Savage v. State

588 So. 2d 975, 1991 WL 194197
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedOctober 3, 1991
Docket75494
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 588 So. 2d 975 (Savage 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
Savage v. State, 588 So. 2d 975, 1991 WL 194197 (Fla. 1991).

Opinion

588 So.2d 975 (1991)

James Hudson SAVAGE, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 75494.

Supreme Court of Florida.

October 3, 1991.
Rehearing Denied December 6, 1991.

*976 James B. Gibson, Public Defender and Christopher S. Quarles, Assistant Public Defender, Chief, Capital Appeals, Seventh Judicial Circuit, Daytona Beach, and Clive A. Stafford Smith, Atlanta, Ga., for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen. and Kellie A. Nielan, Asst. Atty. Gen., Daytona Beach, for appellee.

Steven Goldstein, Tallahassee, and Terence James Malone of Barrister & Sol. of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, Geraldton, West Australia, amicus curiae for The Nat. Aboriginal and Islander Legal Services Secretariat, Inc.

PER CURIAM.

James Savage appeals his conviction of first-degree murder and sentence of death. We have jurisdiction pursuant to article V, section 3(b)(1), Florida Constitution. Although we affirm Savage's conviction, we vacate his death sentence and remand for imposition of a sentence of life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for twenty-five years.

*977 The day after Thanksgiving in 1988 a friend found the victim's body in an alley behind the victim's interior design shop. An autopsy showed that she had been beaten and strangled. A police officer had seen Savage near the victim's shop two nights previously, the approximate time of the murder.

While canvassing the area looking for anyone who might know something about the crime, two police officers found Savage and two other men sitting on benches outside a motel. After asking for identification, the officers radioed in a check for warrants and received word that a detective wanted to talk with Savage. Two detectives arrived shortly afterwards and asked Savage if he would accompany them to the station, which he agreed to do.

They arrived at the station between 6:15 and 6:30 p.m. The detectives noticed what they thought might be spots of blood on Savage's shirt and shoes and scratches on his face and hands and asked him what had happened. Savage told them that he had been in a fight and that he injured his hand hitting a television set in his room. He also told the officers that he was in violation of probation because he had never reported to a probation officer after his recent release from prison. A detective asked if he could have Savage's shirt, which Savage gave to him along with his shoes. The detectives took these items to the laboratory for a presumptive-blood test and tried to verify Savage's story about the blood and scratches.

Unable to verify Savage's story, the detectives came back to him around 8:00 p.m. and asked if he would consent to a one-on-one confrontation with a person who had seen two men near the victim's shop the evening of the murder. They read Savage the Miranda[1] rights, and he verbally agreed to the confrontation. After that, however, he refused to sign a confrontation waiver and stated that he had been around when people had been killed before and he had not been arrested. None of the officers had mentioned a murder up to that point.

The detectives again left Savage alone until a Department of Corrections employee arrived around 10:00 p.m. and advised Savage that he was in violation of probation. The police then arrested Savage for that offense. They advised Savage of his Miranda rights again, and Savage made a statement implicating himself in the victim's robbery but claiming that a companion assaulted and killed her. In an attempt to identify that companion the detectives went to Savage's jail cell the following day with photographs of several individuals. That afternoon Savage confessed that he alone robbed and killed the victim. The detectives charged him with murder and arrested him.

The state indicted Savage for first-degree murder, robbery with a deadly weapon, and sexual battery. The jury convicted him as charged and in the penalty phase recommended that he be sentenced to life imprisonment. The trial court, however, sentenced him to death, prompting this appeal.

Prior to trial, Savage moved to suppress all of his statements as having been "illegally obtained through the use of coercion, duress, and inducements." At the suppression hearing one of the officers who first encountered Savage testified that upon finding Savage he did not suspect him of having done anything. A detective who took Savage to the station testified that Savage went voluntarily and was under no restraint, that Savage was left alone and unguarded at the station, that Savage fell asleep while at the station and did not appear to be nervous or under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and that Savage could have left at any time before his arrest for violation of probation because until then the police did not have probable cause to hold him. Two other detectives testified similarly. Savage testified that he did not think he could refuse to accompany the detectives to the station, that he told them he had been drinking and smoking crack, that this was the first time he had ever been taken to a police station without handcuffs *978 and riding in the front seat of the car, and that once at the station he did not think he could leave. The court denied the motion to suppress, finding that all of Savage's statements had been made freely and voluntarily, that the seizure of Savage's clothes and shoes had been proper, and that Miranda warnings had been given in a timely manner.

Now, Savage claims that he was not in violation of probation, that his arrest for that offense was illegal, and that any information or evidence resulting from that arrest should have been inadmissible under Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963). We disagree with Savage's argument for several reasons.

Savage alleges that after his trial the victim's family sued the Florida Department of Corrections for releasing him too soon and that the department defended by arguing that he had served his sentence and was not on probation. At oral argument, however, the state told this Court that the case is on appeal and that the department now says Savage was on probation at the time of this crime. If Savage were on probation at that time, his arrest for violation of probation would have been lawful. The state's statutes provide for lawful warrantless arrests and for the arrest of persons who have violated probation. §§ 901.15, 948.06, Fla. Stat. (1989).

Even if Savage were not in violation of probation, we hold that, on the facts of this case, the court did not err in refusing to suppress his statements. The exclusionary rule is "a judicially created remedy designed to safeguard Fourth Amendment rights generally through its deterrent effect, rather than a personal constitutional right of the party aggrieved." United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 348, 94 S.Ct. 613, 620, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974). "Whether the exclusionary sanction is appropriately imposed in a particular case ... is `an issue separate from the question whether the Fourth Amendment rights of the party seeking to invoke the rule were violated by police conduct.'" United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 906, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 3412, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984) (quoting Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Glatzmayer
789 So. 2d 297 (Supreme Court of Florida, 2001)
Mikell v. State
699 So. 2d 843 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1997)
Bedoya v. State
634 So. 2d 203 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1994)
State v. T.T.
594 So. 2d 839 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1992)
Van Den Borre v. State
596 So. 2d 687 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1992)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
588 So. 2d 975, 1991 WL 194197, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/savage-v-state-fla-1991.