Opinion ID: 1940167
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Claim 3: Failure to Challenge Reenactment of Murder by Witness

Text: In Brown v. State, 550 So.2d 527 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989), the First District Court of Appeal held: Demonstrative exhibits to aid the jury's understanding may be utilized when relevant to the issues in the case, but only if the exhibits constitute an accurate and reasonable reproduction of the object involved. The determination as to whether to allow the use of a demonstrative exhibit is a matter within the trial court's discretion. Id. at 528 (citations omitted); see also Harris v. State, 843 So.2d 856, 864 (Fla.2003). The prosecutor in Brown used a knife and a Styrofoam head during his closing argument to depict the extent of a victim's stab wounds. See 550 So.2d at 528. There, the Fifth District concluded that the demonstrative exhibits were sufficiently accurate replicas to be allowable within the court's discretion. Id. The court also noted that the record contained overwhelming evidence of the defendant's guilt that negated any reasonable possibility that the defendant's conviction resulted from the challenged demonstration. See id. at 529. As no fundamental error or undue prejudice was shown, the decision to allow the use of the demonstrative exhibits was within the trial court's discretion. See id. Similarly, in the instant case, it was within the trial court's discretion to allow the use of a dummy as a demonstrative aid during one eyewitness's testimony. Richard Ferguson was Deborah Bauer's neighbor at the time of the offense. He witnessed the attack and notified police. He was the last witness called by the State during the State's presentation of direct evidence, and after he detailed the attack, the prosecutor asked him to demonstrate what he had witnessed by utilizing a dummy. Defense counsel objected, arguing that the demonstration would be repetitive and inflammatory. The objection was overruled and the witness proceeded to demonstrate the attack, using himself in place of Duncan and the dummy as the victim. [10] Duncan does not claim that the reenactment was inaccurate or not a reasonable reproduction of what occurred. He argues only that it was unnecessary to prove the State's case, and was repetitive in light of the three eyewitnesses' testimony and the medical examiner's autopsy photographs that had been introduced earlier, and therefore its prejudicial impact far outweighed its probative value. He relies upon two cases, Cave v. State, 660 So.2d 705 (Fla.1995), and Taylor v. State, 640 So.2d 1127 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994), to support his argument. Duncan's reliance upon Cave and Taylor is misplaced. In Cave, this Court held that the use of a videotaped reenactment of the crime during resentencing was harmful error. See Cave, 660 So.2d at 708-09. We held that, under those circumstances, where guilt was not at issue, the use of the video reenactment was irrelevant, cumulative, and unduly prejudicial. See id. In the instant case, the eyewitness reenacted the attack during the prosecution's case-in-chief, when guilt or innocence had yet to be decided. Therefore, Cave and the instant case are distinguishable. In Taylor, the state used, as a surrogate victim, a young woman of the same height, weight, general features, and coloring as the victim. See Taylor, 640 So.2d at 1132. Also, the court permitted the medical examiner to use clay heads to describe the impact and nature of the wounds that caused death. See id. The First District held that the use of both of these demonstrative aids was in error. See id. at 1134. Regarding the use of the clay heads, the court noted that there was no dispute as to the cause of death or the number of blows struck, and the feminine appearance of the heads was certain to evoke an emotional response in the minds of the jurors. See id. Further, the use of the exhibits had little or no bearing on the question for the jury, namely the issue of the defendant's sanity at the time of the offense. Similarly, the court held that the use of the surrogate victim had a tenuous relation to the relevant issue, and any probative value was outweighed by the prejudicial impact. See id. In the instant case, the relevant issue before the jury was whether Duncan was guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, and the demonstrative exhibit was utilized to show Duncan's actions during the course of the attack. Further, Duncan has made no claim that the appearance of the dummy was altered to resemble the victim and thereby evoke a more emotional action from the members of the jury. Here, the use of the demonstrative exhibit falls squarely into the standard outlined in Brown. The dummy was used to aid the jury's understanding of a relevant issue, namely guilt, and there is no claim that the exhibit was not an accurate and reasonable reproduction of the attack. Therefore, the determination as to whether to allow the use of a demonstrative exhibit was a matter within the trial court's discretion. The judge did not abuse his discretion in allowing the use of the demonstrative aid. Additionally, as in Brown, the overwhelming evidence of Duncan's guilt negates any reasonable possibility that his conviction resulted from the challenged demonstration. Strickland requires that Duncan show that counsel's performance was deficient and that the deficient performance resulted in prejudice to him. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Here, Duncan has failed to satisfy either prong. Duncan's claim is without merit, and appellate counsel was not ineffective for failing to raise a meritless claim. See Johnson v. Singletary, 695 So.2d 263, 267 (Fla.1996).