Source: https://m.openjurist.org/666/f2d/966
Timestamp: 2020-01-19 14:28:14
Document Index: 267598123

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 776', '§ 776', '§ 2254', '§ 782', '§ 776', '§ 776', '§ 782', '§ 782']

666 F. 2d 966 - Cobb v. L Wainwright
666 F2d 966 Cobb v. L Wainwright
666 F.2d 966
William D. COBB, Petitioner-Appellant,
Honorable Daniel H. Thomas, District Judge for the Southern District of Alabama, sitting by designation
The petitioner informs this court in his Petition for Rehearing that the trial court improperly instructed the jury as to the 1974 version of Fla.Stat. § 776.05 rather than the 1975 version. Petitioner apparently did not raise this issue in the trial court and did not assert it on direct appeal or in his application for writ of habeas corpus. The issue is therefore not properly before us. See Galtieri v. Wainwright, 582 F.2d 348 (5th Cir. 1978). Thus, for the purpose of this appeal, we assume, as did the district court and Florida Supreme Court, that the trial judge properly instructed the jury as to Fla.Stat. § 776.05 (1975). If he did not, this opinion should not be read as precluding the petitioner from properly raising in state court the claim that the jury was improperly charged
Other evidence presented at trial included the testimony of those who arrived on the scene after the killings, those with whom Cobb discussed the events of the day, the medical examiner who examined the victims, experts in the fields of serology and ballistics, and a number of other witnesses
Following his conviction in the trial court, petitioner appealed to the District Court of Appeal in Florida, Fourth District. The appeal was transferred to the Florida Supreme Court, which upheld the conviction. Cobb v. State, 376 So.2d 230 (Fla.1979). Because Cobb raised the same issues in his direct appeal that he presents as grounds for federal habeas corpus relief, he has sufficiently exhausted his state judicial remedies within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b). Picard v. Connor, 404 U.S. 270, 92 S.Ct. 509, 30 L.Ed.2d 438 (1971); Galtieri v. Wainwright, 582 F.2d 348 (5th Cir. 1978) (en banc)
For other Supreme Court decisions discussing the precision with which statutes must define proscribed activities, see e.g., United States v. Harriss, 347 U.S. 612, 74 S.Ct. 808, 98 L.Ed. 989 (1953) ("if the general class of offenses to which the statute is directed is plainly within its terms, the statute will not be struck down as vague, even though marginal cases could be put where doubts might arise"); United States v. Petrillo, 332 U.S. 1, 67 S.Ct. 1538, 91 L.Ed. 1877 (1947) ("That there may be marginal cases in which it is difficult to determine the side of the line on which a particular fact situation falls is not sufficient reason to hold that that statutory language is too ambiguous to define a criminal offense.")
Fla.Stat. § 782.02 (1975) provides that "(t)he use of deadly force is justifiable when a person is resisting any attempt to murder such person or to commit any felony upon him or upon or in any dwelling house in which such person shall be."
Chapter 776 of the Florida Statutes contains a number of provisions defining the justifiable use of force in various circumstances. Relevant for the purposes of this case are Fla.Stat. §§ 776.05, 776.06, and 776.07. Fla.Stat. § 776.05 (1975) states that
Fla.Stat. § 782.03 (1975) defines excusable homicide as a homicide
Construing Fla.Stat. § 782.11 in this manner is consistent with established Florida law, which provides that a statutory provision must be read in the context of the entire statute. See Cambell v. State, 240 So.2d 298 (Fla.1970); Carter v. State, 155 So.2d 787 (Fla.1963)
Cobb v. State, 376 So.2d 230, 231 (Fla.1979)