Opinion ID: 1717744
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Habeas Corpus Disposition

Text: The petition for habeas corpus asserts that the briefs submitted to this Court on appeal were poorly written and failed to properly present the necessary legal issues to provide a fair review of petitioner's trial. The briefs by counsel on the initial appeal, while not a model of legal writing, did set forth 23 asserted points of error. In our opinion, reported at 338 So.2d 201, we expressly discussed issues concerning the partiality of a juror, the pervasiveness of the pretrial publicity, the denial of a change of venue, the admission of certain evidence as being part of the res gestae, the authority to prosecute upon felony murder when the indictment charged premeditated murder, and the appropriateness of the death sentence. Poor writing style is not a ground for relief. The petitioner sets forth four legal errors which he contends his appellate counsel should have presented to this Court on appeal, arguing that the failure to present those issues to the Court resulted in his being denied reasonably effective assistance of counsel. The asserted legal errors concern: (1) the trial court's failure to instruct the jury on elements of the underlying felony; (2) the trial court's failure to instruct the jury on the result of a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity; (3) the trial court's exclusion of the witness Pat Duval from testifying in the cause; (4) the trial court's application of the statutory aggravating and mitigating circumstances and its failure to find any mitigating circumstances. We will address these points individually and apply the standards adopted in Part II to determine whether counsel for this petitioner provided reasonably effective assistance in the initial appeal. The first issue concerns the trial judge's failure to instruct the jury on the elements of the underlying felony. The petitioner contends that our decision in Robles v. State, 188 So.2d 789 (Fla. 1966), is determinative and that a trial court's failure to give an adequate instruction on the underlying felony is a fatal error even when such instruction has not been requested by the defendant. Subsequent to our opinion on the initial appeal in this cause, we decided State v. Jones, 377 So.2d 1163 (Fla. 1979), which reaffirmed our decision in Robles v. State. The record in the instant case reflects that the trial judge gave the general definitive instructions for homicide but did not specifically instruct upon the elements of the underlying felony of kidnapping or robbery. There was no request or objection by petitioner's trial counsel to this failure to give these instructions. It is clear that in both Robles and Jones the primary charge was felony murder and the state in neither case contended the evidence was sufficient to establish premeditated murder. We expressly noted in Jones that there was no contention that there was sufficient evidence to establish premeditated murder. We conclude that where there is sufficient evidence of premeditation, the failure to give the underlying felony instruction, where it has not been requested, is not error which mandates a reversal absent a showing of prejudice. See Frazier v. State, 107 So.2d 16 (Fla. 1958). We find the failure of appellate counsel, who was also trial counsel, to raise this issue is not an omission that was a serious deficiency, and we further find that no prejudice was shown. In fact, an argument could be made under the facts of this case that giving the underlying felony instruction would have been more of a detriment than a benefit to this petitioner. This stems from the fact that one of the arguments of the petitioner at trial was the lack of direct evidence that Knight actually killed the victims. Indeed, the record reflects that there was strong circumstantial evidence but no direct eyewitness evidence of the actual killings, in contrast to the considerable direct evidence, including numerous law enforcement eyewitnesses, that Knight was the perpetrator of the kidnapping and robbery. However, the record in this cause, and in particular the final argument of counsel, demonstrates that the state, although it mentioned felony murder, strongly argued premeditated murder to the jury. The record reflects that there is not only sufficient but overwhelming evidence of premeditated murder. We find that under the circumstances of this case and our review of the record that neither Robles nor Jones applies, but Frazier does apply. We are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the failure to give the instruction at issue was not prejudicial and did not contribute to the petitioner's conviction. See Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967). The second identified failure of appellate counsel is the assertion that he should have anticipated this Court's ruling in Roberts v. State, 335 So.2d 285 (Fla. 1976), and requested an instruction on the consequences of the verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. Our decision in Roberts was decided subsequent to trial, briefs and oral argument in this cause. In Roberts there was a specific request at the trial court level for the instruction, and we adopted the rule of law expressed in Lyles v. United States, 254 F.2d 725 (D.C. Cir.1957), cert. denied, 356 U.S. 961, 78 S.Ct. 997, 2 L.Ed.2d 1067 (1958), cert. denied, 362 U.S. 943, 80 S.Ct. 809, 4 L.Ed.2d 771 (1960), cert. denied, 368 U.S. 992, 82 S.Ct. 610, 7 L.Ed.2d 529 (1962). Clearly, our Roberts decision did not adopt a rule of law dictated by the United States Supreme Court, the United States constitution, or the Florida constitution, nor did it apply retroactively to any pending decisions except those in which that issue had been preserved and which were actually pending on appeal. Petitioner's counsel in oral argument recognized the well established rule of law that there is no requirement that counsel, to be reasonably effective, must anticipate changes in the law. See Parker v. North Carolina, 397 U.S. 790, 90 S.Ct. 1458, 25 L.Ed.2d 785 (1970). There clearly was no substantial deficiency by appellate counsel and no prejudice stemming from the failure to raise this issue. The third asserted omission by appellate counsel concerns his failure to raise as error the exclusion of testimony by witness Pat Duval. The testimony of this witness was proffered at trial to show the jury that, given the family history of abuse and incest by the father of the petitioner, the feelings professed by the petitioner to the expert witnesses about his father were in fact inappropriate. The proposed witness Duval was not an expert witness and our review of the record reveals that the ruling of the trial judge was clearly within his discretion and was proper under the circumstances of this case. The failure to raise this issue on appeal was not a substantial deficiency by appellate counsel, and there was no prejudice. The fourth asserted omission of appellate counsel concerns his failure to argue an improper doubling of the aggravating circumstances and of failure to properly present mitigating circumstances for reevaluation by this Court. The record does reflect that the trial judge doubled up certain listed aggravating circumstances but that in and of itself is not error. See Hargrave v. State, 366 So.2d 1 (Fla. 1978); Washington v. State, 362 So.2d 658 (Fla. 1978); Elledge v. State, 346 So.2d 998 (Fla. 1977). What is important is that the aggravating circumstances considered by the trial judge were in fact statutory aggravating circumstances. The full sentencing order is set forth in the original opinion and reflects full and considered judgment by the trial judge and this Court of all the aggravating and mitigating circumstances. The trial judge specifically addressed and evaluated the mental condition of the petitioner as it should be applied under section 921.141(6)(b), (f), Florida Statutes (1973). He had heard the testimony of five experts concerning the mental condition of the petitioner and determined that it should not be considered a mitigating factor. Our decision in Provence v. State, 337 So.2d 783 (Fla. 1976), upon which the petitioner principally relies, does not control because there were no mitigating circumstances. See Elledge v. State . Provence was decided in July of 1976, seven months after the initial brief was filed on the appeal and three months after oral argument. Under the circumstances, we find there was no substantial deficiency in appellate counsel for failure to present this issue to the Court and no demonstrated prejudice to the petitioner. We have carefully reviewed the petition, the record in this cause, and the record in the original cause concerning the asserted issues to make our findings in this proceeding. We are very mindful that this is a death case, that an execution warrant has been signed, and that our findings from these records must now be presumed correct by any federal court that reviews these proceedings, absent certain factors enumerated in 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (d) (1976). See Sumner v. Mata, ___ U.S. ___, 101 S.Ct. 764, 66 L.Ed.2d 722 (1981). We conclude the record is clear that there was no substantial deficiency in the petitioner's representation on appeal by which the petitioner was prejudiced. The petition for habeas corpus is denied, as is the stay of execution of sentence. No petition for rehearing will be entertained. It is so ordered. ADKINS, BOYD, OVERTON, ALDERMAN and McDONALD, JJ., concur. SUNDBERG, C.J., concurs in result only. ENGLAND, J., did not participate in the consideration of this case.