Opinion ID: 1723327
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 15

Heading: preclusion of evidence of sentences of co-defendants

Text: Somewhat more troublesome is Johnson's argument that the circuit judge erred in excluding from consideration by the jury during the sentencing phase that the juries trying Fairley and Montgomery had rendered life sentence verdicts. Clearly, under Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 102 S.Ct. 869, 71 L.Ed.2d 1 (1982), Johnson was entitled to have his trial jury consider any relevant mitigating circumstance. Were the life sentences of Fairley and Montgomery relevant mitigating circumstances? We must hold they were not. Suppose, for example, the juries which tried Fairley and Montgomery had returned death penalty verdicts? Would the state, under any theory, have been permitted to show this over Johnson's objection? Each case tried by a separate jury must stand on its own. Otherwise, the jury trial is pointless. Moreover, for the separate sentences of Fairley and Montgomery to have had any meaning in Johnson's, it would have been necessary to develop all the facts of each of their trials for this jury. Johnson cites two Florida cases, both of which are distinguishable. In Messer v. State, 330 So.2d 137 (Fla. 1976), the Florida Supreme Court held the trial court erred in excluding from consideration by the jury during sentencing phase the plea bargained second degree murder sentence received by a co-defendant. As we stated, supra, Johnson in this case was clearly entitled to have the jury know and consider the guilty plea and sentence of Fields. This is quite different from the convictions of Fairley and Montgomery. Slater v. State, 316 So.2d 539 (Fla. 1975), involved a circuit judge overruling a jury recommendation of life imprisonment and imposing the death sentence, a procedure authorized under the Florida statutes. The Florida Supreme Court in turn overruled the circuit judge's imposition of the death sentence, the main reason being that an equally culpable defendant had been authorized to plead nolo contendere to first degree murder and received a life sentence. Thus, it is clear the Florida cases have no application to this case.