Owen v. State

596 So. 2d 985, 1992 WL 10615
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJanuary 23, 1992
Docket68549
StatusPublished
Cited by54 cases

This text of 596 So. 2d 985 (Owen 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
Owen v. State, 596 So. 2d 985, 1992 WL 10615 (Fla. 1992).

Opinion

596 So.2d 985 (1992)

Duane Eugene OWEN, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 68549.

Supreme Court of Florida.

January 23, 1992.
Rehearings Denied April 1, 1992.

*986 Craig Boudreau and Anthony J. Natale, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

Duane Eugene Owen, pro se.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and John W. Tiedemann and Celia A. Terenzio, Asst. Attys. Gen., West Palm Beach, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Owen appeals his convictions for first-degree murder, sexual battery and burglary, and the imposition of the death penalty. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. We affirm.

The body of the victim, Georgianna Worden, was discovered by her children on the morning of May 29, 1984, as they prepared for school. An intruder had forcibly entered the Boca Raton home during the night and bludgeoned Worden with a hammer as she slept, and then sexually assaulted her. Owen was arrested the following day on unrelated charges and was interrogated over several weeks. He eventually confessed to committing numerous crimes, *987 including the present murder and a similar murder in Delray Beach in March 1984. See Owen v. State, 560 So.2d 207 (Fla.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 152, 112 L.Ed.2d 118 (1990). At trial on the present murder, sexual battery and burglary, the evidence consisted of Owen's confession, his fingerprint on a library book at the murder scene, and other corroborating evidence. The jury returned guilty verdicts on the charges and recommended death by a vote of ten to two. The trial judge followed the jury's recommendation and imposed death, finding the aggravating circumstances[1] outweighed the mitigating.[2]

GUILT PHASE

Several of Owen's guilt phase issues can be disposed of briefly. He first alleges that his convictions for murder and sexual battery were improper because the victim was dead prior to sexual union. Whether the victim was alive or dead at the time of sexual union, however, is an issue of fact to be determined by the jury. Competent substantial evidence supports its finding. See Owen. Owen's next claim, that police lacked sufficient grounds for stopping and arresting him, is without merit. He was stopped and arrested based on outstanding warrants and photographic identifications made by two burglary victims. Owen's assertion that his statements to police were obtained through psychological coercion has already been rejected by this Court. Id. His claim that his confession was obtained in violation of the rules established in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), is without merit. He was routinely informed of his rights and voluntarily waived them.[3] Owen's argument that the jury was "death qualified" and "conviction prone" has already been rejected by this Court. See, e.g., Diaz v. State, 513 So.2d 1045 (Fla. 1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 1079, 108 S.Ct. 1061, 98 L.Ed.2d 1022 (1988).

Owen raises three guilt phase issues in a pro se brief. He argues that his fifth amendment rights were violated when police failed to act on his request to speak with an assistant state attorney concerning charges that were to be filed against him. We are unaware of any constitutional right to consult with a state attorney. Owen also argues that his due process rights were violated when police failed to videotape every occasion when he was interviewed by police. We find this argument to be totally without merit.

In his third pro se argument, Owen contends that his confession to the Worden murder was obtained in violation of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel. As noted above, Owen was arrested on burglary charges and outstanding warrants on May 30, 1984. The following day, he attended first appearance, where he requested and received appointment of counsel on those charges. Owen confessed to the Worden murder on June 21, during police-initiated questioning. The next day, he attended first appearance on the murder charge and counsel was appointed. He was indicted on this charge on July 11.

The Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches when "judicial criminal proceedings" begin:

The initiation of judicial criminal proceedings is far from a mere formalism. *988 It is the starting point of our whole system of adversary criminal justice. For it is only then that the government has committed itself to prosecute, and only then that the adverse positions of government and defendant have solidified. It is then that a defendant finds himself faced with the prosecutorial forces of organized society, and immersed in the intricacies of substantive and procedural criminal law. It is this point, therefore, that marks the commencement of the "criminal prosecutions" to which alone the explicit guarantees of the Sixth Amendment are applicable.

Kirby v. Illinois, 406 U.S. 682, 689-90, 92 S.Ct. 1877, 1882-83, 32 L.Ed.2d 411 (1972).[4] Although adversary judicial proceedings may commence in a number of ways — via "formal charge, preliminary hearing, indictment, information, or arraignment," id. 406 U.S. at 689, 92 S.Ct. at 1882 — the federal Court[5] and commentators[6] are in agreement *989 that such proceedings clearly have begun when an accused is placed in custody, haled before a magistrate on a warrant or formal complaint, and then tentatively charged with a particular crime at this initial appearance or "arraignment."[7]

Once the right attaches, an accused is entitled to assistance of counsel at each "critical stage" of the prosecution, including police questioning. Michigan v. Jackson, 475 U.S. 625, 106 S.Ct. 1404, 89 L.Ed.2d 631 (1986). Where the right has attached and been invoked, any subsequent waiver in the absence of counsel during police-initiated questioning is invalid. Id. The right to counsel, however, is offense-specific: attachment and invocation of the right on one charge imposes no restrictions on police inquiry concerning other charges against the same defendant. McNeil v. Wisconsin, ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 2204, 115 L.Ed.2d 158 (1991).

In the present case, although Owen's right to counsel had attached and been invoked on the initial burglary charge and outstanding warrants by the time of his first appearance on those offenses, this fact is unrelated to his rights concerning the Worden murder. His rights on the murder charge attached when he attended first appearance on that offense. Because the questioning session during which he confessed took place prior to this first appearance, Owen had no Sixth Amendment right to counsel at that time. Thus, no Sixth Amendment right was violated.

PENALTY PHASE

Although the trial judge heard "victim impact" testimony[8] from the victim's father, we find this harmless in light of the fact that the judge did not give this evidence any weight at sentencing. See Grossman v. State, 525 So.2d 833 (Fla. 1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1071, 109 S.Ct. 1354, 103 L.Ed.2d 822 (1989). All of Owen's arguments that Florida's capital-sentencing scheme is unconstitutional have been rejected by this Court.[9]

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Bluebook (online)
596 So. 2d 985, 1992 WL 10615, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/owen-v-state-fla-1992.