Brinson v. State

278 So. 2d 317
District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided May 17, 1973·No. Q-214, Q-266·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

278 So.2d 317 (1973)

Bernard BRINSON, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Linten Edward WILSON, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Nos. Q-214, Q-266.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

May 17, 1973.
Rehearing Denied June 8, 1973.
Rehearing Denied June 20, 1973.

*318 Richard W. Ervin, III, Public Defender; Brian T. Hayes, of Parsons, Hayes & Parsons, Tallahassee, for appellants.

Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., Donald K. Rudser, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

Rehearing Denied June 8, 1973 in No. Q-266.

Rehearing Denied June 20, 1973 in No. Q-214.

SPECTOR, Chief Judge.

Bernard Brinson and Linten Edward Wilson were convicted of sodomy and sentenced to twenty years and fifteen years, respectively. They now seek reversal of that conviction primarily on authority of the Florida Supreme Court's decision in Franklin v. State, 257 So.2d 21 (Fla. 1971).

The incident giving rise to the charges and conviction herein occurred in Raiford prison. The appellants and their victim were prison inmates. Brinson was serving a six-year term for breaking and entering, while Wilson was serving two life sentences on rape and robbery convictions in Leon County, Florida. At the trial the victim described his ordeal in the following manner:

"A. I was sitting in my cell. I had gotten a book and laid down to read it for an hour or two and this time was between one-forty-five and two p.m. And two inmates walked into my cell and began to beat upon me.
"Q. Did you know the two inmates?
"A. No, sir, not by name.
"Q. Were these white inmates or colored inmates?
"A. Colored inmates.
"Q. Go ahead.
"A. After the first two walked in there were two more that came in with them and after the second two came in, then four more came in, so there was a total of eight. All eight of them started to beat upon me.
"Q. Where did they beat upon you?
"A. Mostly my face, chest and stomach and groin.
"Q. Go ahead.
"A. After they had beat me severely and threatened my life, another inmate pulled my pants down when I was unable to give any physical resistance at all due to the beating and four of them took terms [sic] in sodomy.
*319 "Q. Now, when you say `took turns in sodomy', be specific. Tell the jury what specifically did they do.
"A. They hiked my legs up to my knees and inserted their penis in my rectum.
"Q. You say this took place with four of them?
"A. Yes, sir.
"Q. How long did this episode last?
"A. Approximately ten or fifteen minutes.
"Q. And during this time did you make an outcry at all?
"A. I tried to make one and my cry was muffled by a towel. At this point another inmate told me if I tried to cry out again he would kill me with a shank.
"Q. A shank, what's that?
"A. A homemade knife."

In Franklin, the court held Section 800.01, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., the law under which the offense described above had theretofore been punished, to be unconstitutional for vagueness and uncertainty in its language.

The statute reads as follows:

"Whoever commits the abominable and detestable crime against nature, either with mankind or with beast, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison not exceeding twenty years."

In Franklin, the court held the above statute invalid and reversed Franklin's conviction of violating that statute by engaging in homosexual activity with a consenting adult. In arriving at its decision, the state Supreme Court cited the growing trend of constitutional decisions on "the invasion of private rights by state intrusion" and that such rulings must be considered in determining the validity of statutes such as the one here involved. At this juncture we think it necessary to emphasize, as we will several times during the course of this opinion, that it is the state Supreme Court's judgment, and not that of this court, which characterized this activity as being a private right into the conduct of which the State has questionable right to intrude. Citing the "change and upheaval of modern times", the Supreme Court said that it should not be blind to the facts of life and that the law must be "responsive to the society which it serves".

For whatever reason impelled it, the Supreme Court held that the language of the statute fails to inform "in language which is relevant to today's society ... understandable to the average citizen of common intelligence" what it is that the statute prohibits. Since Franklin involved two consenting adult males engaging in homosexual activities, and the language of that decision was reminiscent of the rhetoric concerning certain newly emerging societal groups, it was thought when the decision was handed down that the constitutional infirmity discovered in the statute by the Supreme Court would apply only to homosexual activity between consenting adults notwithstanding the court's language striking the statute down in its entirety. This because of the nature of the conduct involved in that case and, secondly, because of the rhetorical arguments made by the court in supporting its conclusion of vagueness and overbreadth. It thus appeared to constitutional observers that the "modern times" frame of reference seemingly underpinning and circumscribing the Franklin decision indicated, albeit not without the same decisional vagueness earlier condemned in the statute, that the elements of consent and right of privacy were at the heart of the ratio decidendi of the court's decision.

However, it was not to be. For several months following the Supreme Court's Franklin decision, it reversed in a memorandum per curiam decision the conviction of Michael John Parisi who had been found guilty by a jury of violating the same crime against nature statute, Section 800.01, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., which had *320 been invalidated by the Franklin court. Parisi v. State, 265 So.2d 699 (Fla. 1972). While Parisi involved the same statute as Franklin, the record in that case discloses that the nature of the crime was significantly different.

Parisi was not a consenting adult homosexual slipping around in the dark doing his thing with another consenting adult. Parisi was a vicious animal who forcibly, under threat of death, made a middle-aged woman submit to a depraved and degrading assault notwithstanding her prayerful entreaties to be spared from his sordid sexual attack. The victim was forced on threat of great bodily harm and death to commit fellatio upon Parisi. That's sodomy per os, and lest we be held guilty of vagueness and overbreadth condemned by the Franklin court, it means that he forcibly penetrated her mouth with his penis.

Following Parisi's reversal and remand for sentencing as a misdemeanant under Section 800.02, Florida Statutes, it became apparent that citizens of this State were no longer protected from deviant forcible sexual assaults by the only felony statute theretofore generally invoked for that purpose.

Thus, under Franklin and Parisi we are not permitted to affirm the convictions of the appellants in the insta

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