Opinion ID: 357262
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Florida Death Penalty Statute

Text: 35 Spenkelink's next series of contentions are directed against the Florida death penalty statute, Fla.Stat.Ann. § 921.141. 23 The petitioner attacks the statute as applied, pointing out that the United States Supreme Court's comprehensive review of the statute in Proffitt v. Florida, supra, resulted only in a declaration that Section 921.141 was constitutional on its face. Specifically, Spenkelink contends (1) that the death penalty under Section 921.141 is being applied arbitrarily, capriciously, excessively, and disproportionately in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, (2) that the death penalty under Section 921.141 is being systematically administered so as to induce guilty pleas from defendants charged with capital felonies, which allegedly penalizes these defendants' exercise of their right under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to plead not guilty, (3) that Section 921.141 contains unreliable procedures and standards for determining aggravating circumstances in violation of the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments, (4) that the death penalty under Section 921.141 is being applied in a discriminatory fashion against defendants convicted of murdering whites, as opposed to blacks, in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and in violation of Fourteenth Amendment equal protection, (5) that electrocution, which is Florida's method of carrying out a sentence of capital punishment, is unnecessarily torturous and wantonly cruel in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, and (6) that the death penalty under Section 921.141 is being applied in a discriminatory fashion against males and poor persons in violation of Fourteenth Amendment equal protection.
36 In his first contention the petitioner charges that the death penalty under Section 921.141 is being applied arbitrarily and capriciously, as well as excessively and disproportionately, 24 in violation of the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment in the eighth and fourteenth amendments. Spenkelink points to his own case as evidence of these allegations, contending that it is apparent that virtually every death sentence reversed by the Florida Supreme Court has involved a more gruesome set of facts than the instant case. Petitioner's Brief at 37. He contends further that (i)f the homicide in this case occurred today, it is inconceivable that (he) would be sentenced to death, for a plethora of Florida cases all decided after Spinkelink indicate that this sort of homicide is not deemed sufficiently heinous in Florida to merit the penalty of death. Id. at 40. 37 The Florida Legislature enacted Section 921.141 at least in part as a response to Furman v. Georgia, supra. In Furman the Supreme Court held that statutes which grant a jury unbridled discretion in the imposition of the death penalty allow the penalty to be imposed arbitrarily and capriciously, thus violating the ban under the eighth and fourteenth amendments against cruel and unusual punishment. Furman was a 5-4 per curiam decision with each Justice writing a separate opinion in which none of the others joined. Justices Douglas, Brennan, Stewart, White, and Marshall were in the majority, while Chief Justice Burger and Justices Blackmun, Powell, and Rehnquist dissented. Of those in the majority, only Justices Brennan and Marshall found the death penalty unconstitutional per se. 408 U.S. at 370-71, 92 S.Ct. at 2793-94 (Marshall, J., concurring); 408 U.S. at 305-06, 92 S.Ct. at 2760 (Brennan, J., concurring). Justice Douglas, on the other hand, emphasized that standardless capital punishment statutes allow the death penalty to be inflicted in a discriminatory fashion; as he put it, such statutes are pregnant with discrimination. 408 U.S. at 257, 92 S.Ct. at 2735 (Douglas, J., concurring). Justice White stressed that discretionary statutes result in the death penalty being extracted so infrequently, even for the most atrocious crimes, that there is no meaningful basis for distinguishing the few cases in which it is imposed from the many cases in which it is not, which causes the penalty to lose its deterrent effect. 408 U.S. at 312-13, 92 S.Ct. at 2764 (White, J., concurring). Justice Stewart felt that such statutes allow the death penalty to be applied wantonly and freakishly to a capriciously selected random handful. 408 U.S. at 309-10, 92 S.Ct. at 2762-63 (Stewart, J., concurring). See The Supreme Court, 1975 Term, 90 Harv.L.Rev. 56, 63 & n.3 (1976). Furman, then, did not hold that imposition of the death penalty per se violates the Constitution, but only that the manner in which it was being imposed arbitrarily and capriciously was unconstitutional. See, e. g., Roberts v. Louisiana, supra, 428 U.S. at 335, 92 S.Ct. at 3007 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.); Woodson v. North Carolina, supra, 428 U.S. at 302, 96 S.Ct. at 2990 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.); Jurek v. Texas, supra, 428 U.S. at 276, 96 S.Ct. at 2958 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.); Proffitt v. Georgia, supra, 428 U.S. at 259, 96 S.Ct. at 2970 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.); Gregg v. Georgia, supra, 428 U.S. at 188, 96 S.Ct. at 2932 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.) 38 That was 1972. In 1976 the Court returned to the subject of capital punishment in Roberts v. Louisiana, supra; Woodson v. North Carolina, supra; Jurek v. Texas, supra; Proffitt v. Florida, supra; and Gregg v. Georgia, supra. In Gregg, Proffitt, and Jurek the Court found constitutional, in light of Furman, death penalty statutes that articulated standards in the form of aggravating and mitigating circumstances concerning the nature of the crime as well as the nature of the criminal, which judges and juries were to follow in exercising their discretion as to which convicted murderers were to die for their crimes and which were to receive life sentences. In Woodson and Roberts the Court struck down statutes that made the death penalty mandatory for the commission of certain crimes; such statutes, stated the Court, necessarily run afoul of Furman's proscription of unbridled jury discretion in the imposition of capital punishment. 39 The Florida statute held constitutional in Proffitt v. Florida, supra, was Section 921.141, the identical statute the petitioner challenges in the case at hand. See also State v. Dixon, 283 So.2d 1 (Fla.1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 943, 94 S.Ct. 1950, 40 L.Ed.2d 295 (1974) (Section 921.141 held constitutional by Florida Supreme Court). Although the Court in Proffitt indicated that its concern was with the constitutionality of the statute on its face, 428 U.S. at 251-54, 96 S.Ct. at 2966-67 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.), we find quite instructive certain Proffitt passages in considering Spenkelink's contention that the death penalty under Section 921.141 is now being applied arbitrarily, capriciously, excessively, and disproportionately. In Proffitt the Court stated: 40 The Florida capital-sentencing procedures thus seek to assure that the death penalty will not be imposed in an arbitrary or capricious manner. Moreover, to the extent that any risk to the contrary exists, it is minimized by Florida's appellate review system, under which the evidence of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances is reviewed and reweighed by the Supreme Court of Florida to determine independently whether the imposition of the ultimate penalty is warranted. Songer v. State, 322 So.2d 481, 484 (Fla. 1975). See also Sullivan v. State, 303 So.2d 632, 637 (Fla. 1974). The Supreme Court of Florida, like that of Georgia, has not hesitated to vacate a death sentence when it has determined that the sentence should not have been imposed. Indeed, it has vacated eight of the 21 death sentences that it has reviewed to date. See Taylor v. State, 294 So.2d 648 (Fla.1974); Lamadline v. State, 303 So.2d 17 (Fla.1974); Slater v. State, 316 So.2d 539 (Fla.1974); Swan v. State, 322 So.2d 485 (Fla.1975); Tedder v. State, 322 So.2d 908 (Fla.1975); Halliwell v. State, 323 So.2d 557 (Fla.1975); Thompson v. State, 328 So.2d 1 (Fla.1976); Messer v. State, 330 So.2d 137 (Fla.1976). 41 Under Florida's capital-sentencing procedures, in sum, trial judges are given specific and detailed guidance to assist them in deciding whether to impose a death penalty or imprisonment for life. Moreover, their decisions are reviewed to ensure that they are consistent with other sentence imposed in similar circumstances. Thus, in Florida, as in Georgia, it is no longer true that there is  'no meaningful basis for distinguishing the few cases in which (the death penalty) is imposed from the many cases where it is not.'  Gregg v. Georgia, ante, 428 U.S. p. 188, 96 S.Ct. p. 2932, quoting Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S., at 313, 92 S.Ct., at 2764 (White, J., concurring). On its face the Florida system thus satisfies the constitutional deficiencies identified in Furman. 42 428 U.S. at 253, 96 S.Ct. at 2967 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.). Later the Court added: 43 Nonetheless the petitioner attacks the Florida appellate review process because the role of the Supreme Court of Florida in reviewing death sentences is necessarily subjective and unpredictable. While it may be true that that Court has not chosen to formulate a rigid objective test as its standard of review for all cases, it does not follow that the appellate review process is ineffective or arbitrary. In fact, it is apparent that the Florida Court has undertaken responsibly to perform its function of death sentence review with a maximum of rationality and consistency. For example, it has several times compared the circumstances of a case under review with those of previous cases in which it has assessed the imposition of death sentences. See, e. g., Alford v. State, 307 So.2d 433, 445 (Fla.1975); Alvord v. State, 322 So.2d 533, 540-541 (Fla.1975). By following this procedure the Florida Court has in effect adopted the type of proportionality review mandated by the Georgia statute. Cf. Gregg v. Georgia, ante, 428 U.S. 204, 206, 96 S.Ct. pp. 2939-2941. And any suggestion that the Florida Court engages in only cursory or rubber stamp review of death penalty cases is totally controverted by the fact that it has vacated over one-third of the death sentences that have come before it. See p. 2967, supra. 44 428 U.S. at 258, 96 S.Ct. at 2969-70 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.). Finally, in responding to the argument that Section 921.141's eighth aggravating circumstance was unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, the Court in Proffitt even mentioned the case of petitioner Spenkelink: 45 The Supreme Court of Florida has affirmed death sentences in several cases, including the instant case, where this eighth statutory aggravating factor was found, without specifically stating that the homicide was pitiless or torturous to the victim. See, e. g., Hallman v. State, 305 So.2d 180 (1974) (victim's throat slit with broken bottle); Spinkellink v. State, 313 So.2d 666 (1975) (career criminal shot sleeping traveling companion); Gardner v. State, 313 So.2d 675 (1975) (brutal beating and murder); Alvord v. State, 322 So.2d 533 (1975) (three women killed by strangulation, one raped); Douglas v. State, 328 So.2d 18 (1976) (depraved murder); Henry v. State, 328 So.2d 430 (1976) (torture murder); Dobbert v. State, 328 So.2d 433 (1976) (torture and killing of two children). But the circumstances of all of these cases could accurately be characterized as pitiless and unnecessarily torturous, and it thus does not appear that Florida Court has abandoned the definition that it announced in Dixon and applied in Alford, Tedder, and Halliwell. 46 428 U.S. at 255 n. 12, 96 S.Ct. at 2968 n. 12 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.) (emphasis added). 47 Nonetheless, Spenkelink contends that his crime, in comparison to the crimes in other Florida death penalty cases, was insufficiently gruesome or heinous to warrant the death penalty. 25 In this regard, the district court stated:Petitioner next claims that the death penalty is being imposed in an arbitrary, capricious, and irrational manner. In support of this contention petitioner points to other cases in which the Florida Supreme Court has commuted death sentences to life imprisonment and claims that his case is no worse than the majority of these and cannot, therefore, be reconciled with them. As the court noted at the beginning of the September 21 hearing, this line of inquiry has apparently been foreclosed by the decision rendered in Proffitt v. Florida, 428 U.S. 242, (96 S.Ct. 2960, 49 L.Ed.2d 913) (1976) . . . . 48 Even if this issue had not been previously decided by the United States Supreme Court, petitioner has shown no basis to conclude that the Florida Supreme Court has failed to discharge its statutory duties responsibly. This court has considered the other death cases decided by the Florida Supreme Court and has compared the facts involved in those cases with the facts of petitioner's crime. In those instances where a sentence of death has been reversed by the Florida court, there appear significant mitigating circumstances that serve to fairly distinguish those cases from petitioner's. Thus, the petitioner has not shown anything to indicate that the death penalty has been imposed by the Florida judicial system in an irrational, arbitrary or capricious fashion, and the petitioner cannot prevail on this point. 49 It was not necessary for the district court to undertake such a case-by-case comparison. This conclusion rests upon which we believe the Supreme Court meant in Proffitt when it found Section 921.141 constitutional on its face. The Court used the expression only twice. On the first occasion the Court stated that (o)n their face these procedures (provided for in Section 921.141), like those used in Georgia, appear to meet the constitutional deficiencies identified in Furman. 428 U.S. at 251, 96 S.Ct. at 2966 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.). On the second occasion the Court stated that (o)n its face the Florida system thus satisfies the constitutional deficiencies identified in Furman. 428 U.S. at 253, 96 S.Ct. at 2967 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.). The second quotation implies that on its face Section 921.141 conclusively removes the arbitrariness and capriciousness which Furman held violative of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. If this is so, our concern here in this attack on Section 921.141 as applied would be whether the Florida courts have followed the statute in imposing Spenkelink's death sentence, and a comparison of Spenkelink's case with other Florida death penalty cases would be unnecessary. The first quotation, on the other hand, implies that Section 921.141 only potentially satisfies Furman 's concern for arbitrariness and capriciousness. If this is so, our task in the instant case would be to compare Spenkelink's case with all other Florida death penalty cases in order to determine if Spenkelink was sentenced to death when other convicted murders, equally or more deserving to die, were given life imprisonment. 50 If this latter interpretation is the correct reading of Proffitt, serious problems arise. First, every criminal defendant sentenced to death under Section 921.141 could through federal habeas corpus proceedings attack the statute as applied by alleging that other convicted murderers, equally or more deserving to die, had been spared, and thus that the death penalty was being applied arbitrarily and capriciously, as evidenced by his own case. The federal courts then would be compelled continuously to question every substantive decision of the Florida criminal justice system with regard to the imposition of the death penalty. The intrusion would not be limited to the Florida Supreme Court. It would be necessary also, in order to review properly the Florida Supreme Court's decisions, to review the determinations of the trial courts. And in order to review properly those determinations, a careful examination of every trial record would be in order. A thorough review would necessitate looking behind the decisions of jurors and prosecutors, as well. Additionally, unsuccessful litigants could, before their sentences were carried out, challenge their sentences again and again as each later-convicted murderer was given life imprisonment, because the circumstances of each additional defendant so sentenced would become additional factors to be considered. The process would be never-ending and the benchmark for comparison would be chronically undefined. Further, there is no reason to believe that the federal judiciary can render better justice. As the Florida Supreme Court itself so candidly admits, see Provence v. State, supra, 337 So.2d at 787, reasonable persons can differ over the fate of every criminal defendant in every death penalty case. If the federal courts retried again and again the aggravating and mitigating circumstances in each of these cases, we may at times reach results different from those reached in the Florida state courts, but our conclusions would be no more, nor no less, accurate. Such is the human condition. Cf. Stone v. Powell, 428 U.S. 465, 493 n. 35, 96 S.Ct. 3037, 3051-3052 n. 35, 49 L.Ed.2d 1067 (1976) (condemning the respondents' basic mistrust of the state courts as fair and competent forums for the adjudication of federal constitutional rights.). 51 The Supreme Court in Proffitt, or in Furman, Gregg, Jurek, Woodson, or Roberts, could not have intended these results. We understand these decisions to hold that capital punishment is not unconstitutional per se, and that a state, if it chooses, can punish murderers and seek to protect its citizenry by imposing the death penalty so long as it does so through a statute with appropriate standards to guide discretion. If a state has such a properly drawn statute and there can be no doubt that Florida has which the state follows in determining which convicted defendants receive the death penalty and which receive life imprisonment, then the arbitrariness and capriciousness condemned in Furman have been conclusively removed. 26 For us to read these cases otherwise would thrust this Court and the district courts into the substantive decision making of the state court sentencing process which is rightfully reserved to the Florida state judiciary under Section 921.141. Under the Constitution, as well as fundamental notions of federalism and comity, that is not the role of the federal courts. Cf. Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971). 52 A review of the record demonstrates dramatically that the Florida state trial court and the Florida Supreme Court performed their unenviable duty of sentencing Spenkelink under Section 921.141 with care and concern. 27 Our inquiry must end there. As for Spenkelink's contention that this Court should go further, we think the remarks of Justice White in his concurring opinion in Gregg v. Georgia, supra, 428 U.S. at 226, 96 S.Ct. at 2949 (White, J., concurring), are responsive: 53 Petitioner's argument that there is an unconstitutional amount of discretion in the system which separates those suspects who receive the death penalty from those who receive life imprisonment a lesser penalty or are acquitted or never charged seems to be in final analysis an indictment of our entire system of justice. Petitioner has argued in effect that no matter how effective the death penalty may be as a punishment, government, created and run as it must be by humans, is inevitably incompetent to administer it. This cannot be accepted as a proposition of constitutional law. Imposition of the death penalty is surely an awesome responsibility for any system of justice and those who participate in it. Mistakes will be made and discriminations will occur which will be difficult to explain. However, one of society's most basic tasks is that of protecting the lives of its citizens and one of the most basic ways in which it achieves the task is through criminal laws against murder. I decline to interfere with the manner in which Georgia has chosen to enforce such laws on what is simply an assertion of lack of faith in the ability of the system of justice to operate in a fundamentally fair manner. 54 The petitioner's contention is without merit. 28
55 In his second contention Spenkelink asserts that the death penalty under Section 921.141 is being systematically administered so as to induce guilty pleas from defendants charged with capital felonies, which allegedly penalizes exercise by these defendants of their right under the fifth and fourteenth amendments to plead not guilty. According to the petitioner, this has the same effect as the federal statute condemned in United States v. Jackson, 390 U.S. 570, 88 S.Ct. 1209, 20 L.Ed.2d 128 (1968), and thus is unconstitutional. 29 56 Succinctly stated, Spenkelink complains of abuse of discretion. Charles William Proffitt and Troy Gregg had similar complaints. In Proffitt v. Florida, supra, 428 U.S. 254, 96 S.Ct. at 2967 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.), the Supreme Court responded: 57 The petitioner first argues that arbitrariness is inherent in the Florida criminal justice system because it allows discretion to be exercised at each stage of a criminal proceeding the prosecutor's decision whether to charge a capital offense in the first place, his decision whether to accept a plea to a lesser offense, the jury's consideration of lesser included offenses, and, after conviction and unsuccessful appeal, the Executive's decision whether to commute a death sentence. As we noted in Gregg, this argument is based on a fundamental misinterpretation of Furman, and we reject it for the reasons expressed in Gregg. See ante, p. 2937. 58 In Gregg v. Georgia, supra, 428 U.S. at 199, 96 S.Ct. at 2937 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.), the Court stated: 59 First, the petitioner focuses on the opportunities for discretionary action that are inherent in the processing of any murder case under Georgia law. He notes that the state prosecutor has unfettered authority to select those persons whom he wishes to prosecute for a capital offense and to plea bargain with them. Further, at the trial the jury may choose to convict a defendant of a lesser included offense rather than find him guilty of a crime punishable by death, even if the evidence would support a capital verdict. And finally, a defendant who is convicted and sentenced to die may have his sentence commuted by the Governor of the State and the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles. 60 The existence of these discretionary stages is not determinative of the issues before us. At each of these stages an actor in the criminal justice system makes a decision which may remove a defendant from consideration as a candidate for the death penalty. Furman, in contrast, dealt with the decision to impose the death sentence on a specific individual who had been convicted of a capital offense. Nothing in any of our cases suggests that the decision to afford an individual defendant mercy violates the Constitution. Furman held only that, in order to minimize the risk that the death penalty would be imposed on a capriciously selected group of offenders, the decision to impose it had to be guided by standards so that the sentencing authority would focus on the particularized circumstances of the crime and the defendant. 61 In footnote 50 in Gregg, the Court continued: 62 The petitioner's argument is nothing more than a veiled contention that Furman indirectly outlawed capital punishment by placing totally unrealistic conditions on its use. In order to repair the alleged defects pointed to by the petitioner, it would be necessary to require that prosecuting authorities charge a capital offense whenever arguably there had been a capital murder and that they refuse to plea bargain with the defendant. If a jury refused to convict even though the evidence supported the charge, its verdict would have to be reversed and a verdict of guilty entered or a new trial ordered, since the discretionary act of jury nullification would not be permitted. Finally, acts of executive clemency would have to be prohibited. Such a system, of course, would be totally alien to our notions of criminal justice. 63 Moreover, it would be unconstitutional. Such a system in many respects would have the vices of the mandatory death penalty statutes we hold unconstitutional today in Woodson v. North Carolina, post, 428 U.S., p. 280, 96 S.Ct. p. 2978, 49 L.Ed.2d 944 and Roberts v. Louisiana, post, 428 U.S., p. 325, 96 S.Ct. p. 3001, 49 L.Ed.2d 974. The suggestion that a jury's verdict of acquittal could be overturned and a defendant retried would run afoul of the Sixth Amendment jury-trial guarantee and the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment. In the federal system it also would be unconstitutional to prohibit a President from deciding, as an act of executive clemency, to reprieve one sentenced to death. U.S.Const., Art. II, § 2. 64 428 U.S. at 198 n. 50, 96 S.Ct. 2937 n. 50 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.). 65 The complaints of prosecutorial discretion in Gregg and Proffitt, as well as in Jurek v. Texas, supra, 428 U.S. at 273, 96 S.Ct. at 2957 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.), were made and rejected in the context of Furman 's concern for arbitrariness and capriciousness in the imposition of the death penalty. Here, of course, petitioner Spenkelink complains that the discretion approved in Gregg, Proffitt, and Jurek is now being systematically abused. See generally Gregg v. Georgia, supra, 428 U.S. at 225, 96 S.Ct. at 2949 (White, J., concurring). Like the petitioner's argument in Gregg, Spenkelink's argument appears to be nothing more than a veiled contention that Furman indirectly outlawed capital punishment by placing totally unrealistic conditions on its use, Gregg v. Georgia, supra, 428 U.S. at 198 n. 50, 96 S.Ct. 2937 n. 50, (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.), which Furman did not. Id. Nevertheless, we cannot say with assurance that the petitioner's allegation was answered in Gregg, Proffitt, or Jurek, so we must look further. 66 Spenkelink's contention is without merit for several reasons. First, in Florida a defendant may be sentenced to death whether he pleads guilty or not guilty. E. g., Surace v. State, 351 So.2d 702 (Fla.1977); Thompson v. State, 351 So.2d 701 (Fla.1977); Lamadline v. State, 303 So.2d 17 (Fla.1974). United States v. Jackson, supra, therefore, is inapplicable to the petitioner's contention because there the condemned statute provided in effect that a defendant could receive the death penalty only if he pleaded not guilty and went to trial. See note 29 supra and accompanying text. Second, the Supreme Court in Bordenkircher v. Hayes, 434 U.S. 357, 365, 98 S.Ct. 663, 669, 54 L.Ed.2d 604 (1978), recently held that plea-bargaining, in which the prosecutor openly presents a defendant with the unpleasant alternatives of pleading guilty to a lesser charge and foregoing trial or pleading not guilty and facing a more serious charge on which he plainly is subject to prosecution, and for which he would receive upon conviction life imprisonment, does not violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The fact that the prosecutor's plea-bargaining tool in Bordenkircher was life imprisonment and in this case it allegedly is the death penalty is a distinction without a difference. Bordenkircher controls the instant case. See, e. g., Montgomery v. Estelle, 5 Cir., 1978, 568 F.2d 457. Finally, it is well settled that a plea bargain is not invalid per se because it is induced by fear of receiving the death penalty or because in agreeing to the plea bargain the defendant averts the possibility of receiving the death penalty. See, e. g., Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 747, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 1468, 25 L.Ed.2d 747 (1970). Thus, if Florida prosecutors actually are using the threat of the death penalty under Section 921.141 in their plea-bargaining to induce guilty pleas, the practice is permissible, 30 and the petitioner's contention is without merit. 31
67 Spenkelink's third attack on Section 921.141 is that the statute contains unreliable procedures and standards for determining aggravating circumstances. First, the petitioner contends that the indictment alleged no aggravating circumstances, and no other form of notice informing him of the aggravating circumstances on which the State would rely in seeking the death penalty, or which the trial court would consider in imposing it, was given to him prior to the sentencing proceeding. According to the petitioner, this violated his right under Fourteenth Amendment due process and his right under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to be informed of the nature of the charges against him, 32 and hindered his preparation for the rebuttal of the aggravating circumstances found in his case. This contention is without merit. 68 Spenkelink cites no case, federal or state, which requires the prosecutor to list in the indictment the aggravating circumstances on which he will rely in seeking the death penalty. Whether such a requirement exists is an issue we need not reach in this case. A review of the record indicates that neither Spenkelink nor his attorney objected at trial to the indictment, which Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.190(c) requires in order for the alleged defect to be preserved for appellate review. 33 Accordingly, the defect, if any, was waived. 34 Wainwright v. Sykes, supra; Tennon v. Ricketts, 5 Cir., 1978, 574 F.2d 1243 (1978); St. John v. Estelle, 5 Cir., 1977, 563 F.2d 168 (en banc); Nichols v. Estelle, 5 Cir., 1977, 556 F.2d 1330; Loud v. Estelle, 5 Cir., 1977, 556 F.2d 1326, 1329-30. As for Spenkelink's contention that he had no other notice of the aggravating circumstances on which the State would rely or which the trial would consider, we need only point to Fla.Stat.Ann. § 921.141(5), which defines the aggravating circumstances that may be considered by both judge and jury. 69 Second, Spenkelink contends that Section 921.141 does not prescribe the standard of proof to govern factual determinations with regard to aggravating circumstances at the sentencing proceeding, and suggests that the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments require that the appropriate standard be beyond a reasonable doubt. The Florida Supreme Court agrees, as evidenced by its holding in 1973 in State v. Dixon, supra, 283 So.2d at 9: 70 The aggravating circumstances of Fla.Stat. § 921.141(6) (sic ), F.S.A., actually define those crimes when read in conjunction with Fla.Stat. §§ 782.04(1) and 794.01(1), F.S.A. to which the death penalty is applicable in the absence of mitigating circumstances. As such, they must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt before being considered by judge or jury. 71 In accordance with Dixon, the trial court instructed the jury at Spenkelink's sentencing proceeding: 72 Aggravating circumstances must be established beyond a reasonable doubt before they may be considered by you in arriving at your decision. Proof of an aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt is evidence by which the understanding, judgment and reason of the jury are well satisfied and convinced to the extent of having a full, firm and abiding conviction that the circumstance has been proved to the exclusion of and beyond a reasonable doubt. (emphasis added) 73 The petitioner's contention is therefore without merit. 74 Finally, Spenkelink contends that the aggravating circumstance set forth in Fla.Stat.Ann. § 921.141(5)(h), that (t)he capital felony was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, is vague and overbroad in violation of Fourteenth Amendment due process. In Proffitt v. Florida, supra, 428 U.S. at 255, 96 S.Ct. at 2967-68 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.), the Supreme Court stated: 75 (T)he petitioner asserts that the enumerated aggravating and mitigating circumstances are so vague and so broad that virtually any first degree murder convict (is) a candidate for a death sentence. In particular, the petitioner attacks the eighth and third statutory aggravating circumstances, which authorize the death penalty to be imposed if the crime is especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, or if (t)he defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to many persons. § 921.141(5)(h), (c) (Supp.1976-1977). These provisions must be considered as they have been construed by the Supreme Court of Florida. 76 (5) That Court has recognized that while it is arguable that all killings are atrocious, . . . (s)till we believe that the Legislature intended something 'especially' heinous, atrocious, or cruel when it authorized the death penalty for first degree murder. Tedder v. State, 322 So.2d 908, 910 (Fla.1975). As a consequence, the Court has indicated that the eighth statutory provision is directed only at the conscienceless or pitiless crime which is unnecessarily torturous to the victim. State v. Dixon, 283 So.2d 1, 9 (Fla.1973). See also Alford v. State, 307 So.2d 433, 445 (Fla.1975); Halliwell v. State, 323 So.2d 557, 561 (Fla.1975). We cannot say that the provision, as so construed, provides inadequate guidance to those charged with the duty of recommending or imposing sentences in capital cases. See Gregg v. Georgia, ante, 428 U.S. pp. 200, 203, 96 S.Ct. p. 2938. 77 Nonetheless, the petitioner points out that the Court in Proffitt examined the claims of vagueness and overbreadth of the statutory aggravating circumstances only insofar as it is necessary to determine whether there is a substantial risk that the Florida capital-sentencing system, when viewed in its entirety, will result in the capricious or arbitrary imposition of the death penalty, and thus violate the prohibition under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of cruel and unusual punishment. 428 U.S. at 254 n.11, 96 S.Ct. at 2967 n.11 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.). See Gregg v. Georgia, supra, 428 U.S. at 201 n.51, 96 S.Ct. at 2938 n.51 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.). In the instant case, the petitioner contends, his vagueness and overbreadth challenges are made through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. A review of the record indicates that Spenkelink's allegations of vagueness and overbreadth do not appear in his habeas corpus petition, and therefore were not argued to the district court on the basis of any constitutional amendment. Rather than dismiss his contentions summarily, as we ordinarily would do, only to have them resurface again through another habeas petition, we have decided in the interest of time and judicial economy to address them on their merits. 78 In State v. Dixon, supra, the Florida Supreme Court, in holding constitutional Fla.Stat.Ann. §§ 775.082, 782.04, and 921.141, see note 23 supra, also considered the certified question of whether the aggravating circumstance in Section 921.141 (5)(h) is so vague, indefinite and uncertain, 283 So.2d at 3, as to violate, inter alia, Fourteenth Amendment due process. The court answered this question in the negative: 79 The aggravating circumstance which has been most frequently attacked is the provision that commission of an especially heinous, atrocious or cruel capital felony constitutes an aggravated capital felony. Fla.Stat. § 921.141(6)(h), F.S.A. Again, we feel that the meaning of such terms is a matter of common knowledge, so that an ordinary man would not have to guess at what was intended. It is our interpretation that heinous means extremely wicked or shockingly evil; that atrocious means outrageously wicked and vile; and, that cruel means designed to inflict a high degree of pain with utter indifference to, or even enjoyment of, the suffering of others. What is intended to be included are those capital crimes where the actual commission of the capital felony was accompanied by such additional acts as to set the crime apart from the norm of capital felonies the conscienceless or pitiless crime which is unnecessarily torturous to the victim. 80 283 So.2d at 9. This definition has been followed repeatedly by the Florida Supreme Court. See, e. g., Proffitt v. Florida, supra, 428 U.S. at 255 n.12, 96 S.Ct. at 2968 n.12 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.); Halliwell v. State, supra, 323 So.2d at 561; Tedder v. State, supra, 322 So.2d at 910; Alford v. State, 307 So.2d 433, 444-45 (Fla.1975). Nothing in Smith v. Goquen, 415 U.S. 566, 94 S.Ct. 1242, 39 L.Ed.2d 605 (1974); Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville, 405 U.S. 156, 92 S.Ct. 839, 31 L.Ed.2d 110 (1972); Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U.S. 88, 60 S.Ct. 736, 84 L.Ed. 1093 (1940); or Herndon v. Lowry, 301 U.S. 242, 57 S.Ct. 732, 81 L.Ed. 1066 (1937), the cases cited by the petitioner in support of his vagueness and overbreadth contentions, persuades us that the Florida Supreme Court is in error. We agree on Fourteenth Amendment due process grounds with the United States Supreme Court in Proffitt that Section 921.141(5)(h), as construed by the Florida Supreme Court, provides adequate guidance to those charged with the duty of recommending or imposing sentences in capital cases. See Proffitt v. Florida, supra, 428 U.S. at 255, 96 S.Ct. at 2968 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.). The contentions that Section 921.141(5)(h) are vague and overbroad are therefore without merit. 35 See, e. g., the cases cited in Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 108 n.4, 92 S.Ct. 2294, 2299 n.4, 33 L.Ed.2d 222 (1972); Note, The Void-for-Vagueness Doctrine in the Supreme Court, 109 U.Pa.L.Rev. 67 (1960).
81 Spenkelink's next contention is that the death penalty under Section 921.141 is being applied in a discriminatory fashion against defendants convicted of murdering whites, as opposed to blacks, in violation of the prohibition under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of cruel and unusual punishment and in violation of Fourteenth Amendment equal protection. 36 Spenkelink's contention appears to be that Florida prosecutors, jurors, trial judges, and supreme court justices value black lives less than they do white lives, and thus are more likely to seek, recommend, impose, and affirm the imposition of the death penalty when a defendant murders a white victim. 82 During the evidentiary hearing below the petitioner introduced evidence through an expert witness that, although the estimated number of black felony murder victims and white felony murder victims for 1973-1976 is the same, 92 per cent of the inmates on Florida death row had murdered white victims, while only 8 per cent had murdered black victims. The State responded by arguing, inter alia, that murders involving black victims have, in the past, generally been qualitatively different from murders involving white victims; as a general rule, the State contended, murders involving black victims have not presented facts and circumstances appropriate for imposition of the death penalty. 37 The State also challenged the accuracy and reliability of the methodology used by the petitioner's expert witness. Many of these imperfections the witness himself admitted. For example, he conceded that factors other than race could have caused the disparate figures: 83 Q. With regard to the conclusions that you have reached that there is a variance of black victims and white victims as to who gets the electric chair in Florida. What are the other variables? 84 A. I don't understand your question, Mr. Shevin. 85 Q. Well, for instance, would the prosecutorial discretion as to what charges be filed, would that be relevant? 86 A. Sure. 87 Q. And would the prosecutor's decision as to whether or not to take the case to the Grand Jury be a relevant variable? 88 A. Well, as I testified, I have no knowledge of the process that stands between the arrest and the final disposition, and that is exactly the thing one should explore in order to find out how these differences come about. All I have is the final difference. 89 Q. So in analyzing what happens from the arrest to the final judgment, your rule could be affected, could they not, by decisions of whether or not to prosecute? 90 A. Oh, sure. I said that. 91 Q. And it could be affected by what verdicts the juries returned? 92 A. Could, although my guess yes, it could, sure. I said it could be affected at all stages, Mr. Shevin. 93 Q. And it could be affected by whether the defendant pleads guilty or not? 94 A. If this if this I if this saves many people, I have I have seen .Q. Can it be affected by whether the prosecutor is asking for the death penalty, could it not? 95 A. I said so. 96 Q. All right. And it could be affected by the elements of aggravation and mitigation that are set forth in the Florida statutes? 97 A. Of course. 98 The witness also was unable to point to any defendant convicted of first degree murder for killing a black who, under the facts and circumstances of the case, should have received the death penalty but did not. Nevertheless, petitioner Spenkelink contends that he has made a prima facie case of racial discrimination in the imposition of the death penalty in Florida, and that we should remand his case to the district court for additional evidentiary proceedings to provide him the opportunity to present further evidence. 99 Assuming for the sake of argument that the petitioner's statistics are accurate, his contention must fail as a matter of law on both of the constitutional grounds relied upon. The allegation that Florida's death penalty is being discriminatorily applied to defendants who murder whites is nothing more than an allegation that the death penalty is being imposed arbitrarily and capriciously, a contention we previously have considered and rejected. To allege discriminatory application of the death penalty, as meant in the context of this case, is to argue that defendants who have murdered whites have received the death penalty when other defendants who have murdered blacks, and who are equally or more deserving to die, have received life imprisonment. In order to ascertain through federal habeas corpus proceedings if the death penalty had been discriminatorily imposed upon a petitioner whose murder victim was white, a district court would have to compare the facts and circumstances of the petitioner's case with the facts and circumstances of all other Florida death penalty cases involving black victims in order to determine if the first degree murderers in those cases were equally or more deserving to die. The petitioner thus requests the same type of case-by-case comparison by the federal judiciary that we have previously rejected in considering the petitioner's contention that Florida's death penalty is being imposed arbitrarily and capriciously. We need not repeat the myriad of difficult problems, legal and otherwise, generated by such federal court intrusion into the substantive decision making of the sentencing process which is reserved to the Florida state courts under Section 921.141. As we previously noted, this Court reads Furman, Gregg, Proffitt, Jurek, Woodson, and Roberts as holding that if a state follows a properly drawn statute in imposing the death penalty, then the arbitrariness and capriciousness and therefore the racial discrimination condemned in Furman 38 have been conclusively removed. 39 Florida has such a statute and it is being followed. The petitioner's contention under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments is therefore without merit. 40 100 Spenkelink also raises his claim under Fourteenth Amendment equal protection. He concedes that Section 921.141 is facially valid and neutral with respect to race. He contends nonetheless that the administration of the statute has resulted in dramatic racial inequity, Petitioner's Brief at 36, which allegedly violates equal protection. 101 The petitioner's suggestion that a violation of equal protection is proved by a showing of disparity in the race of first degree murder victims, which allegedly results from the administration of a facially valid and neutral statute, ignores the holdings of two recent United States Supreme Court opinions. In Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229, 96 S.Ct. 2040, 48 L.Ed.2d 597 (1976), the Court held that a District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department entrance examination designed to test verbal ability, vocabulary, reading, and comprehension did not violate Fourteenth Amendment equal protection, even though the examination had a racially disproportionate impact in that far more blacks than whites failed to pass it. In so holding, the Court noted that while (t)he central purpose of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is the prevention of official conduct discriminating on the basis of race, prior Court decisions have not embraced the proposition that a law or other official act, without regard to whether it reflects a racially discriminatory purpose, is unconstitutional solely because it has a racially disproportionate impact. 426 U.S. at 239, 96 S.Ct. at 2047 (emphasis in original). The Court also stated: 102 Necessarily, an invidious discriminatory purpose may often be inferred from the totality of the relevant facts, including the fact, if it is true, that the law bears more heavily on one race than another. It is also not infrequently true that the discriminatory impact in the jury cases for example, the total or seriously disproportionate exclusion of Negroes from jury venires may for all practical purposes demonstrate unconstitutionality because in various circumstances the discrimination is very difficult to explain on nonracial grounds. Nevertheless, we have not held that a law, neutral on its face and serving ends otherwise within the power of government to pursue, is invalid under the Equal Protection Clause simply because it may affect a greater proportion of one race than of another. Disproportionate impact is not irrelevant, but it is not the sole touchstone of an invidious racial discrimination forbidden by the Constitution. Standing alone, it does not trigger the rule, McLaughlin v. Florida, 379 U.S. 184, 85 S.Ct. 283, 13 L.Ed.2d 222 (1964), that racial classifications are to be subjected to the strictest scrutiny and are justifiable only by the weightiest of considerations. 103 426 U.S. at 242, 96 S.Ct. at 2049. A year later, in Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp., supra, the Court held that the refusal of the Village of Arlington Heights to rezone a tract of land in order to allow the Metropolitan Housing Development Corporation to build racially integrated low and moderate income housing did not violate Fourteenth Amendment equal protection, because the Village's rezoning denial was motivated not by racial discrimination but by its desire to protect property values and maintain its zoning plan. The Court relied on Washington v. Davis, supra, in announcing that official action will not be held unconstitutional solely because it results in a racially disproportionate impact, and that (p)roof of racially discriminatory intent or purpose is required to show a violation of the Equal Protection Clause. 429 U.S. at 265, 97 S.Ct. at 563. 104 Assuming for the sake of discussion that Section 921.141 does have a racially disproportionate impact with respect to the race of first degree murder victims, Washington v. Davis, supra, and Arlington Heights mandate that the petitioner's equal protection challenge must fail, because the discrimination is explainable on nonracial grounds. Florida offered credible evidence, evidently believed by the district court, that murders involving black victims generally have been qualitatively different from murders involving white victims. The petitioner's own expert witness also testified that factors other than race could have caused the disparate figures, and could single out no defendant convicted of first degree murder for killing a black who, under the facts and circumstances of the case, should have received the death penalty instead of life imprisonment. The petitioner's witness testified further that he found no evidence of intentional or purposeful discrimination; I'm far from suggesting, he stated, that there is any deliberate effort anywhere in the system to achieve this goal (of racially disproportionate impact). In sum, this is not a case in which a petitioner proved a prima facie case of discrimination that the state could not rebut. Compare, e. g., Castaneda v. Partida, 430 U.S. 482, 97 S.Ct. 1272, 51 L.Ed.2d 498 (1977). This is a case in which the State, with the assistance of the petitioner's own expert witness, provided several lawful explanations totally unrelated to race for the racially disproportionate impact of its statute. 41 Stated otherwise, it is a case in which the petitioner could not prove racially discriminatory intent or purpose as required by Washington v. Davis, supra, and Arlington Heights. See Nevette v. Sides, 5 Cir., 1978, 571 F.2d 209. Spenkelink's challenge to Section 921.141 on the basis of Fourteenth Amendment equal protection is therefore without merit as a matter of law.
105 The petitioner's fifth contention is that electrocution, which is Florida's method of carrying out a sentence of capital punishment, see Fla.Stat.Ann. § 922.10, is unnecessarily torturous and wantonly cruel and therefore constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. The Supreme Court has previously considered this assertion in In re Kemmler, 136 U.S. 436, 10 S.Ct. 930, 34 L.Ed. 519 (1890), quoted in Gregg v. Georgia, supra, 428 U.S. at 170, 96 S.Ct. at 2924 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.), where the Court held that a New York statute providing for electrocution as the method of carrying out a sentence of capital punishment was constitutional. The Court stated: 106 Undoubtedly the (fourteenth) amendment forbids any arbitrary deprivation of life, liberty, or property, and secures equal protection to all under like circumstances in the enjoyment of their rights; and, in the administration of criminal justice, requires that no different or higher punishment shall be imposed upon one than is imposed upon all for like offenses. But it was not designed to interfere with the power of the state to protect the lives, liberties, and property of its citizens, and to promote their health, peace, morals, education, and good order. Barbier v. Connolly, 113 U.S. 27, 31, 5 Sup.Ct.Rep. 357, 28 L.Ed. 923. The enactment of this statute was, in itself, within the legitimate sphere of the legislative power of the state, and in the observance of those general rules prescribed by our systems of jurisprudence; and the legislature of the state of New York determined that it did not inflict cruel and unusual punishment, and its courts have sustained that determination. We cannot perceive that the state has thereby abridged the privileges or immunities of the petitioner, or deprived him of due process of law. 107 136 U.S. at 448-49, 10 S.Ct. at 934. Accord, Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber, 329 U.S. 459, 67 S.Ct. 374, 91 L.Ed. 422 (1947), quoted in Gregg v. Georgia, supra, 428 U.S. at 170, 96 S.Ct. at 2924 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.). See generally Ex parte Granviel, 561 S.W.2d 503 (Tex.Cr.App.1978) (execution by intravenous injection of lethal substance is not cruel and unusual punishment). The petitioner's contention is therefore without merit.
108 The petitioner, an indigent male, contends finally that the death penalty under Section 921.141 is being applied in a discriminatory fashion against males and poor persons in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Although the petitioner asserts his claim under the guise of Fourteenth Amendment equal protection, closer examination reveals that at its core lies the charge of arbitrary and capricious conduct. Male and indigent murderers, the petitioner in effect contends, have in Florida received the death penalty under Section 921.141, while women and nonindigent murderers, equally or more deserving to die, have received life imprisonment. For reasons that we have already detailed at length, the contention that the death penalty under Section 921.141 is being applied arbitrarily and capriciously must fail as a matter of law except under exceptional circumstances. 42 Accordingly, the petitioner's contention is meritless.C. Florida's Clemency Procedures 109 The petitioner's next contention is that the Florida Rules of Executive Clemency violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. We do not agree. 110 Article IV, section 8(a) of the Florida Constitution provides that (e)xcept in cases of treason and in cases where impeachment results in conviction, the governor may, by executive order filed with the secretary of state, . . . and, with the approval of three members of the cabinet, grant full or conditional pardons, restore civil rights, commute punishment, and remit fines and forfeitures for offenses. The governor and the cabinet of Florida, in order to assist in the orderly and expeditious exercise of this clemency power, Fla.R.Exec. Clemency 2, established by executive order the Florida Rules of Executive Clemency, which are set forth in Appendix B of our opinion. The procedures provided for in these rules are detailed and comprehensive: 111 (T)he newly devised death sentence review process operates very much like all other administrative processes in the executive branch of Florida's government. The rules adopted for this purpose establish an Office of Executive Clemency headed by a coordinator and staffed by assistants. A proper record of all proceedings is maintained. Precise steps for review are prescribed, channeled by precise time frames, and the process once triggered requires (i) a hearing examiner to take written or oral testimony, (ii) an informal evidentiary proceeding, (iii) a required report to be filed by the hearing examiner within 60 days, (iv) a required hearing before the Governor and cabinet, (v) notice to applicants' attorneys and to counsel for the state, (vi) authority for both counsel to file exceptions, briefs or memoranda concerning the examiner's report, (vii) a prohibition against direct communications to the Governor or any cabinet member during the pendency of the proceedings, and (viii) a public explanation for granting or not granting clemency. 112 Sullivan v. Askew, 348 So.2d 312, 318 (Fla.) (England, J., concurring), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 878, 98 S.Ct. 232, 54 L.Ed.2d 159 (1977). Their constitutionality has been reviewed and upheld by the Florida Supreme Court. Sullivan v. Askew, supra. 113 Spenkelink contends nonetheless that these procedures are fundamentally unfair and violate Fourteenth Amendment due process because they allegedly (1) denied him an impartial tribunal because the state attorney general who defended his death sentence in the courts sits as a member of the cabinet and reviews death sentences, (2) denied him the privilege of personally attending the hearing conducted by the governor and cabinet, (3) denied him disclosure of the evidence relied upon by the Florida Parole and Probation Commission in reaching an adverse recommendation with respect to his clemency, which was forwarded to the governor and cabinet, and (4) denied him notice of the standards and criteria followed by the governor and cabinet in reaching their clemency decisions. The issues presented by the petitioner, therefore, are whether the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies to clemency decisions by the governor and cabinet of Florida, and, if so, whether the Rules of Executive Clemency comport with the standards of procedural due process. Our answer to the first question renders unnecessary our consideration of the second. 114 In Sullivan v. Askew, supra, the Florida Supreme Court addressed the constitutionality of the Rules of Executive Clemency. The court held that the petitioner's complaint, which raised the same contentions as Spenkelink raises here, failed to state a cause of action because the clemency power is exclusively in the executive branch. 348 So.2d at 314. The court relied heavily on the doctrine of separation of powers and cited with approval its opinion in Ex parte White, 131 Fla. 83, 178 So. 876 (1938), which declared a state legislative enactment unconstitutional because it was in conflict with and in derogation of the constitutionally established execution (sic ) power of clemency. 348 So.2d at 316. This prohibition against legislative encroachment upon the executive's clemency power, stated the court in Sullivan, is equally applicable to the judiciary. Id. 115 The opinion in Sullivan, while instructive and well reasoned, is not dispositive, because it is unclear whether the justices were relying on the Florida Constitution or the United States Constitution. Our inquiry, of course, involves the latter. Two other decisions, both by the United States Supreme Court and both involving federal constitutional law, provide us further guidance. In Schick v. Reed, 419 U.S. 256, 95 S.Ct. 379, 42 L.Ed.2d 430 (1974), the Supreme Court turned away the petitioner's challenge to the president's pre-Furman clemency decision in his case. The Court held that the president, acting under article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United States Constitution, which provides in part that the president shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment, could commute a prisoner's sentence from death to life imprisonment, subject to the condition that he would not thereafter be eligible for parole. Chief Justice Burger, writing for the Court, delved into the historical origins of the president's clemency power, and then wrote a thoughtful analysis of the limits of that power. The Chief Justice concluded: 116 A fair reading of the history of the English pardoning power, from which our Art. II, § 2, cl. 1, derives, of the language of that clause itself, and of the unbroken practice since 1790 compels the conclusion that the power flows from the Constitution alone, not from any legislative enactments, and that it cannot be modified, abridged, or diminished by the Congress. Additionally, considerations of public policy and humanitarian impulses support an interpretation of that power so as to permit the attachment of any condition which does not otherwise offend the Constitution. The plain purpose of the broad power conferred by § 2, cl. 1, was to allow plenary authority in the President to forgive the convicted person in part or entirely, to reduce a penalty in terms of a specified number of years, or to alter it with conditions which are in themselves constitutionally unobjectionable. . . . We therefore hold that the pardoning power is an enumerated power of the Constitution and that its limitations, if any, must be found in the Constitution itself. 117 419 U.S. at 266-67, 95 S.Ct. at 385. Schick, therefore, stands for the proposition that the substantive discretion of the president in the exercise of his clemency power is all but absolute. 118 In Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215, 96 S.Ct. 2532, 49 L.Ed.2d 451 (1976), the Supreme Court held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment does not entitle a state prisoner to a hearing when he is transferred to a prison the conditions of which are substantially less favorable to the prisoner, absent a state law or practice conditioning such transfers on proof of serious misconduct or the occurrence of other events. 427 U.S. at 216, 96 S.Ct. at 2534. The Court found that such transfers do not infringe or implicate a liberty interest within the meaning of the Due Process Clause, because given a valid conviction, the criminal defendant has been constitutionally deprived of his liberty to the extent that the State may confine him and . . . subject him to the rules of its prison system so long as the conditions of confinement do not otherwise violate the Constitution. In short, (t)he conviction has sufficiently extinguished the defendant's liberty interest to empower the State to confine him in any of its prisons. 427 U.S. at 224, 96 S.Ct. at 2538. To hold otherwise, stated the Court, would place the (Due Process) Clause astride the day-to-day functioning of state prisons and involve the judiciary in issues and discretionary decisions that are not the business of federal judges. 427 U.S. at 228, 96 S.Ct. at 2540. 43 Accord, Montanye v. Haymes, 427 U.S. 236, 96 S.Ct. 2543, 49 L.Ed.2d 466 (1976). 119 Schick and Meachum compel us to reject Spenkelink's contention. Meachum indicates that the clemency decision of the governor and cabinet of Florida did not infringe or implicate any interest protected by the Due Process Clause. As we have already held, Spenkelink was constitutionally sentenced to die upon affirmance of his sentence by the Florida Supreme Court. That affirmance empowered the State then to execute him. See Cruz v. Skelton, 5 Cir., 1976, 543 F.2d 86, 89, cert. denied, 433 U.S. 911, 97 S.Ct. 2980, 53 L.Ed.2d 1096 (1977); Brown v. Lundgren, 5 Cir., 528 F.2d 1050, 1052-53, cert. denied, 429 U.S. 917, 97 S.Ct. 308, 50 L.Ed.2d 283 (1976); Hoffa v. Saxbe, D.D.C., 1974, 378 F.Supp. 1221, 1245. But it did not. The governor and cabinet, pursuant to established procedures, wisely chose to consider whether the petitioner was entitled to mercy. See Gregg v. Georgia, supra, 428 U.S. at 200 n.50, 96 S.Ct. at 2937 n. 50 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.). (A capital punishment system devoid of executive clemency would be totally alien to our notions of criminal justice.). This Court is not prepared to hold that in so choosing Florida's executive branch triggered the requirements of Fourteenth Amendment procedural due process. 44 To hold otherwise would involve both the federal and state judiciaries in issues and discretionary decisions which, as Schick v. Reed, supra, intimates, are not the business of judges. See Solesbee v. Balkom, 339 U.S. 9, 70 S.Ct. 457, 94 L.Ed. 604 (1950); Sullivan v. Askew, supra. Cf. United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 94 S.Ct. 3090, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039 (1974). 45 The petitioner's contention is therefore without merit. D. Miranda Violation 120 The petitioner's next contention is that the admission of one of his custodial statements into evidence at trial violated his constitutional rights under the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments as defined in Brewer v. Williams, 430 U.S. 387, 97 S.Ct. 1232, 51 L.Ed.2d 424 (1977), and Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). A review of the record indicates that neither the petitioner nor his attorney objected at trial to the admission of the statement. Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.190(i) requires such a contemporaneous objection in order to preserve the matter for appellate review. 46 We agree with the Florida Supreme Court, Spenkelink v. State, supra, 350 So.2d at 85, that this situation falls squarely within the holding of Wainwright v. Sykes, supra. No cause or prejudice having been shown, the objection was waived. See Tennon v. Ricketts, supra; St. John v. Estelle, supra; Nichols v. Estelle, supra; Loud v. Estelle, supra, 556 F.2d at 1329-30. E. Lockett v. Ohio 121 Spenkelink has submitted a post-argument brief in which he contends that Florida's Section 921.141 is unconstitutional under the recent United States Supreme Court holding in Lockett v. Ohio, --- U.S. ----, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973(1978). In Lockett the Court held that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments require that the sentencer, in all but the rarest kind of capital case, not be precluded from considering as a mitigating factor, any aspect of a defendant's character or record and any of the circumstances of the offense that the defendant proffers as a basis for a sentence less than death. 98 S.Ct. at 2965 (plurality opinion) (emphasis in original). On the basis of language in Cooper v. State, 336 So.2d 1133, 1139 (Fla.1976), 47 Spenkelink contends that Section 921.141 impermissibly limits the mitigating factors which the judge and jury can consider in assessing the death penalty, and therefore must be declared unconstitutional. We disagree. 122 When the Supreme Court in Proffitt v. Florida, supra, first approved the constitutionality of Florida's death penalty statute, it stated that Section 921.141 contains no limiting language with respect to the mitigating circumstances that the judge and jury can consider. In footnote 8 of their Proffitt opinion, Justices Stewart, Powell, and Stevens said: 123 In one case the Florida Court upheld a death sentence where the trial judge had simply listed six aggravating factors as justification for the sentence he imposed. Sawyer v. State, 313 So.2d 680 (1975). Since there were no mitigating factors, and since some of these aggravating factors arguably fell within the statutory categories it is unclear whether the Florida Court would uphold a death sentence that rested entirely on nonstatutory aggravating circumstances. It seems unlikely that it would do so since the capital-sentencing statute explicitly provides that (a)ggravating circumstances shall be limited to the following (eight specified factors.). § 921.141(5) (Supp.1976-1977). (Emphasis added.) There is no such limiting language introducing the list of statutory mitigating factors. See § 921.141(6) (Supp.1976-1977). See also n. 14 infra. 124 Proffitt v. Florida, supra, 428 U.S. at 250 n. 8, 96 S.Ct. at 2965-66 n. 8 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.). Justice White, joined by Chief Justice Burger and Justice Rehnquist, accepted this interpretation of the Florida statute. Id., 428 U.S. at 260, 96 S.Ct. at 2970 (White, J., concurring). Later, in Lockett, the Court reaffirmed the constitutionality of Florida's Section 921.141: 125 Although the Florida statute approved in Proffitt contained a list of mitigating factors, six members of this Court assumed, in approving the statute, that the range of mitigating factors listed in the statute was not exclusive. . . . None of the statutes we sustained in Gregg and the companion cases clearly operated at that time to prevent the sentencer from considering any aspect of the defendant's character and record or any circumstances of his offense as an independently mitigating factor. 126 Lockett v. Ohio, supra, 98 S.Ct. at 2966 (plurality opinion). The Ohio statute, noted the Court, is significantly different, and therefore must fall. Id. It is unmistakably clear from this language in Lockett that the Court still views Gregg v. Georgia, supra, and the companion cases, one of which was Proffitt v. Florida, supra, as sound law. The conclusion is inevitable that the Court continues to view Section 921.141 as constitutional, as it did in 1976 when it decided Proffitt. Obviously, we are without power or authority to overrule the express finding of the Supreme Court. 127 The Court's language in Lockett, to the effect that when Proffitt was decided, Section 921.141 did not at that time . . . prevent the sentencer from considering any aspect of the defendant's character and record or any circumstances of his offense as an independently mitgating factor, Lockett v. Ohio, supra, 98 S.Ct. at 2966 (plurality opinion), is also important. Cooper v. State, supra, the case relied upon by Spenkelink, was not decided until July 8, 1976. Spenkelink was sentenced on December 20, 1973, and his conviction affirmed by the Florida Supreme Court on February 19, 1975. At the time of the sentencing proceeding, Spenkelink was afforded, and exercised, without limitation, every opportunity to set forth any and all mitigating factors in his favor. He contended, for example, that he should not receive the death penalty because his killing of Szymankiewicz was in self-defense, though that defense is not one of the mitigating circumstances expressly set forth in Section 921.141(6). Moreover, the trial court instructed the jury that, in addition to the evidence presented at the sentencing hearing, it was to consider also the evidence presented at trial. The mitigating circumstance of provocation, possibly resulting from the alleged episodes of homosexuality and Russian roulette, see note 3 supra, was thus before the jury and the judge, even though provocation also is not one of the mitigating circumstances expressly mentioned in Section 921.141(6). A reading of the transcript of the sentencing hearing therefore indicates that the hearing was full, fair, and thoroughly complete. We find no merit to the post-argument contention of the petitioner. 128 After considering each of the petitioner's contentions and finding them to be without merit, we agree with the district court's denial of a writ of habeas corpus and accordingly affirm that judgment. 129 AFFIRMED.