Holland v. State

636 So. 2d 1289, 1994 WL 91962
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedMarch 24, 1994
Docket78660
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 636 So. 2d 1289 (Holland 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
Holland v. State, 636 So. 2d 1289, 1994 WL 91962 (Fla. 1994).

Opinion

636 So.2d 1289 (1994)

Albert HOLLAND, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 78660.

Supreme Court of Florida.

March 24, 1994.
Rehearing Denied June 9, 1994.

*1290 Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender and Richard B. Greene, Asst. Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen. and Carolyn M. Snurkowski, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Albert Holland, Jr. appeals his convictions of first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, armed robbery, sexual battery, and attempted first-degree murder and the sentences imposed, including a sentence of death. We have jurisdiction based on article V, section 3(b)(1) of the Florida Constitution.

Holland was convicted of fatally shooting Pompano Beach police officer Scott Winters. The killing occurred when Winters tried to arrest Holland for sexual battery and attempted first-degree murder. The jury convicted Holland of first-degree murder and recommended death by a vote of eleven to one. The trial judge followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Holland to death. We reverse the convictions and sentences because a contract jail psychiatrist's testimony should not have been used in a competency hearing and at trial on the issue of Holland's sanity.

The record reflects these relevant facts: Holland attacked a woman he met on the afternoon of July 29, 1990. Holland ran off after a witness interrupted the attack by shouting, "Man, you're gonna kill that woman." Police officers responding to a call about the attack found the victim semi-conscious with severe head wounds. Based on witnesses' accounts, police — including Officer Winters — began searching for a man believed to have been involved in the attack. A short time later, witnesses saw Winters struggling with Holland. During the struggle, the officer hit Holland with a nightstick and put Holland in a headlock. Holland grabbed the officer's gun and shot Winters twice. Police officers testified that Winters called for backup at 7:25 p.m., then called at 7:26 p.m. and said he had been shot. When officers reached Winters, they saw that his gun was missing. Winters died of gunshot wounds to the groin and lower stomach area at 8:30 p.m.

*1291 After his indictment, Holland raised the issue of his competency to stand trial. The trial judge found him competent. Holland's defenses at trial included insanity.

Holland raises twenty-four issues on this direct appeal,[1] the first of which is dispositive. Holland claims that the trial court erred in overruling defense counsel's objections to the testimony of a State witness, psychiatrist Abbey Strauss, who testified at the competency hearing and at trial. We agree. Accordingly, we reverse both the convictions and sentences.

Holland invoked his rights to counsel and to remain silent during his first appearance on July 30, 1990. The judge indicated at the hearing that he would sign an order prohibiting law enforcement interviews outside the presence of Holland's attorney. After the judge entered his order dated July 30, 1990, Strauss, a contract psychiatrist with the Broward County Jail, examined Holland twice in jail in August 1990 to help determine whether Holland needed further mental-health evaluation or could be put into the jail's general population. There was no notice to counsel. The State, however, later contacted Strauss and secured his testimony on the issues of Holland's competency and sanity. Strauss was the State's only expert witness at the competency hearing and was a key prosecution witness on the issue of insanity.

The record reflects that Strauss's testimony drew almost exclusively on his observations and impressions from his August jail visits. Strauss testified at the competency hearing that after his two visits at the jail he concluded Holland was malingering. Although Strauss later reviewed additional information, including records of Holland's earlier psychiatric hospitalization, he testified that the information simply reinforced his initial conclusion. During his testimony, Strauss also suggested that Holland might have responded differently to him during the jail visits if Holland had known the results would be used on the issue of competency.

Strauss's testimony that Holland was competent to stand trial was crucial because the court-appointed mental health experts testified that Holland was incompetent. The trial judge noted that he had never gone against court-appointed mental health experts, but he nonetheless agreed with Strauss and found Holland competent to stand trial. Thus, the error in allowing Strauss's testimony on competency cannot be harmless.

*1292 The record also shows that Strauss's jail visits — not his review of additional information — convinced him of Holland's sanity. During trial, he testified that he formed his opinion after the second jail visit:

Q. [on cross-examination by defense attorney]. In fact, your opinion didn't change since the first day you saw Albert Holland, did it?
A. [by Strauss]. Since the second day I saw him.
Q. Second day, you mean when you went to see him the second time?
A. Yes.
Q. And at that time, you didn't have the benefit of any medical — prior medical record?
A. I didn't feel at the time it was necessary.
Q. Okay. And even though you saw some four or five years of medical records from Saint Elizabeth's Hospital, that still didn't change your opinion?
A. No.

It is obvious from the record that Strauss's observations and findings during the August jail visits formed the basis of his testimony at the competency hearing and at trial. Defense counsel had no notice of these visits. Lack of notice would not be a problem if Strauss's testimony been confined to his observations of Holland, as opposed to his expert opinions relating to Holland's competency and sanity. Walls v. State, 580 So.2d 131, 135 (Fla. 1991) ("The state and its agents clearly are entitled to watch a person in custody and make notes of that person's voluntary or spontaneous behavior or comments."). In addition, we have held that "[p]sychiatric evaluations conducted in good faith and with proper authorization also clearly are an acceptable means for the state to employ, especially when competency or sanity may be in issue." Id. (emphasis added).

Strauss's testimony was, in the end, the type of testimony the United States Supreme Court disapproved in Powell v. Texas, 492 U.S. 680, 109 S.Ct. 3146, 106 L.Ed.2d 551 (1989). In Powell the Court found that the introduction of psychiatric evidence on future dangerousness based on an in-custody psychiatric exam conducted without notice to counsel violated the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution. While the introduction of defense evidence on insanity constitutes a partial waiver of a defendant's Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, the introduction of psychiatric evidence to support an insanity defense does not waive his Sixth Amendment right to consult with counsel. Id. at 684-85, 109 S.Ct. at 3149-50. Defense counsel in Powell had notice that his client would be examined for competency and sanity, but he did not have notice that the exam would encompass the issue of future dangerousness. Id. at 682, 109 S.Ct. at 3148.

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636 So. 2d 1289, 1994 WL 91962, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holland-v-state-fla-1994.