Case Name: Davidson Joel JAMES, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee
Court: Florida Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1993-03-04
Citations: 615 So. 2d 668
Docket Number: No. 78161
Parties: Davidson Joel JAMES, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Judges: BARKETT, C.J., and OVERTON, SHAW and HARDING, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 615
Pages: 668–671

Head Matter:
Davidson Joel JAMES, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 78161.
Supreme Court of Florida.
March 4, 1993.
Larry Helm Spalding, Capital Collateral Representative and Mary Elizabeth Wells, Asst. CCR, Office of the Capital Collateral Representative, Tallahassee, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen. and Robert J. Landry, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellee.

Opinion:
McDONALD, Justice.
Davidson Joel James, a prisoner on death row, appeals the trial court's summary denial of his second motion for postconviction relief. We have jurisdiction. Art. Y, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const.; Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.850. We reverse the trial court's order and direct the court to conduct a new penalty proceeding and resentence James.
A jury convicted James of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and armed robbery and recommended that he be sentenced to death, which the trial court did. We affirmed his convictions and sentences on direct appeal. James v. State, 453 So.2d 786 (Fla.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1098, 105 S.Ct. 608, 83 L.Ed.2d 717 (1984). After the signing of his death warrant in 1986, we denied James' petition for writ of habeas corpus and affirmed the trial court's denial of his first motion for postconviction relief. James v. Wainwright, 484 So.2d 1235 (Fla.), cert. denied, 477 U.S. 909, 106 S.Ct. 3285, 91 L.Ed.2d 574 (1986); James v. State, 489 So.2d 737 (Fla. 1986).
In the instant appeal James raises eight issues based on Hitchcock v. Dugger, 481 U.S. 393, 107 S.Ct. 1821, 95 L.Ed.2d 347 (1987), and argues that the trial court erred in summarily denying his motion. The trial court denied the motion without a hearing and held that no Hitchcock error occurred and that the other issues were procedurally barred because they could have been raised or were raised previously. Cf Davis v. State, 589 So.2d 896 (Fla.1991) (Hitchcock is not broad enough to lift the procedural bar of non -Hitchcock issues). We agree with the trial court's ruling except for one issue.
While this appeal was pending, the United States Supreme Court declared our former instruction on the heinous, atrocious, or cruel aggravator inadequate. Espinosa v. Florida, — U.S.-, 112 S.Ct. 2926, 120 L.Ed.2d 854 (1992). Claims that the instruction on the heinous, atrocious, or cruel aggravator is unconstitutionally vague are procedurally barred unless a specific objection on that ground is made at trial and pursued on appeal. Melendez v. State, 612 So.2d 1366 (Fla.1992). James, however, objected to the then-standard instruction at trial, asked for an expanded instruction, and argued on appeal against the constitutionality of the instruction his jury received. Because of this it would not be fair to deprive him of the Espinosa ruling.
In closing argument the state attorney argued forcefully that the murder was heinous, atrocious, or cruel. On appeal, on the other hand, we held that the facts did not support finding that aggravator. James, 453 So.2d at 792. Striking that aggravator left four valid ones to be weighed against no mitigators, and we believe that the trial court's consideration of the invalid aggravator was harmless error. We cannot say beyond a reasonable doubt, however, that the invalid instruction did not affect the jury's consideration or that its recommendation would have been the same if the requested expanded instruction had been given. Therefore, we reverse the trial court's order as to the last issue regarding the constitutionality of the instruction on the heinous, atrocious, or cruel ag-gravator. The trial court is directed to empanel a new jury, to hold a new sentencing proceeding, and to resentence James.
It is so ordered.
BARKETT, C.J., and OVERTON, SHAW and HARDING, JJ., concur.
KOGAN, J., concurs in result only.
GRIMES, J., dissents with an opinion.
. In James v. Singletary, 957 F.2d 1562 (11th Cir.1992), the federal circuit court recently directed the federal district court to conduct an evidentiary hearing on James' claim that he was incompetent to stand trial.
. The issues currently raised are: 1) James' death sentence violated Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978), Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 102 S.Ct. 869, 71 L.Ed.2d 1 (1982), and Hitchcock v. Dugger, 481 U.S. 393, 107 S.Ct. 1821, 95 L.Ed.2d 347 (1987); 2) the state used nonstatutory aggrava-tors and other impermissible factors in arguing that James should be sentenced to death; 3) the murder was not cold, calculated, and premeditated; 4) the burden of showing life imprisonment to be the appropriate sentence was improperly shifted to James; 5) the sentence is improperly predicated on an automatic aggravator; 6) the jury was misled in regards to recommending mercy; 7) the jury was incorrectly instructed on the vote needed for its recommendation; and 8) the instruction on the heinous, atrocious, or cruel aggravator is unconstitutional.
.The same is true for challenges to the constitutionality of the instruction on the cold, calculated, and premeditated aggravator. James did not object to the form of that instruction, and his current argument as to its validity is procedurally barred.