Baber v. State

775 So. 2d 258, 2000 WL 1227764
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedAugust 31, 2000
DocketSC96010
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 775 So. 2d 258 (Baber v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baber v. State, 775 So. 2d 258, 2000 WL 1227764 (Fla. 2000).

Opinion

775 So.2d 258 (2000)

James C. BABER, III, Petitioner,
v.
STATE of Florida, Respondent.

No. SC96010.

Supreme Court of Florida.

August 31, 2000.
Rehearing Denied January 4, 2001.

Bruce Rogow and Beverly A. Pohl of Bruce S. Rogow, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for Petitioner.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Celia Terenzio, Assistant Attorney General, Bureau Chief, and Robert R. Wheeler, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, Florida, for Respondent.

John C. Fisher, Bartow, Florida, for Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Amicus Curiae.

SHAW, J.

We have for review a decision on the following question certified to be of great public importance:

DOES LOVE V. GARCIA, 634 So.2d 158 (Fla.1994) APPLY IN CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS WHERE BLOOD ALCOHOL TEST RESULTS ARE OFFERED AS PROOF TO ESTABLISH AN ELEMENT OF THE OFFENSE, IF THE BLOOD ALCOHOL TESTS WERE ADMINISTERED BY HOSPITAL PERSONNEL FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT PURPOSES?

Baber v. State, 738 So.2d 379, 382 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999). We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. We answer the certified question affirmatively and approve the district court's decision.

The State charged and the jury convicted petitioner of DUI manslaughter. The dispositive facts are as follows:

In the early evening of November 11, 1995, [petitioner] was observed driving erratically in a northerly direction on Military Trail in Palm Beach County. *259 He then turned left to go west, but went into the east bound lane of 45th Street. He struck an oncoming vehicle, killing the driver and injuring the passenger.
[Petitioner], who was seriously injured, was taken to St. Mary's Hospital in West Palm Beach where his blood was tested for alcohol content on the hospital's DuPont ACA IV clinical analyzer. [Petitioner] represents in his brief, and the parties agreed at oral argument, that this was done for purposes of medical treatment. This test, which uses blood serum, reflected a blood alcohol level of .274 at the time of the accident. The blood serum test result was then converted to a whole blood result reflecting a blood alcohol level of from .23 to .25.
. . . .
In order to introduce the blood alcohol report, the state called the hospital's medical records custodian who laid the necessary foundation under the business record hearsay exception, section 90.803(6)(a), Florida Statutes (1995). The state also called the head of the chemistry department of the hospital who controlled the laboratory. He testified that he had copied [petitioner]'s blood test results from the computer system, described the manner in which the report was prepared, and described how the machine, which the hospital had been using since 1991, determines blood alcohol levels based on blood serum testing. He also explained the daily and weekly maintenance performed on the machine according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Baber v. State, 738 So.2d 379, 380 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999). Petitioner objected to the submission of the record absent testimony from the laboratory technician who performed the test and chain of custody testimony. See id.

On appeal, petitioner raised, among other things, the issue of the admission of the disputed record under Love v. Garcia, 634 So.2d 158 (Fla.1994). The district court observed:

In Love[,] ... the Florida Supreme Court held in a personal injury case that a blood alcohol test report contained in a hospital record was admissible with no testimony other than that of the business record custodian of the hospital qualifying the report as a business record. The court reasoned that if such a report is sufficiently trustworthy to be relied on for medical treatment, it is sufficiently trustworthy to be admissible in evidence as a business record, unless the party opposing the admission can show that it is untrustworthy.

Id. at 380-81. Based on the foregoing, the court concluded that this Court's decision in Love applies in criminal cases and, therefore, the report was properly admitted as a business record through the testimony of the hospital's records custodian. See id. at 382. We agree.

The right of a defendant to confront his or her accusers is a basic constitutional right protected by both the United States and Florida constitutions.[1] The United States Supreme Court has explained:

The primary object of the [Confrontation Clause] was to prevent depositions or ex parte affidavits, such as were sometimes admitted in civil cases, being used against the prisoner in lieu of a personal examination and cross-examination of the witness, in which the accused has an opportunity, not only of testing the recollection and sifting the conscience of the witness, but of compelling him to stand face to face with the jury in order that they may look at him, and judge by his demeanor upon the stand and the manner in which he gives *260 his testimony whether he is worthy of belief.

Mattox v. United States, 156 U.S. 237, 242-43, 15 S.Ct. 337, 39 L.Ed. 409 (1895).

The exercise of a defendant's right to confront his or her accusers also implicates the defendant's right to due process since confronting one's accusers is essential to a fair trial. See Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 294, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973). A defendant's right to notice "and an opportunity to be heard in his defense-a right to his day in court-are basic in our system of jurisprudence; and these rights include... [the] right to examine the witnesses against him." In re Oliver, 333 U.S. 257, 273, 68 S.Ct. 499, 92 L.Ed. 682 (1948), cited in Chambers, 410 U.S. at 294, 93 S.Ct. 1038.[2]

Federal and Florida courts have recognized, however, that the right to confront one's accusers is not absolute. The Supreme Court has stated that exceptions to the Confrontation Clause are "not ... static, but may be enlarged from time to time if there is no material departure from the reason of the general rule." Snyder v. Massachusetts, 291 U.S. 97, 107, 54 S.Ct. 330, 78 L.Ed. 674 (1934), overruled on other grounds, Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U.S. 1, 84 S.Ct. 1489, 12 L.Ed.2d 653 (1964). This Court has said that hearsay may be admissible in a criminal trial where the testimony is such that "adversarial testing would add little to its reliability." Conner v. State, 748 So.2d 950, 956 (Fla.1999)(quoting Idaho v. Wright, 497 U.S. 805, 821, 110 S.Ct. 3139, 111 L.Ed.2d 638 (1990)).

The statute establishing the admissibility of business records as an exception to the hearsay rule provides, in pertinent part:

(6) RECORDS OF REGULARLY CONDUCTED BUSINESS ACTIVITY.—

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Bluebook (online)
775 So. 2d 258, 2000 WL 1227764, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baber-v-state-fla-2000.