Pinkney v. State

142 So. 2d 144, 1962 Fla. App. LEXIS 3321
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJune 13, 1962
DocketNo. 2986
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 142 So. 2d 144 (Pinkney 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
Pinkney v. State, 142 So. 2d 144, 1962 Fla. App. LEXIS 3321 (Fla. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

ALLEN, Judge.

The State moved to dismiss this appeal on jurisdictional grounds, which motion was previously deferred until the case was considered on the merits. Due to the circuit court clerk’s office being closed, the notice of appeal was filed one day late and under the factual situation existing in this case, we shall deny the State’s motion to dismiss and consider this appeal on the merits.

Appellant is appealing his conviction of the crime of first degree murder upon which he was sentenced to life imprisonment based on the jury’s recommendation of mercy.

Appellant admittedly, on January 9, 1961, shot and killed his mistress, Eulee Oliver, and her alleged paramour, Isaiah Hicks. At the trial, appellant attempted to establish in defense or in mitigation that the killings took place at the same time and were provoked by appellant’s passions being inflamed upon his finding the victims in a compromising situation. The State attempted to prove and introduced evidence that the killings would have had to have taken place at least some seven hours apart based upon post mortem examination of the two bodies. Other evidence was introduced by the State tending to show that decedent, Eulee Oliver, was shot at about 3 A.M. on the morning of January 9, 1961, and that appellant was seen with decedent Hicks, then alive, later in the afternoon of the same day.

The appellant did not testify in his own behalf. During the State’s closing argument the State’s Attorney made the following statements to the jury, quoted from appellant’s brief:

“We know he murdered the man, and he doesn’t deny it * * * and then he comes up here and tells the story.
“he doesn’t * * * he doesn’t deny killing her.
“if the Defendant’s story was true that the woman was on the bed when he shot her we would like his counsel to explain to you how Blood Type A, which we presume to be her blood, would get on a chair across the room, how Blood Type A would also find itself on this nightgown.
“I want them to tell you why that matchbox would stay there, Gentlemen, on that man, and that knife.
“ * * * his theory was then to set this thing up to look like something had been going on. * * *
“Now no doubt the defense would want you to think that he was in a heat of passion, he was enraged * * * it will no doubt be pointed out to you the conditions that he found them in * *. The State will claim to you that there has certainly been no evidence to show anything other than first degree murder.”

As the appellant so aptly states in his brief, the appellate courts of this state have established by a long line of decisions that it is reversible error for the prosecuting attorney to comment on the failure of the accused to testify in his own behalf. See Gordon v. State, Fla.1958, 104 So.2d 524; Milton v. State, Fla.App., 127 So.2d 460; Ard v. State, Fla., 108 So.2d 38; Trafficante v. State, Fla., 92 So.2d 811.

The factual situation in the instant case differs from the cases above cited and in [146]*146both the remarks of the state’s attorney and previous remarks of defense counsel. One of the appellant’s attorneys, in his argument to the jury, said:

“Gentlemen of the jury, I’m going to make my argument short — going into a few facts, and you gentlemen may wonder why the defendant was not put on the stand. The court will instruct you that that is not necessary.' The fact we did not put him on cannot be discussed — why we didn’t put him on cannot be discussed by either side. We had the opportunity to put him on, but we didn’t.”

The record divulges that defense counsel further called attention to the fact that the defendant had not stated anything in the courtroom.

The State, in its brief, comments that the state’s attorney did not refer to the failure of the defendant to take the stand, but was referring to conversation which appellant had with the arresting officer and to the story related by the witness Milligan, together with the statements made by appellant’s counsel at the trial to the effect that the shooting was done by appellant but not from a premeditated design to effect anyone’s death.

We do not need, however, to interpret the comments of the state’s attorney in this case since defense counsel made it very clear to the jury that the defendant had not taken the stand to testify in his own behalf. We hold, therefore that the remarks made by the state’s attorney did not constitute reversible error.

The second point of the appellant is:

“Whether the trial court erred in adjudging the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree when there was insufficient evidence upon which the jury could base its conviction.”

There was no dispute that the appellant shot and killed Eulee Oliver and her alleged paramour, Isaiah Hicks. The appearance of the two bodies left the impression that their death took place at the same time. However, there was testimony adduced by the State which, if believed by the jury, established that the killings took place some twelve or more hours apart.

Clara Mae Brown testified that around 3 o’clock in the morning of January 9th, 1961, she heard three shots. She further testified that she did not hear the decedent, Eulee Oliver, playing her radio as was her usual practice. She further testified that she saw decedent, Hicks, and the defendant below pass by her house at about 1:30 o’clock in the afternoon of the day in question on their way to appellant’s house.

Another witness, Mary Lou Norwood, also testified that she saw Hicks and the defendant pass by her house at approximately 1:30 o’clock on the day in question. She further testified that at the time she saw Hicks and appellant, appellant was shooting a pistol. There was other corroborating testimony as to Hicks and the appellant being together during the day.

Robert McKinney, a police officer, testified he was with another police officer, Clen-denny, when the appellant turned himself in and on an examination of one of these officers at the trial the following testimony was presented:

“Q. Did he say anything to you while you were taking him to the cell?
“A. Yes sir, he did. As I was going back to lock him up, I asked Willie on the way back — we were rather in a hurry and I asked him, I said, ‘Willie, are you sure you killed them?’ And he said, T am positive that I killed them,’ and then we kind of laughed, and I locked him up and I went on.
“Q. He laughed after he said he was positive he killed them?
“A. Yes sir he did.”

An agent of the Florida Sheriff’s Bureau, Lester Thompson, testified that he had a [147]*147discussion with the appellant in the Lees-burg jail to the following effect:

“A. He related to me that he had been drinking on the supposedly date that this occurred, and he had gone into town to buy some whiskey and wine and that on his return, when he entered the home where this occurred, as he opened the door the deceased Hicks was on the side of the bed and the woman was naked in the bed and as he opened the door, Hicks stood up, and as he stood up he pulled out a knife and he pulled out his pistol and shot them.
“Q. Shot both of them?

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Related

State v. Bolton
383 So. 2d 924 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1980)
Singleton v. State
183 So. 2d 245 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1966)
Griffin v. State
150 So. 2d 466 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1963)
Nations v. State
145 So. 2d 259 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1962)

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142 So. 2d 144, 1962 Fla. App. LEXIS 3321, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pinkney-v-state-fladistctapp-1962.