Case Name: Juan RIVERA, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2003-01-31
Citations: 840 So. 2d 284
Docket Number: No. 5D00-2697
Parties: Juan RIVERA, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Judges: SHARP, W., J., concurs specially, with opinion.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 840
Pages: 284–294

Head Matter:
Juan RIVERA, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 5D00-2697.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
Jan. 31, 2003.
Rehearing Denied March 21, 2003.
James B. Gibson, Public Defender, and Brynn Newton, Assistant Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for Appellant.
Charlie Crist, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Tammy L. Jaques, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Ap-pellee.

Opinion:
SAWAYA, J.
Juan Rivera appeals his judgment and sentence for burglary of a dwelling and third-degree felony theft. We affirm.
During the trial, the only contested issue was whether the victim properly identified Rivera as the person who committed the alleged crimes. The victim testified that when she returned home to her apartment during the afternoon, she found Rivera, who did not have permission to be in her apartment, inside holding her video cassette recorder and her Super Nintendo. The victim recognized Rivera because she had previously seen him in the apartment complex. She testified that he fled when he became aware of her presence. After the police located Rivera in the apartment complex, the victim identified him as the burglar.
Rivera testified and presented the jury with a rather bizarre story. Rivera explained that on the day of the burglary, he was awakened about 1:00 p.m. by a phone call. About that time, the maintenance man knocked on his door. Rivera answered the knock. As the two men conversed in the doorway, the victim suddenly appeared and, much to Rivera's surprise and chagrin, accused him of the burglary. Shocked and angered, Rivera retreated inside his apartment. A short time later, Rivera looked out his window and saw the victim talking to several men. He left his apartment and ran toward the men, one of whom he thought was a law enforcement officer, to proclaim his innocence. Based on this version of the events, which the jury apparently did not believe, Rivera argued that the victim misidentified him as the perpetrator of the crime.
During closing argument, the prosecutor told the jury that "[i]n order for you to find him not guilty, which you have the prerogative to do, but you're going to have to essentially be saying that [the victim's] identification sucks." Rivera objected to this comment on the ground that it improperly shifted the burden of proof. The objection was overruled by the trial court. This objection is the basis for the specific issue we must resolve: whether the prosecutor's comment shifted the burden of proof to Rivera and, therefore, requires reversal and a new trial.
At the outset, we want to make it clear that we do not condone the particular language used by the prosecutor. However, it is the message, not the vernacular used by the messenger, that lies at the heart of the issue in this case.
There are legal standards by which courts should judge whether alleged improper comments made during closing argument require reversal. Closing argument is the part of the trial proceedings wherein each party is given the opportunity to summarize the evidence that has been presented to the jury regarding the issues in the case. McArthur v. State, 801 So.2d 1037 (Fla. 5th DCA 2001). Wide latitude is given the parties so that they may "advance all legitimate arguments and draw logical inferences from the evidence." Id. at 1040 (citations omitted).
Trial judges are generally accorded broad discretion in controlling the comments of the parties in closing argument to the jury and the decisions they render relative to objections directed to particular comments are reviewed pursu ant to the abuse of discretion standard. Id. "In order to determine whether improper remarks constitute reversible error, they should be reviewed within the context of the closing argument as a whole arid considered cumulatively within the context of the entire record." Id. (citing Brooks v. State, 762 So.2d 879 (Fla.2000); Cochran v. State, 711 So.2d 1159 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998)). Thus, a comment standing alone may be viewed as inappropriate, but when considered within the context of the entire closing argument and the record, it may be a fair comment.
In order to place the prosecutor's comment within the proper context, it is important to again emphasize that the only contested issue in this case was the victim's identification of Rivera as the person who committed the burglary. Rivera admitted in opening statement and throughout the course of the trial that a burglary occurred; he simply denied that the victim properly identified him as the person who did it.
Rivera specifically argues that the comment made by the prosecutor im-permissibly shifted the burden of proof to him, pointing out that due process protections make it impermissible for the state to comment on a defendant's failure to testify or produce evidence to refute an element of the crime because doing so could erroneously lead the jury to believe that the defendant carried the burden of introducing evidence. See Rodriguez v. State, 753 So.2d 29 (Fla.2000). While we agree with Rivera's statement of the law, we do not agree that the comment challenged by Rivera functioned as an impermissible burden-shifting comment.
The court in Gore v. State, 719 So.2d 1197 (Fla.1998), explained the types of comments that may constitute improper burden-shifting:
The standard for a criminal conviction is not which side is more believable, but whether, taking all the evidence into consideration, the State has proven every essential element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. For that reason, it is error for a prosecutor to make statements that shift the burden of proof and invite the jury to convict the defendant for some reason other than that the State has proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt. See Northard v. State, 675 So.2d 652, 653 (Fla. 4th DCA), review denied, 680 So.2d 424 (Fla.1996); Clewis v. State, 605 So.2d 974, 974 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992); Bass v. State, 547 So.2d 680, 682 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989). Here, the prosecutor's statement, "[i]f you believe he's lying to you, he's guilty," was nothing more than an exhortation to the jury to convict Gore if it found he did not tell the truth. Thus, it was a clearly impermissible argument. See Bass, 547 So.2d at 682; cf. Craig v. State, 510 So.2d 857, 865 (Fla.1987).
Id. at 1200-01. Other examples of comments by prosecutors that the courts have held improperly shift the burden of proof include: telling the jurors that if they believed the police officers instead of the defendant, then they should find the defendant guilty; informing the jurors that the defendant did not have tests performed on evidence found at the scene, such as hair and blood samples, to determine that the evidence did not come from him; commenting on the failure of the defendant to call witnesses; arguing that the defendant's request for a jury instruction regarding self defense is an admission by the defendant that he is guilty; and misadvis-ing the jurors that they have to believe the testimony of the defendant over that of the police officers to have a reasonable doubt.
What each of these examples has in common, as the court in Gore aptly noted, is the prosecutor's invitation to convict the defendant for a specific reason other than the state's proof of the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt, i.e., because the defendant failed to mount a defense by not testifying, presenting evidence to prove his or her innocence, or refuting an element of the crime. We conclude that the prosecutor's statement in the instant case can in no way be construed to be a comment on Rivera's failure to mount a defense by not testifying or presenting evidence. Rivera did present a defense and he did testify. His testimony and his defense were that, although a burglary did occur, the victim of that crime misidentified him as the person who committed it. The prosecutor simply commented on that defense and testimony by advising the jurors that they had the prerogative of finding Rivera not guilty if they believed, as Rivera argued, that the victim's identification was inaccurate and unworthy of belief. Therefore, the prosecutor's statement was not a burden-shifting comment that is improper under the case law that has addressed this issue.
Moreover, assuming solely for purposes of argument that the comment was improper, the comment would not constitute reversible error for two reasons. First, Rivera invited it. Based on notions of fundamental fairness, the doctrine of invited response allows the state to comment on the issues raised by the defendant. As we have previously explained, in his opening statement and throughout the course of the entire trial, Rivera made it clear that the only contested issue was the victim's identification. Furthermore, misidentification was a central theme of defense counsel's closing argument, which exhorted the jurors that the victim's identification was unworthy of belief and that they must find the defendant not guilty. Telling the jury that to find Rivera not guilty, which they had the prerogative to do, they would have to find the victim's identification unworthy of belief is nothing more than a restatement of Rivera's defense and closing argument. "A defendant is not at liberty to complain about a prosecutor's comments in closing argument when the comment is an invited response." Bell v. State, 758 So.2d 1266, 1266 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000) (citing Parker v. State, 641 So.2d 369 (Fla.1994)). Second, the error, if one is presumed, would be harmless based on the evidence and testimony presented during the trial, especially the prosecutor's effective cross-examination of Rivera which exposed many glaring inconsistencies in his testimony.
AFFIRMED.
SHARP, W., J., concurs specially, with opinion.
THOMPSON, C.J., dissents, with opinion.
. The courts recognize a limited exception to this rule, however, that allows the prosecutor to comment on the absence of evidence when the defendant voluntarily raises an issue that the defendant must prove. Rodriguez. For example, "asserting the defenses of alibi, self-defense, and defense of others, or by relying on facts that could be elicited only from a witness who is not equally available to the state" may prompt the prosecutor to comment on the lack of proof directed to those issues. Otero v. State, 754 So.2d 765, 769 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000) (citing Jackson v. State, 575 So.2d 181 (Fla.1991)); Raupp v. State, 678 So.2d 1358, 1361 (Fla. 5th DCA 1996) ("Defendant did not assert the defenses of alibi, self-defense, or defense of others, and thus he could not be said to have asserted any claim whereby he carried any burden of proof. Defendant's theory of defense was simply denial that he had committed the charged offense.").
. See Freeman v. State, 717 So.2d 105 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998).
. See Hayes v. State, 660 So.2d 257 (Fla.1995).
. See Raupp.
. See Keyes v. State, 804 So.2d 373 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001).
. See Clewis v. State, 605 So.2d 974 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992).
. See Barwick v. State, 660 So.2d 685 (Fla.1995); Dufour v. State, 495 So.2d 154 (Fla.1986); State v. Mathis, 278 So.2d 280, 281 (Fla.1973) ("Here the challenged remark in closing argument of the prosecutor . was really an 'invited response' by the preceding argument of defense counsel regarding the same subject. It was a fair reply not violative of the Rule and which we would approve in these circumstances."); State v. Compo, 651 So.2d 127, 130 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995) ("Fundamental notions of fairness required that the state be allowed to comment on the . issues raised by the defendant.") (citation omitted).