Case Name: STATE of Florida, Petitioner, v. Clotilde Estela MENNA, Respondent
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2001-07-13
Citations: 793 So. 2d 1029
Docket Number: No. 5D01-387
Parties: STATE of Florida, Petitioner, v. Clotilde Estela MENNA, Respondent.
Judges: THOMPSON, C.J., and ORFINGER, R.B., J., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 793
Pages: 1029–1032

Head Matter:
STATE of Florida, Petitioner, v. Clotilde Estela MENNA, Respondent.
No. 5D01-387.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
July 13, 2001.
Rehearing Denied Sept. 14, 2001.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Belle B. Schumann, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Petitioner.
Michael J. Snure of Kirkconneh, Lindsey and Snure, P.A., Winter Park, for Respondent.

Opinion:
COBB, J.
The state seeks certiorari review of an order of the trial court excluding evidence of the defendant's failure to submit to a gunshot residue test. The defendant was charged with the first-degree murder of her husband. The defendant filed a motion in limine to exclude evidence that the defendant refused to submit to a gunshot residue test. The trial court held an evi-dentiary hearing and subsequently granted the defendant's motion.
The trial court found the following facts: Two detectives from the Orange County Sheriffs Office met with the defendant at the hospital after the defendant's husband's death. The defendant was not in custody at this time. The detectives informed the defendant that they would like to perform a non-invasive swabbing of the defendant's hands to eliminate the possibility that the defendant had recently fired a gun. The detectives informed the defendant that technicians would be there shortly to conduct the test. The detectives did not tell the defendant that her refusal to take the test could be used in court nor did they tell her that it would not be used in court. The detectives did not tell the defendant that she was required to take the test. The defendant attempted to contact her attorney but was unsuccessful. A detective testified that shortly after this conversation, the defendant refused to take the test, and visited the bathroom several times and came out drying her hands, apparently having washed them.
The trial court relied on Herring v. State, 501 So.2d 19 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986) in concluding that the defendant did not know that her refusal to take the test was anything but a "safe harbor" and she was never apprised of the adverse consequences which might result from her refusal to take the test. Therefore, her refusal did not reflect a consciousness of guilt. On this basis, the trial court suppressed the evidence.
The state contends the trial court departed from the essential requirements of the law in excluding the evidence. The state argues that Herring has in effect been overruled by the Florida Supreme Court in Occhicone v. State, 570 So.2d 902 (Fla.1990), cert. denied, 500 U.S. 938, 111 S.Ct. 2067, 114 L.Ed.2d 471 (1991) and rejected by this court in State v. Burns, 661 So.2d 842 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995), rev. dismissed, 676 So.2d 1366 (Fla.1996). The defendant contends that the rationale in Herring is sound and the Florida Supreme Court has subsequently utilized its rationale. See State v. Taylor, 648 So.2d 701 (Fla.1996).
In Herring, a defendant, shortly after his arrest on a charge of first-degree murder, was asked if he would submit to a "hand swab test for gunshot residue." The defendant was not told that he was required by law to take the test nor that his refusal to do so could be used against him. At trial, testimony of the defendant's refusal to "have his hands swabbed" was admitted over the defendant's objections. The Third District held that because the defendant was not told that his refusal to submit to the test would have .adverse consequences to him he had no motivation to submit and his refusal was a "safe harbor." Id. at 21. The court reasoned that because a person's natural inclination is to proceed to a "safe harbor," his decision to do so cannot be considered circumstantial evidence probative of his consciousness of guilt. The court, in rejecting the state's argument that because the test was compulsory the defendant's refusal was admissible, reasoned that in order for the defendant's refusal to have any probative value as to the defendant's consciousness of guilt, the defendant must be aware of the compulsory nature of the test. Id. at 21.
In Occhicone, the Court distinguished Herring from a case where a defendant asserted a defense of diminished capacity and the state sought to introduce evidence of the defendant's refusal to allow his hands to be swabbed for a gunshot test to refute the defendant's claim that his state of constant intoxication prevented his knowing what he was doing. The distinction between Herring and Occhicone is that in Herring the evidence was to be used to show consciousness of guilt while in Occhicone the evidence was only used to refute the defendant's diminished capacity claim. The state relies on a separate concurrence of Justice Grimes which questions the basis for the decision in Herring.
Justice Grimes' separate opinion has been cited with approval in Wilson v. State, 596 So.2d 775 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992) and State v. Bums. In Wilson the court questioned the reasoning in Herring and allowed evidence of the defendant's refusal to submit to a court ordered handwriting exemplar test. In Bums this court, without reference to Herring, held that evidence of the defendant's refusal to perform physical non-testimonial field sobriety tests was admissible, citing Wilson and relying on Justice Grimes' separate opinion in Occhicone. Justice Grimes' special concurrence in that case set forth the applicable law: