Koenig v. State

497 So. 2d 875
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedDecember 2, 1986
Docket83-2692
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 497 So. 2d 875 (Koenig v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Koenig v. State, 497 So. 2d 875 (Fla. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

497 So.2d 875 (1986)

Robert KOENIG, Appellant,
v.
The STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 83-2692.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

January 28, 1986.
On Rehearing December 2, 1986.

*876 Gelber, Glass & Durant and N. Joseph Durant, Jr., Miami, for appellant.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen. and Anthony C. Musto, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and DANIEL S. PEARSON and JORGENSON, JJ.

DANIEL S. PEARSON, Judge.

Although we agree with the defendant that, absent a determination that he had exercised his peremptory challenges to exclude blacks from the jury solely because of their race, the trial judge was without authority to discharge the jury pool on the ground that there was not "any black member on the jury," there is absolutely no evidence in this record — and, indeed, not even a suggestion below — to indicate that the trial judge's action in discharging this initial jury pool for the reason stated unlawfully inhibited the defendant's right to freely exercise peremptory challenges to prospective jurors in the ensuing jury pool from which the jury that convicted the defendant was selected. Thus, though error there be, there is no palpable connection between it and the jury that tried and convicted the defendant. We therefore affirm the defendant's conviction.

I.

The defendant, Robert Koenig, was brought to trial on an indictment charging him with manslaughter. The evidence at trial would reveal that Koenig, at the time of the incident an on-duty police officer employed by Metropolitan Dade County, is white and that the victim of the shooting, Donald Harp, was black.

During the jury selection process, Koenig peremptorily challenged four prospective jurors, all of whom were black. There were no blacks among the five jurors left in the jury box, and apparently only one black person remained in the pool of prospective jurors. It was unlikely, however, that this fifth black prospective juror would, in the ordinary course of the selection process, be called to serve. Faced with the seeming inevitability of an allwhite jury, the trial judge intervened:

"I have to tell you, I'm looking for a fair and impartial jury of one's peers of a cross section of the community and that's going to possibly eliminate one of the cross sections of the community.
"We may have Latin, you may have white, but you are not going to have any blacks on the jury. And, I may find the matter of manifest necessity to start all over again, not on this jury panel before you exercise your challenges but to start again. I do have to advise you of that.
"You're entitled to your challenges, don't get me wrong, but we may have to start all over again and dismiss this panel. I don't know. Let's see.
"[PROSECUTOR]: It's obviously important that we have a cross section of the community. As I see it now, the last remaining black will not be reached.
"THE COURT: I don't know how counsel can go, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. That's eight away.
"[PROSECUTOR]: I have five remaining. He has one remaining.
"THE COURT: That's — you may not want to let go of anybody here as well.
"Anybody have any solutions to this one?
"[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: I don't, Your Honor.
... .
"[PROSECUTOR]: Your Honor, seeing that we have a panel of five blacks and four have been struck, I would ask at this time if Defense could stipulate, if the fifth black prospective juror would be taken out of turn, thus saving us the trouble of doing —
"[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: You mean you want to choose one and put [him] on?
"[PROSECUTOR]: No, I'm saying by stipulation we could choose the remaining on the jury who is Mr. Gabriel.
"THE COURT: You mean by stipulation out of turn?
"[PROSECUTOR]: Obviously.
"THE COURT: That would be about the only way it could be done. You understand my problem? Once again, I want *877 to get a fair, not a favorable jury, one way or another, fair and impartial. The community is entitled to it, regardless. Okay.
"My giving — I'm giving you insight to judicial feelings. I have no way to pick a jury. It's not in my power, not within my purview to pick one individual and not another individual. I think you've got generally a decent group of people that would be fair and impartial.
"My suggestion is to go along with the State, or in the alternative, review one of your peremptory challenges that you've used here.
"It's entirely up to you as Defense attorney, or say, while, maybe you've reconsidered it, you wish to withdraw that particular one since I'm pretty liberal in my back strikes. If you don't want to, of course, you don't have to.
"[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: I understand.
"THE COURT: You understand the situation that I'm facing here. I want to make sure we have a good cross section. It only takes one person for a cross section, as far as I'm concerned.
"This community is basically three individuals or entities here, identifiable for years here and it's not like Perry, for example. You might have two areas of the community but here there's three and they all kind of want to be represented on the jury.
"Again, it's your decision and you are the attorney. That is one of my suggestions, or the State's suggestion, but to go and start tomorrow the whole selection if for some of you, you don't feel comfortable with any of these particular jurors, that will be okay. We'll start again. It will be up to you.
... .
"THE COURT: ... So, you'll understand maybe I'm not saying that there was anything systematic but I don't want to end up with a problem... .
... .
"[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: I understand what the Court has said but I'm saying to the Court that we can reach no stipulation concerning the seating of jurors and can only insist that we proceed as the — in the order we've been proceeding in this trial up until this point.
"THE COURT: Okay. We have five tentative jurors. We're up to [Mr.] Cuba who is the first one in the second row."

Jury selection continued with the State exhausting its allotted six peremptory challenges. The lone remaining black person in the pool, Mr. Gabriel, was not yet called and would not be unless two of the jurors then in the jury box were challenged. The trial judge sustained the defendant's objection to the State's motion that it be given two additional peremptory challenges. The trial judge summarized the proceedings as they then stood and announced his decision to discharge the entire jury pool because no black had been chosen to sit on the jury:

"THE COURT: ... What that leaves us with is six potential jurors. The only possible — let's see, there seems to as if it's going to be an impossibility at this point in time, even if Defense were to exercise a challenge but one, two, three, four, five, six, we have six potential jurors. State has no challenges for cause to enter. There is one peremptory challenge left the Defense.
"Do you wish to exercise it?
"[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: No, Your Honor.
"THE COURT: Okay.

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Bluebook (online)
497 So. 2d 875, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/koenig-v-state-fladistctapp-1986.