Court Opinion

ID: 9470264
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:01:06.579006+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:48.757422
License: Public Domain

CLARK, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I cannot agree with the district court’s conclusion that Darden’s trial was fundamentally fair as a matter of constitutional law. I start by assuming that fair means “characterized by honesty and justice; free from fraud, injustice, prejudice or favoritism; typical, representative”. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, 1976. I further assume that “fundamental” refers to the basic elements of a trial, such as an impartial judge and jury and right to counsel, to which every criminal defendant is entitled regardless of the evidence in a case. Stated another way, a trial lacks fundamental fairness when error is committed which is not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Every defendant is entitled to a fundamentally fair trial, without reference to the weight of the evidence or the heinous nature of the crime. When a defendant receives the death penalty, uncorrectable after execution, the force of the rule becomes more apparent. When the defendant’s defenses are alibi and misidentification, the uncorrectability of a mistake has such a consequence that the harmless doctrine must be closely scrutinized when it is clear that the error could have affected the sentence.
From the time Darden was arrested, throughout his trial and sentencing, he maintained his innocence. The evidence which convicted Darden was the identification of him by Mrs. Turman, widow of the man murdered, and Philip Arnold, who was shot by the killer. Four days after the crime and one day after the funeral, Mrs. Turman, while in a distraught state, went to the courthouse for the preliminary hearing where she identified the defendant as her husband’s killer. Darden was in a very small courtroom adjoining the holding cell; he was the only black person at the defense table; and there is an indication that he was the only black person in the room. The prosecutor pointed to him and asked Mrs. Turman if this was the man who did it, to which she responded yes. All of this was over strenuous objection of Darden’s counsel.1
The other eye witness identification was made by Philip Arnold, who was shot at the time Mr. Turman was killed. The crime occurred September 8, 1973. Arnold testi*1041fied on January 18, 1974. He had seen Darden in the courtroom during the previous two days. Arnold had been shown a photograph of Darden a few days after the crime as part of a group photographic identification procedure, evidence of which was suppressed by the state trial court. It is impossible to say whether the identification was tainted by the photograph or by Arnold seeing Darden in the courtroom, but Arnold did identify Darden as the person who was in the store with Mrs. Turman immediately after her husband was shot.2
From the voir dire examination through closing argument, the jury was impressed with the seriousness of the identification issue. They accepted the validity of the identification and convicted Darden of first-degree murder. The recommendation of the death sentence by the jury was not unanimous. We do not know what the jury count was between 7 to 5 and 11 to 1. Because I believe the prejudicial argument of counsel had an impact upon the jury which was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt and did affect their deliberations with respect to the death penalty, I dissent.
A short review of the prosécutorial misconduct is necessary. As stated by the district court: “At all stages of this proceeding, the state has candidly asserted that ‘no one has ever even weakly suggested that [the prosecutor’s] closing remarks were anything but improper....’” Darden v. Wainwright, 513 F.Supp. 947, 952 (M.D.Fla. 1981). The majority opinion has this to say about the prosecutorial misconduct:
There is no dispute in this case that “the prosecutor’s remarks under ordinary circumstances would constitute a violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility.” Darden v. State, 329 So.2d at 290. The district court noted that “anyone attempting a text-book illustration of a violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility, Canon 7, EC 7-24 and DR 7-106(c)(4), could not possibly improve” upon the example provided by the prosecutor during Darden’s trial.
At 1034 (footnote omitted). Numerous examples of the improper argument are set out in the opinions of the Florida Supreme Court, the district court, and the majority opinion.
Because this is a death case and there is one grossly prejudicial argument affecting the sentencing, I cannot" escape the conclusion that this argument had a fundamentally unfair impact upon the result. After making his improper argument that he would believe until his death that the defendant was guilty, and that the corrections officer who released Darden on furlough from the corrections institute should also be on trial for murder, the prosecutor further stated:
The second part of the trial I will request that you impose the death penalty. I will ask you to advise the Court to give him death. That’s the only way that I know that he is not going to get out on the public. It’s the only way I know. It’s the only way I can be sure of it....
Darden v. State, 329 So.2d 287, 289 (Fla. 1976). The sole purpose of this part of the prosecutor’s argument was to convince the jury that prison officials release dangerous offenders and the public could only be safe if they recommended Darden’s execution. Defendant was denied a fair trial.
One of the hardest tasks facing an appellate judge is reviewing a claim of constitutional error in a state habeas corpus proceeding. The problem is more acute when there are instances where the error may be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt and others where it may not be. Comments helpful to an appellate judge in considering the subject of harmless error on appellate review are found in Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946), as follows:
In the final analysis judgment in each case must be influenced by conviction resulting from examination of the proceedings in their entirety, tempered but not *1042governed in any rigid sense of stare decisis by what has been done in similar situations. Necessarily the character of the proceeding, what is at stake upon its outcome, and the relation of the error asserted to casting the balance for decision on the case as a whole, are material factors in judgment.
******
In criminal causes that outcome is conviction. This is different, or may be, from guilt in fact. It is guilt in law, established by the judgment of laymen. And the question is, not were they right in their judgment, regardless of the error or its effect upon the verdict. It is rather what effect the error had or reasonably may be taken to have had upon the jury’s decision. The crucial thing is the impact of the thing done wrong on the minds of other men, not on one’s own, in the total setting.
This must take account of what the error meant to them, not singled out and standing alone, but in relation to all else that happened. And one must judge others’ reactions not by their own, but with allowance for how others might react and not be regarded generally as acting without reason. This is the important difference, but one easy to ignore when the sense of guilt comes strongly from the record.
328 U.S. at 762, 764-65, 66 S.Ct. at 1246, 1247-48, 90 L.Ed. at 1565-1566 (citations omitted).
With respect to harmless constitutional errors, the fundamental rule is found in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967), where the court said the following which is applicable to this case:
In fashioning a harmless-constitutional-error rule, we must recognize that harmless-error rules can work very unfair and mischievous results when, for example, highly important and persuasive evidence, or argument, though legally forbidden, finds its way into a trial in which the question of guilt or innocence is a close one. What harmless-error rules all aim at is a rule that will save the good in harmless-error practices while avoiding the bad, so far as possible.
... We prefer the approach of this Court in deciding what was harmless error in our recent case of Fahy v. State of Connecticut, 375 U.S. 85, 84 S.Ct. 229, 11 L.Ed.2d 171. There we said: “The question is whether there is a reasonable possibility that the evidence complained of might have contributed to the conviction.” Id., at 86-87, 84 S.Ct. at 230. Although our prior cases have indicated that there are some constitutional rights so basic to a fair trial that their infraction can never be treated as harmless error, this statement in Fahy itself belies any belief that all trial errors which violate the Constitution automatically call for reversal. At the same time, however, like the federal harmless-error statute, it emphasizes an intention not to treat as harmless those constitutional errors that “affect substantial rights” of a party. An error in admitting plainly relevant evidence which possibly influenced the jury adversely to a litigant cannot, under Fahy, be conceived of as harmless. Certainly error, constitutional error, in illegally admitting highly prejudicial evidence or comments, casts on someone other than the person prejudiced by it a burden to show that it was harmless, (footnote omitted)
386 U.S. at 22-24, 87 S.Ct. at 827-28, 17 L.Ed.2d at 710 (emphasis added).
Under the Chapman and Fahy standard, “there is a reasonable possibility that the [comments] complained of might have contributed to the [conviction or sentence].” Darden’s right to be tried by an impartial jury was substantially affected by the inflammatory and prejudicial argument. The state offered no showing that the error was harmless.
My concern is highlighted by a view expressed in the Florida Supreme Court opinion, affirming the conviction and death penalty, where the majority opinion has this comment:
The language used by the prosecutor would have possibly been reversible error if it had been used regarding a less heinous set of crimes. The law permits fair comment. This comment was fair.
Darden v. State, 329 So.2d 287, 290. Darden was on trial for his life and his defenses were alibi and identification. If another person committed the crime, the heinous nature of the crime should have no affect upon the result. Darden was on a three-day furlough from the correctional institution from which he anticipated an early *1043parole. The prosecutor’s argument that the state had committed a crime in letting Darden out on a furlough and that the only-way to correct that problem was to execute Darden certainly had an impact upon this jury-
It is also my opinion that Darden had ineffective assistance of counsel by reason of his attorney not objecting to the prejudicial argument. This ineffectiveness is a part of the denial of Darden’s Fourteenth Amendment right to due process. His attorney, an assistant Florida Public Defender, explained at the habeas corpus proceeding that he purposely did not object to the argument so that he could preserve an error for appeal. This was clearly against his client’s best interests and not a reasoned tactical decision in light of Florida’s contemporaneous objection rule which was reaffirmed in its modern-day version in 1967 by the Supreme Court of Florida in Florida v. Jones, 204 So.2d 515 (Fla.1967). At page 519, the court commented that since the Gideon case and the appointment of counsel to defend indigents, “their rights are now well guarded by defending counsel.” The court went on to say that subsequently the court would not consider an assignment of error on improper argument of the prosecutor unless an objection and motion for mistrial were timely made.
In this case the prosecutor conducted a highly inflammatory and prejudicial argument against the defendant, his ineffective counsel failed to object, and the trial court permitted this inappropriate conduct of the two lawyers to go unabated. Yet, the State in arguing the contemporaneous objection rule, relies upon the Florida Supreme Court continuing to hold that “their [indigent defendants] rights are now well guarded by defending counsel.”3 Darden’s due process rights were not well guarded in this case. The state through erroneous actions of its prosecutor, state employed public defender, and state trial court, combined to deny defendant his due process right to a fundamentally fair trial pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment. These actions cannot be said to be harmless in light of the facts in this case, the bases of the defense, and the sentence of death.
In addition to dissenting on the issues of prejudicial argument of counsel and ineffectiveness of defense counsel, I dissent on the Witherspoon issue on the ground that the jurors were not given the opportunity to “make unmistakably clear” their inability to be impartial notwithstanding their views with respect to the death penalty.

. Transcript at 215-23, Habeas Corpus proceeding at 150, et seq.

. For a review of cases discussing various methods of identification and the possibility of suggestibility inherent in some methods, see United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 233, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 1935, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149, 1160 (1967).

. Jones was reaffirmed in Clark v. State, 363 So.2d 331 (Fla. 1978).