Opinion ID: 78361
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Claim Three: Lamarca's Due Process Rights Were Denied by the Trial Court's Limitation and Exclusion of Evidence and Abridgement of His Cross-Examination of Tonya Flynn.

Text: Lamarca asserts the trial court denied him the right to defend against the charges by not allowing him to present evidence that Tonya and Kevin Flynn were getting a divorce, that Tonya argued with Kevin regarding his excessive drinking and sexual inadequacy, and that Tonya had engaged in an affair during a brief separation from Kevin a month and a half prior to the murder. Lamarca contends the district court's determination that the exclusion of this evidence was harmless error is debatable among jurists of reason. Furthermore, Lamarca maintains the Florida Supreme Court and the district court's conclusions were contrary to or unreasonable applications of clearly established law, citing Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967). Under both Florida and federal law, a trial court's decision to exclude evidence at trial is reviewed for abuse of discretion. Salazar v. State, 991 So.2d 364, 373 (Fla.2008); United States v. Tinoco, 304 F.3d 1088, 1119 (11th Cir.2002). A trial court's discretion regarding evidentiary issues, however, is subject to the requirements of the United States Constitution. See United States v. Lankford, 955 F.2d 1545, 1548 (11th Cir.1992). Among these requirements is a defendant's right to present a defense. See Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 294, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 1045, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973) (The right of an accused in a criminal trial to due process is, in essence, the right to a fair opportunity to defend against the State's accusations.). Thus, when a trial court's evidentiary rulings deprive a defendant of his right to present a defense, such rulings amount to constitutional error. Id. at 302-03, 93 S.Ct. at 1049. A constitutional error, however, does not require an automatic reversal of a defendant's conviction and sentence. See Chapman, 386 U.S. at 21-22, 87 S.Ct. at 827. Rather, some constitutional errors may be so unimportant and insignificant that they may, consistent with the Federal Constitution, be deemed harmless, not requiring the automatic reversal of the conviction. See id. at 22, 87 S.Ct. at 827. Under the harmless-error standard articulated in Chapman and its progeny, a conviction may be affirmed only if the reviewing court conclude[s] that, on the whole record, the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Hasting, 461 U.S. 499, 508, 103 S.Ct. 1974, 1980, 76 L.Ed.2d 96 (1983). Put differently, the reviewing court must consider whether there is a reasonable possibility that the evidence complained of might have contributed to the conviction. See Chapman, 386 U.S. at 24, 87 S.Ct. at 828 (quoting Fahy v. Connecticut, 375 U.S. 85, 86, 84 S.Ct. 229, 230, 11 L.Ed.2d 171 (1963)). This standard is more stringent than the harmless-error standard used in habeas proceedings, under which a court must determine whether the error had substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury's verdict. See Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619, 622-23, 113 S.Ct. 1710, 1713-14, 123 L.Ed.2d 353 (1993) (rejecting the Chapman standard in collateral proceedings and adopting a less onerous test). Lamarca first argued the trial court's ruling limiting the evidence of Tonya Flynn's marital problems and extramarital affair violated his due process rights in his direct appeal of his conviction and sentence to the Florida Supreme Court. Lamarca's defense at trial was that Tonya Flynn murdered her husband. Prior to trial, however, the trial court granted in part the State's Motion in Limine to exclude allegations that the Flynns were getting a divorce or that Tonya had an extramarital affair. In his direct appeal, Lamarca argued the trial court's exclusion of this evidence limited his ability to establish Tonya Flynn had a motive to kill her husband, thus violating his due process rights to present evidence in support of his defense. In its decision affirming Lamarca's conviction and sentence, the Florida Supreme Court concluded the trial court abused its discretion in excluding the evidence in question. Lamarca I, 785 So.2d at 1213. The court, however, found the abuse of discretion amounted to harmless error in light of the evidence supporting Lamarca's guilt, citing State v. DiGuilio, 491 So.2d 1129, 1135 (Fla.1986). Lamarca I, 785 So.2d at 1214. Lamarca again raised this issue in his § 2254 petition, and the district court agreed with the Florida Supreme Court's determination, concluding Lamarca had failed to demonstrate that the Florida Supreme Court's harmless error analysis was inconsistent with any decision from the United States Supreme Court or was an unreasonable application of any such precedent. The sufficiency of the Florida Supreme Court's harmless error analysis is clearly established by a review of that Court's opinion. No jurist of reason would conclude the decision of the district court was debatable or wrong. See Slack, 529 U.S. at 484, 120 S.Ct. at 1604; 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). First, on direct review, the Florida Supreme Court used the harmless-error standard from DiGuilio, which, in turn, relies on Chapman. See DiGuilio, 491 So.2d at 1134-35 ([W]e adopted the correct rule from Chapman and Hasting that constitutional errors, with rare exceptions, are subject to harmless error analysis. The harmless error test, as set forth in Chapman and progeny, places the burden on the state, as the beneficiary of the error, to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the error complained of did not contribute to the verdict or, alternatively stated, that there is no reasonable possibility that the error contributed to the conviction.). Second, the district court articulated the correct harmless-error standard for habeas proceedings, citing to Brecht and noting constitutional error will be considered harmless in a habeas proceeding unless the error had substantial and injurious effect or influence on the verdict or sentence. Finally, under either the Chapman or Brecht standard, the trial court's error was harmless in light of the other evidence supporting Lamarca's conviction. Indeed, evidence adduced at trial establishing Lamarca's guilt included his agitated state on the night of the murder; Tina Lamarca's testimony that Lamarca had told her that Kevin Flynn did not want Lamarca around Tonya Flynn or his child anymore; eyewitness accounts of Lamarca departing the bar with Kevin and in Kevin's car, and Lamarca later returning to the bar alone and with Kevin's car; the testimony of Stephanie Parker, who saw Lamarca and another man arguing about something outside Lamarca's trailer that night; the discovery of Kevin's body in Lamarca's trailer early the next morning; Lamarca's possession of the .22 rifle used to commit the murder in the days prior; Tonya Flynn's testimony that she saw Lamarca with the murder weapon after he raped her; the retrieval of the murder weapon from Joseph Lamarca's home; Lamarca's access to an ammunition box with .22 rounds; the discovery of a knife that Lamarca had carried prior to the murder near Kevin's body; Lamarca's statement five months before the murder that he wanted to kill Kevin; his statement to a friend the morning after the murder that he killed Kevin, that it sucked, but that he had to do it; and his flight from law enforcement, which eventually took him to the state of Washington. Accordingly, no reasonable jurist would debate the district court's conclusion that the error did not have substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury's verdict. See Brecht, 507 U.S. at 623, 113 S.Ct. at 1714; Slack, 529 U.S. at 484, 120 S.Ct. at 1604. Lamarca is not entitled to a COA with respect to this claim.