McDonald v. State

321 So. 2d 453
District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided November 7, 1975·No. 75-197·Published·Cited by 60 cases

Opinion

321 So.2d 453 (1975)

Carl Allen McDONALD, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 75-197.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

November 7, 1975.

*454 Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Elliott R. Brooks and Craig Barnard, Asst. Public Defenders, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Robert B. Breisblatt, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, for appellee.

DOWNEY, Judge.

Appellant was summarily adjudged guilty of fifteen separate acts of direct criminal contempt and sentenced to fifteen consecutive 178 day terms of incarceration in the county jail. He seeks review of those judgments and sentences, which resulted from the following circumstances.

Appellant and Roger Dean Hill were tried upon a charge of rape. The jury acquitted appellant, but the court granted a mistrial as to Hill. Just prior to Hill's next trial his counsel sought to depose appellant, but appellant refused to testify on Fifth Amendment grounds. The deposition was certified to the court, and though the trial judge directed him to answer the questions in the judge's presence, appellant steadfastly *455 refused, asserting fear of self-incrimination. The trial judge advised appellant that his acquittal on the rape charge precluded the state from trying him again and thus he had no right to refuse to testify about the circumstances of that crime. However, appellant was adamant and refused to testify. Thereupon, the state served appellant with an investigative subpoena returnable instanter and advised the court that it was thereby immunizing appellant pursuant to § 914.04, F.S. 1973. Several more questions were propounded to appellant by the state and by the court and appellant refused to answer them. The court then declared that appellant was in contempt and that sentence would be imposed later.

When the Hill trial commenced appellant was called as a court witness. Out of the presence of the jury the prosecutor propounded six questions to appellant concerning the subject matter of the case, and appellant invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination. Once again the court took great pains to advise appellant that he could not refuse to testify on Fifth Amendment grounds because he was immune from prosecution for any participation in the alleged rape. Appellant persisted and after each refusal the court summarily found him guilty of a direct criminal contempt and sentenced him to 178 days in the Orange County jail. The jury was returned to the courtroom and in their presence the same or similar questions were propounded to appellant with the same result. Again the trial judge instructed appellant he must testify, again appellant refused, and again the judge, after each refusal, found him in direct criminal contempt and sentenced him to 178 days in the Orange County jail.

A written judgment and sentence was entered by the trial court adjudicating appellant guilty on fifteen counts of direct criminal contempt and sentencing him to 178 days in the Orange County jail on each count, to be served consecutively.

Appellant charges that error was committed by the trial court in (1) finding him in contempt for exercising his constitutional right against self-incrimination, (2) summarily adjudicating him guilty of contempt, (3) adjudicating him guilty of fifteen instances of contempt for successive refusals to respond to similar questions, (4) sentencing him to the equivalent of seven and one-half years in the county jail, (5) imposing more than one sentence upon him as each purported contempt arose out of the same transaction, (6) sentencing him to more than six months without a jury trial, (7) sentencing him to "hard labor" for contempt, (8) failing to follow the provisions of Rule 3.830, RCrP.

With regard to appellant's right to invoke the Fifth Amendment under the facts of this case, we find the trial court was correct in advising appellant that he was immune from prosecution and therefore could not with impunity refuse to testify on grounds of self-incrimination. Appellant's acquittal of the alleged rape involved in the Hill prosecution protected appellant from any further prosecution on the rape charge. In addition, the state through an investigative subpoena under § 914.04, F.S. 1973, immunized appellant from any other prosecution for past offenses which his coerced testimony might necessarily reveal. Appellant was advised of his immunity by the state and at length by the court. The fact that appellant testified in his own trial or that he had made a pretrial statement to the police did not give him grounds to fear a prosecution for any perjury that he might have committed in those past statements if the testimony he gave at Hill's trial was inconsistent with those earlier statements. See, e.g., United States v. Watkins, 505 F.2d 545 (7th Cir.1974). The immunization of appellant was complete as to any necessarily disclosed past act, including the giving of past statements or testimony. As pointed out in State ex rel. Hough v. Popper, Fla. 1973, 287 So.2d 282, an individual who gives coerced testimony pursuant to § 914.04, F.S. 1973, obtains *456 "transactional" and "use" immunity, thereby precluding the state from prosecuting the witness for the criminal transaction under consideration and from using that testimony in any other criminal proceeding against the witness. Therefore, since appellant had both transactional and use immunity, he was in no position to refuse to testify.

Of course, appellant could not invoke the Fifth Amendment to protect himself against a prosecution for perjury arising out of any untruthful statements he might make in answer to the questions being propounded to him in the Hill trial. Inherent in the power to compel the giving of testimony is the requirement that it be truthful. The immunity afforded by the statute relative to the past does not clothe the witness with a license to commit perjury in the future. Glickstein v. United States, 222 U.S. 139, 32 S.Ct. 71, 56 L.Ed. 128 (1911). Stated another way, a witness is not free to commit perjury under the protection of the immunity statute; the immunity does not extend to a perjury the witness commits while testifying under compulsion. Glickstein v. United States, supra; People v. Florentine, 276 App.Div. 730, 97 N.Y.S.2d 553; 8 Wigmore on Evidence, § 2282, pp. 511-512 (1961); Note, 7 University of Florida Law Review 194, 199-200.

Appellant relies upon Salem v. State, Fla.App. 1974, 305 So.2d 23, as authority for the propriety of his refusal to testify, particularly since Salem's fear of incrimination by perjury based upon prior testimony is very similar to the fear expressed by appellant. It is difficult to determine from the opinion whether the state granted Salem full immunity for testifying in the Hatten trial or not. In any event, if the state had granted Salem full immunity for testifying in the Hatten trial (as is indicated in Judge Pearson's dissenting opinion) we would agree with the dissent. On the other hand, if the majority opinion is based upon a finding that full immunity was not granted to Salem, then the conclusion reached was justified. We assume that to have been the finding of the majority since otherwise its reliance upon United States v. Wilcox, 4

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