Spradley v. State

293 So. 2d 697
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedMarch 13, 1974
Docket43938
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 293 So. 2d 697 (Spradley 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
Spradley v. State, 293 So. 2d 697 (Fla. 1974).

Opinion

293 So.2d 697 (1974)

Billy Fletcher SPRADLEY, Petitioner,
v.
STATE of Florida, Respondent.

No. 43938.

Supreme Court of Florida.

March 13, 1974.
Rehearing Denied May 21, 1974.

*698 Roy E. Dezern, Jacksonville, for petitioner.

Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., and Richard W. Prospect, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.

CARLTON, Justice (Retired).

On Petition for Writ of Certiorari, petitioner seeks review of a per curiam affirmance by the District Court of Appeal, First District, of his conviction for murder in the first degree. Spradley v. State, 276 So.2d 511 (1st DCA Fla. 1973). After issuance of the writ, and oral argument by the parties, we have concluded, for the reasons outlined below, that we do not have certiorari jurisdiction to review this case; we therefore discharge the writ having been improvidently granted.

Petitioner was tried upon an indictment signed by one Jerry E. Stillson, as assistant state attorney. Petitioner's motion to dismiss the indictment was denied by the trial court.

On July 8, 1971, the trial court, pursuant to the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, granted certain pre-trial discovery motions and required the State to furnish to petitioner, inter alia, the exact names and addresses of each person who had allegedly participated in the crime charged and the names and addresses of any persons who had been given any form of immunity for furnishing information relating to the crime charged. On July 15, 1971, the State served petitioner with answers to the granted discovery motions, indicating that one Jean Brooks was the only person who had been granted immunity and listing the alleged participants in the crime.

On July 27, 1971, less than one full day before the start of petitioner's trial, the State served amended answers to the discovery motions, giving petitioner the first notice that one Melvin White had been granted immunity on June 23, 1971, and the first notice that one Benny Hunnicut and one Donald Higgins were allegedly involved in the crime. At the start of petitioner's trial, his counsel orally moved for a continuance for the purpose of taking the deposition of Melvin White or for the exclusion of any testimony by White, Hunnicut, and Higgins, and the exclusion of any evidence implicating Hunnicut and Higgins in the crime. After a hearing on the motions, they were denied by the trial court except to the extent that evidence of the involvement in the crime of Hunnicut and Higgins was excluded.

On appeal, petitioner assigned as error, inter alia, the denial of his motion to dismiss the indictment, the denial of his motion for a continuance, and the denial of his motion to exclude the testimony of *699 Melvin White. As stated above, petitioner's conviction was affirmed, per curiam.

Petitioner has argued that this Court's jurisdiction vests because of a conflict between the instant decision and this Court's decision in Richardson v. State, 246 So.2d 771 (Fla. 1971). Florida Constitution, Article V, § 3(b)(3), F.S.A. Richardson involved the failure of a prosecutor to comply with a different discovery rule than those involved here — Rule 3.220(e), 33 F.S.A., which requires a prosecutor, upon being served a list of witnesses the defense expects to call, to serve upon the defense "a list of all witnesses known to the prosecuting attorney to have information which may be relevant to the offense charged, and to any defense of the person charged with respect thereto". In Richardson, a co-defendant was granted immunity on the day before the trial, and his name was given that day as a state witness to the defendant's counsel. During the first day of trial, through interviewing the co-defendant, defense counsel learned the name of one Dick Davis who was allegedly involved in the crime. The co-defendant testified that Dick Davis was involved and that he had given the name of Dick Davis to the state attorney in a statement made by him well before the trial. We viewed the case as follows:

"... The question is, was the State obligated, under these circumstances, by Rule 1.220(e) [now 3.220(e)] to furnish the name of this alleged person to petitioner's counsel as a witness `known to the prosecuting attorney to have information which may be relevant to the offense charged' or `to any defense of the person charged.' It is evident that the prosecuting attorney had knowledge of the supposed existence of one `Dick Davis' who supposedly had `information which may be relevant to the offense charged', and had this name been furnished to petitioner's counsel in response to his request for a list of the State's witnesses such counsel would have had the opportunity to seek out the witness and endeavor to learn from him what information he did have `which may be relevant to the offense charged.'

......

... When this matter was brought to the trial court's attention at the beginning of the second day of the trial the record is completely silent as to any excuse of the State for not having furnished the name of `Dick Davis' to petitioner's counsel. Furthermore, the Court made no inquiry to determine whether there was in fact such a person as `Dick Davis', and, if so, whether he had and would furnish information to the petitioner which would aid him in his defense. It is entirely possible that if `Dick Davis' were found that [sic] he would refuse to help petitioner because of self-incrimination, but at least, in fairness to petitioner this was a matter that should have been inquired into by the trial court before proceeding with the trial. If necessary, he should have declared a recess to give petitioner an opportunity to locate `Dick Davis,' if possible. At least, he should have offered to do so. Instead, he denied petitioner's motion for mistrial, and ordered the trial forthwith to proceed. We think in so doing he did so to the prejudice of the petitioner and that the conviction must be set aside for that reason." 246 So.2d at 776-777.

We also stated in Richardson that:

"... the violation of a rule of procedure prescribed by this Court does not call for a reversal of a conviction unless the record discloses that non-compliance with the rule resulted in prejudice or harm to the defendant... .
... The trial court has discretion to determine whether the non-compliance would result in harm or prejudice to the defendant, but the court's discretion can be properly exercised only after the court had made an adequate inquiry into all of the surrounding circumstances... .
*700 ... However, in those cases where the court determines that the State's noncompliance with the rule has not prejudiced the ability of the defendant to properly prepare for trial, we deem it essential that the circumstances establishing non-prejudice to the defendant affirmatively appear in the record...."

We are of the opinion that the law as we stated it in Richardson was adequately complied with in the instant case. True, the trial court and the District Court of Appeal, sub judice, reached a conclusion opposite to ours in Richardson, but we feel that there are material factual differences in the two cases which justify that result.

First of all, different rules of procedure were involved in the two cases. In the instant case, petitioner did not initiate any reciprocal exchange of witness lists as provided for in Rule 3.220(e); and it does not appear from the record that the State failed to disclose any relevant evidence which may have been beneficial to the petitioner.

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293 So. 2d 697, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spradley-v-state-fla-1974.