allegation that the corpus delicti of the crime was not proven by competent evidence.
Appellant argues that there was no testimony of the death of Lloyd Walker by any person who knew of his own independent knowledge of that event. The fact of the victim's death was sought to be established only through photographs and through the testimony of the pathologist as summarized above. No "chain of identification" was ever established. Appellant contends that the State's efforts in this area were inadequate under Jefferson v. Sweat, 76 So. 2d 494 (Fla. 1954), which states that the corpus delicti cannot be established by presumption.
There are three elements of the corpus delicti in homicide cases: (1) the fact of death, (2) the criminal agency of another person, and (3) the identity of the deceased. Lee v. State, 96 Fla. 59, 117 So. 699 (1928); Sims v. State, 184 So. 2d 217 (Fla.2d DCA 1966). In Trowell v. State, 288 So. 2d 506 (Fla. 1st DCA 1973), the Court set out nine methods by which the fact of death and the identity of the deceased could have been proven. Two of these means of proof are:
At trial in the instant case a police officer testified that he personally knew the victim, had seen him on the date of the crime with a bullet hole in the back of the head, and identified the decedent from the photographs marked for identification as State's Exhibit No. 2. Another witness gave identical testimony. The pathologist gave the testimony summarized above and also identified individual wounds, reproduced in other photographs entered into evidence by the State as exhibits numbered 3 and 4, as belonging to the individual described to him as Lloyd Walker. A state law enforcement officer testified that he attended the autopsy on the person in the photograph, noting further that that person had a wristband identifying him as Lloyd Walker. In view of the foregoing, the State clearly satisfied the criteria of Lee, Sims and Trowell, supra, and proved the existence of corpus delicti beyond all reasonable doubt.
*189 Appellant raises three points challenging the trial court's imposition of the death penalty. First, he suggests that the entire jury should have been polled as to whether a majority had recommended that sentence. This argument fails when it is realized that defense counsel specifically approved the procedure utilized by the court:
Second, appellant argues that Section 921.141(5)(b)  setting forth as an aggravating circumstance the fact that "[t]he defendant was previously convicted of another capital felony or of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person"  should not be interpreted so as to include concurrent felony convictions; e.g., the convictions for robbery, assault to commit murder, and possessing a firearm during commission of a felony in the instant case. During the second phase of the trial, the state attorney referred to these convictions as previous convictions under Section 921.141(5)(b), Florida Statutes (1975), and also argued that the instant crime created a great risk of death to many persons, an aggravating circumstance under Section 921.141(5)(c). Meeks contends that these statements were improper and inflammatory.
The actual exchange at this point in the trial follows, with the prosecutor in the process of enumerating the aggravating circumstances under the death penalty statute:
The State points out that, while the prosecutor noted that the three other felony convictions did occur prior to the jury's rendering the advisory sentence, he specifically stated that subsection (b) did not apply in this case. Although it is true that contemporaneous convictions do not qualify as an aggravating circumstance vel non under Section 921.141(5)(b), Florida Statutes (1975), we agree that the effect here could not have been prejudicial. The fact that the murder was committed in the course of a robbery was fair subject for comment, because this aspect of the crime demonstrated the existence of the aggravating circumstances enumerated in subsections (5)(d) (capital felony occurred while in commission of robbery) and (5)(f) (capital felony committed for pecuniary gain). In any event, the prosecutor did not inject new information into the jury's deliberations, because the jurors knew that they had returned the verdicts of which he spoke. Finally, the trial judge confirmed the prosecutor's initial statement by expressly finding in his order that subsection (5)(b) did not apply.
While we question the accuracy of the prosecutor's remarks to the effect that the jury could find the existence of an aggravating circumstance under Section 921.141(5)(c), Florida Statutes (1975), we reject any contention that this argument was prejudicial to the appellant. The trial court order, as reproduced infra, clearly and expressly found this aggravating circumstance to be inapplicable to the instant case.
Appellant's final point on appeal is an argument that the Florida death penalty statute is unconstitutional under the principles enunciated in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S. Ct. 2726, 33 L. Ed. 2d 346 (1972). We adhere to the position taken in State v. Dixon, 283 So. 2d 1 (Fla. 1973), and in numerous subsequent cases that the statute is in fact constitutional.[1]
Pursuant to Section 921.141(4), Florida Statutes (1975), and Florida Appellate Rule 6.16(b), we have reviewed the record in this case in its entirety. We adopt as our own the analysis of the able trial judge as to aggravating and mitigating circumstances:
Mindful of our unique role in the process by which justice is done in capital cases, we have considered the disposition of Meeks' accomplice in the instant case, Homer Hardwick. Hardwick was tried for murder some six weeks after appellant's trial. Meeks testified for the State, recalling and recounting this incident consistently with the story he told the psychiatrist at the examination to which the trial judge referred in the excerpt of the court order quoted above. Hardwick testified that Meeks compelled his participation in the crime by threatening him with a gun, that Meeks fired all shots into the bodies of Lloyd Walker and Dianne Allen, and that he himself ran from the store after Meeks fired the third shot and did not see the appellant until the next day. Hardwick was found guilty on all counts, but the jury recommended a life sentence. The circuit judge, who had tried Meeks six weeks earlier, sentenced Hardwick to life imprisonment.[3]
We are extremely sensitive to the demands of equality before the law in cases in which we must consider whether a sentence of death should be upheld. Our reading of Furman, supra, convinces us that identical crimes committed by people with similar criminal histories require identical sentences. It is this uniformity and predictability of result which Section 921.141, Florida Statutes (1975), seeks to accomplish. But there was evidence, discussed above, from which the jury in Hardwick's trial could have concluded that Meeks was the dominant figure in this criminal episode. This is a bona fide mitigating circumstance under Section 921.141(6)(d) and (e), Florida Statutes (1975). The presence of such testimony, accompanied by Hardwick's youth, sufficiently differentiates the cases of the two men so that Furman's dictates are not violated by the imposition of different penalties.
In conclusion, the aggravating and mitigating circumstances surrounding the appellant's commission of this truly senseless crime convince us that the death penalty is justified.
The judgment and sentence are affirmed.
OVERTON, C.J., ROBERTS, ADKINS, BOYD, ENGLAND and SUNDBERG, JJ., and RUDD, Circuit Court Judge, concur.
[1]  The U.S. Supreme Court reached the same conclusion in Proffitt v. Florida, ___ U.S. ___, 96 S. Ct. 2960, 49 L. Ed. 2d 913, Opinion filed July 2, 1976.
[2]  The trial court order refers to aggravating and mitigating circumstances as appearing under subsections (6) and (7), respectively, of § 921.141, Fla. Stat., rather than under subsections (5) and (6), respectively.
[3]  We note in passing that Hardwick's conviction was recently affirmed by the First District Court of Appeal. Hardwick v. State, 335 So. 2d 307, Fla. 1st DCA, opinion filed June 30, 1976.