Title: Adkins v. Smith

State: florida

Issuer: Florida Supreme Court

Document:

205 So. 2d 530 (1967)
Dorothy ADKINS, Petitioner,
v.
D.C. SMITH, Circuit Judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit in and for Indian River County, Florida, Respondent.
No. 36484.

Supreme Court of Florida.
December 19, 1967.
Rehearing Denied January 16, 1968.
Walter T. Erickson, Vero Beach, for petitioner.
Earl Faircloth, Atty. Gen., and James T. Carlisle, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
*531 ROBERTS, Justice.
The petitioner brings here for review a decision of the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, which denied a writ of prohibition sought to abate the prosecution of petitioner for first dergee murder. The historical background and questions presented are set forth in the opinion of the District Court reported in Adkins v. Smith, 197 So. 2d 865, as follows: 
The District Court then proceeded to hold there was no proper basis for the entry of the mistrial, but that petitioner (defendant in the murder case) could not complain since the overall circumstances "clearly manifest defendant's willingness to accept the declaration of a mistrial and thereby constituted sufficient consent to preclude petitioner from raising the defense of double jeopardy in her subsequent prosecution on the same indictment." Thus, this court is presented with the following two points involved: 
As to the first point, we are in accord and approve the holding of the appellate court below that the conduct of petitioner was sufficient to preclude petitioner from raising the defense of double jeopardy in any subsequent prosecution.
As to the second point, we conclude that it was error for the appellate court below to hold that the trial court, under the circumstances present in this case, improperly entered a judgment of mistrial. At the outset it is noteworthy that the prisoner, with her counsel's consent, set in motion the circumstances by having walked out of the courtroom and into the hall immediately prior to the discussion by a juror with the judge relative to an illness of juror's wife which would make it very inconvenient for him to remain away from home overnight. In State ex rel. Dato v. Himes (Fla.), 184 So. 244, 247, this court listed as one circumstance for entering a mistrial with the right preserved for a second trial "where the prisoner by his own misconduct places it out of the power of the jury to investigate his case correctly, thereby obtaining an unfair advantage of the state * * *".
The question here under consideration was discussed by this court in State v. Grayson, Fla., 90 So. 2d 710, in which it announced illustrations of urgent or necessary reasons that would justify the entry of an order declaring a mistrial. These reasons were illustrative but not exclusive. We announced the rule there that where a jury is discharged for legally insufficient reasons and without necessity and without the defendant's consent, such discharge would preclude a subsequent trial for the same offense. But in determining what is a legally sufficient reason, the trial court must be armed with discretion since he is conducting the trial and familiar with circumstances, tensions and conditions which may be present in the courtroom. The matter of the trial judge's discretion in such cases was discussed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Gori v. United States, 367 U.S. 364, 81 S. Ct. 1523, 6 L. Ed. 2d 901, in which that court affirmed Gori's conviction at his second trial on a charge he had knowingly received and possessed goods stolen in interstate commerce. After his first trial had been terminated by the trial judge's declaration of a mistrial sua sponte and without petitioner's express consent but concedingly in the trial court's exercise of discretion out of regard for petitioner's interest, the court held that the second trial was not double jeopardy, and said: 
In State v. Farmer (New Jersey 1966), 48 N.J. 145, 224 A.2d 481, a plea of double jeopardy was denied. In a prosecution for murder the trial court sua sponte declared a mistrial and later denied defendant's motion to dismiss the indictment on the ground of double jeopardy. The mistrial had been declared on the morning of the first day. The New Jersey Supreme Court in an exhaustive treatise on the subject, said: 
In the case sub judice the trial judge was confronted with a situation where the wife of one of the jurors was sick, the defendant had improperly walked out of the courtroom while the trial judge was discussing the illness with the juror, and where considerable discussion had followed, participated in by the court, the prosecuting attorney and defense counsel. Not being sure of his ground under all the circumstances present, and ultimately in the interest of the defendant having a fair trial, and the right of the public preserved, the trial judge exercised his discretion that the entry of the mistrial judgment was for good cause, and in so doing he did not abuse his discretion, and a plea of double jeopardy at a subsequent trial will not be sustained.
Accordingly, it is our opinion and we hold, that in entering the mistrial for cause the trial judge acted within the orbit of his reasonable discretion, the plea of double jeopardy is not good, and the District Court was eminently correct in denying a writ of prohibition. Insofar as the opinion of the District Court may appear to be in conflict, the District Court's opinion is modified to conform to the rule herein announced.
The writ of certiorari is discharged.
It is so ordered.
CALDWELL, C.J., and THOMAS and ERVIN, JJ., concur.
DREW, J., agrees to judgment.