Opinion ID: 1903844
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Disclosure of Confidential Information at Penalty Phase

Text: Bruno argues that his trial counsel substantially prejudiced the outcome of his penalty phase proceedings when trial counsel divulged confidential and damaging information to the trial court by informing the court during the penalty phase that he was completely surprised by Dr. Stillman's testimony that Bruno was insane at the time of the offense. After Stillman made the surprise disclosure that he believed Bruno was insane at the time of the crime, defense counsel approached both the court and the prosecutor and told them that Stillman had personally assured him many times just the opposite-that Bruno was totally competent. Critically, the prosecutor later used this assurance during closing argument to completely impeach Stillman's testimony, and the sentencing court subsequently rejected Stillman's penalty phase testimony in toto. Bruno claims that his lawyer was ineffective because counsel's disclosures completely discredited Bruno's most important mitigation witness and his only expert witness, thereby conceding away virtually his entire case for mitigation. At the postconviction evidentiary hearing, the trial court ruled that this claim was procedurally barred because a similar issue was addressed on direct appeal. This ruling is clearly erroneous since this issue is part of an ineffectiveness claim which we have consistently held cannot be legally raised on direct appeal. On the merits, it appears that the lawyer was taken by complete surprise due to his own lack of preparation for the penalty phase, and he was so eager to assure the court and the prosecutor that he was not negligent that he sacrificed the welfare of a client on trial for his life. Through his lack of preparation and panic announcement to the trial court, he eliminated any reasonable chance that the judge or jury would find that any mitigation had been established through the expert's testimony. Indeed the trial court expressly rejected the expert's testimony and found that no mitigating circumstances had been established for the defendant. The record reflects that trial counsel called Dr. Stillman, a psychiatrist appointed to evaluate Bruno, to testify about Bruno's mental state and drug usage. During direct examination, Stillman actually testified to the existence of some mitigation. According to Stillman, Bruno suffered from a passive-aggressive personality, and he also exhibited signs of a schizophrenic-type disorder when he was under the influence of drugs. For example, Stillman testified that Bruno's tattoos demonstrate the utter confusion in his thinking. Stillman testified that Bruno started using L.S.D. and marijuana when he was married and that his drug abuse progressively worsened over the years. When his wife left him, he tried to kill himself by taking Quaaludes and by attempting to drown himself in the ocean. Further, Stillman testified that Bruno had been using an ounce of cocaine every day for weeks prior to the offense. However, during cross-examination, Stillman proclaimed for the first time that he believed Bruno was insane at the time of the murder. He claimed that at the prior times he had evaluated the defendant, he suspected that Bruno may have been insane at the time of the offense but the lack of corroborating evidence prevented him from reaching such a conclusion. Stillman testified that he received the corroborating evidence just a few days before trial, when he discussed Bruno with his parents and sister. He claimed that he had now changed his opinion after learning about Bruno's drug use from his younger sister, parents, and a nurse who worked with Bruno at the jail. The trial transcript from the direct appeal explicitly reveals that trial counsel was taken by total surprise and was completely unprepared for Stillman's pronouncement that Bruno was insane. In an apparent panic, trial counsel reacted to Stillman's revelation by immediately disclosing to the court two confidential letters to trial counsel in which Stillman had opined that Bruno was competent to stand trial and was not insane. Trial counsel told the court that he thought he was duty bound to bring this patent inconsistency in Stillman's evaluations to the trial court's attention. At the evidentiary hearing in the 3.850 proceeding, trial counsel sought to justify his breach of confidence by claiming that he acted in order to justify his subsequent motion for an additional psychological examination. However, the record directly refutes this assertion. In the actual motion for psychiatric evaluation, which was filed after the jury's recommendation for death but prior to the trial court's sentencing, trial counsel made absolutely no reference to the fact that Stillman had changed his opinion concerning Bruno's sanity. Rather, the motion asserts Stillman's prior opinions (i.e., that Bruno was sane and competent), but alleges that members of Bruno's family now indicate that Bruno may not, in fact, be sane or competent to stand trial. Indeed, the motion alleges that trial counsel and Stillman were unaware of Bruno's psychological history until trial counsel talked with Bruno's sister and learned about Bruno's history of drug use, attempted suicide, and hospitalization for mental problems. Thus, trial counsel's stated tactical reason for disclosing this obviously damaging and confidential information to the court is not supported by the record. Rather, trial counsel's reason for disclosing this confidential information appears to have been prompted more by counsel's interest in maintaining his own credibility with the court and demonstrating that he had not been negligent in failing to present an insanity defense during the guilt phase, than by an interest in securing a future psychiatric examination for his client. In Douglas v. Wainwright, 714 F.2d 1532, 1557 (11th Cir.1983), vacated, 468 U.S. 1206, 104 S.Ct. 3575, 82 L.Ed.2d 874 (1984), opinion reinstated by, 739 F.2d 531 (C.A.Fla.1984), the Eleventh Circuit noted that [t]he most egregious examples of ineffectiveness do not always arise because of what counsel did not do, but from what he did door say. In Douglas, the Eleventh Circuit reasoned that counsel's deficient conduct undoubtedly prejudiced the defendant because based on counsel's comments during the penalty phase, the trial court concluded there was no mitigating evidence to present on the defendant's behalf. See id. at 1558. Similarly, in Blanco v. Singletary, 943 F.2d 1477, 1499-1500 (11th Cir.1991), the trial attorneys volunteered inappropriate information to the trial court concerning the fact that they did not have any mitigating evidence to present and that none of the defendant's friends or family members would agree to testify on his behalf. As in Douglas, the defense in Blanco did not present any mitigating evidence during the trial. Relying on Douglas, the Eleventh Circuit held that counsel's errors did not fall within the range of competent performance expected in criminal cases. See id. at 1500. Unlike Blanco and Douglas, trial counsel in the instant case did present some mitigating evidence, namely Dr. Stillman and Bruno's parents. However, trial counsel's improper disclosure to the trial court that Stillman had earlier consistently opined that Bruno was sane highlighted a serious inconsistency in Stillman's professional opinion, which, when explored, completely undermined the expert's credibility to the jury and the court. As noted, the trial court specifically rejected Stillman's testimony. See Sentencing Order at 1106. The trial court stated in the order that it considered the testimony of Dr. Stillman presented at the advisory phase, and makes a factual finding which rejects the Doctor's opinions regarding the defendant being extremely mentally or emotionally disturbed. The only other witnesses trial counsel presented were Bruno's parents, who provided marginal evidence of mitigation. At the close of all the evidence, the jury recommended death by a vote of eight to four and the court imposed death, finding no mitigating circumstances. Because the trial court in this case ultimately rejected Stillman's testimony and found no mitigating evidence, counsel's error in revealing damaging, confidential information to the trial court against his most important witness clearly affected the jury's and the trial court's evaluation of the evidence and the outcome of the case.