CLIFTON LEE WHITFIELD, PETITIONER,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, RESPONDENT

Fla. | 1984-06-14
No. 64051
ADKINS, BOYD, OVERTON, MCDONALD and EHRLICH, JJ., concur., ALDERMAN, C.J., dissents.
452 So. 2d 548 Florida Supreme Court (1984) Caution
Cited by 66 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

The concurring and dissenting opinion agrees with most of the majority's decision but disagrees with affirming points related to a discovery violation concerning the defendant's refusal to submit to fingerprinting and the subsequent jury instruction.

Holding

The concurring and dissenting judge believes the trial court erred in admitting evidence of the defendant's refusal to submit to fingerprinting and in instructing the jury on its effect, distinguishing it from prior cases where such evidence was admissible.

Headnotes

[1] A trial court commits an impermissible comment on the evidence by instructing the jury that a defendant's refusal to submit to fingerprinting can be inferred as conscious…

[2] A trial court should avoid commenting on the evidence, particularly by intimating an opinion on the weight, character, or credibility of adduced evidence in a criminal pr…

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Facts & Procedural History

The defendant, Clifton Lee Whitfield, was arrested and fingerprinted. Later, an order was entered for a second set of prints, which the defendant resi…

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Topics
Flight Instruction Conspiracy To Commit First Degree Murder Comment On Evidence Consciousness Of Guilt

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Opinion of the Court
SHAW, Justice.

SHAW, Justice.

This cause is before us on petition for review of Whitfield v. State, 433 So. 2d 1285 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983), which is in express and direct conflict with Jackson v. State, 435 So. 2d 984 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983).

We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla. Const. Jerry Gosby testified for the state that he had originally participated in a conspiracy involving Paris Nelson and petitioner, the object of which was to kill Bobby Rivers. The original plan was to kill Rivers in his apartment using .38 and .32 caliber pistols. Rivers’ body was discovered on a dirt road, and from it were removed one .38 caliber and two .32 caliber bullets. A fingerprint of Nelson, who was seen with Rivers the previous evening, was discovered inside Rivers’ car. Gosby, arrested on another charge, informed the police of the Rivers conspiracy, resulting in the arrest of Nelson and petitioner. Two pistols, .32 and .38 caliber, were found in a bag at a service station where petitioner worked. Petitioner’s fingerprint was lifted from the bag.

Petitioner and Nelson were charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Before trial, Nelson told a cellmate, Dorio Daniels, that petitioner shot Rivers. Later Nelson told another cellmate, Gregory Williamson, that he had shot Rivers with petitioner’s guns and then returned the guns to petitioner. While petitioner awaited trial, some eight months after his incarceration and initial fingerprinting, he refused to be fingerprinted a second time.

The jury found petitioner guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and manslaughter.

The trial court instructed the jury, over objection, that petitioner’s refusal to submit to fingerprinting was a circumstance from which consciousness of guilt could be inferred. The First District Court of Appeal noted that the “instruction appears to be an unnecessary comment on the evidence, and a matter more appropriately argued by counsel,” Whitfield, 433 So. 2d at 1287, but affirmed nonetheless, citing cases wherein instructions on flight have been affirmed.

We find that the instruction was an impermissible comment evaluating the evidence. See Tanner v. State, 197 So. 2d 842 (Fla. 1st DCA), cert. denied, 201 So. 2d 898 (Fla.1967). A trial court should scrupulously avoid commenting on the evidence in a case. Lee v. State, 324 So. 2d 694 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976). Especially in a criminal prosecution, the trial court should take great care not to intimate to the jury the court’s opinion as to the weight, character, or credibility of any evidence adduced. Seward v. State, 59 So. 2d 529 (Fla.1952).

An instruction on flight, permitted in the limited circumstance where there is significantly more evidence against the defendant than flight standing alone, is an exception to the general rule prohibiting the trial court from commenting on the evidence. Plight alone would not support an instruction that such flight is evidence of consciousness of guilt, as it would be no more consistent with guilt than with innocence. Proffitt v. State, 315 So. 2d 461 (Fla.1975), aff'd., 428 U.S. 242, 96 S.Ct. 2960, 49 L.Ed.2d 913 (1976).

The Fourth District Court of Appeal in Jackson held that the flight rationale should not be extended. We agree and approve the decision in Jackson. We agree with Judge Ervin’s comment in his dissent in Whitfield that upholding the instruction would allow the exception to swallow the rule.

Given the relatively scanty evidence linking Whitfield to Rivers’ homicide and the proper preservation of the point, we find that the instruction constituted harmful error. Petitioner raises several other points that we need not discuss. The issue forming the basis for our jurisdiction is dispositive. We therefore quash the decision and remand to the district court with directions to remand to the trial court for a new trial.

It is so ordered.

ADKINS, BOYD, OVERTON, MCDONALD and EHRLICH, JJ., concur. ALDERMAN, C.J., dissents.

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Citator

Cited By (32 total)

  • Jackson v. State, 575 So. 2d 181 (Fla. 1991)
    …o bring the witness’s absence into issue in its closing argument. Finally, we find merit in Jackson’s contention that the trial court should not have instructed the jury to infer consciousness of guilt from flight. As we said in Whitfield v. State, 452 So. 2d 548, 549 (Fla.1984), an instruction of flight is permissible only “where there is significantly more evidence against the defendant than flight standing alone.” Where the only other evidence to tie the defendant to the crime is circumstantial, and the e…
  • Rhodes v. State, 547 So. 2d 1201 (Fla. 1989)
    …he time he was stopped by the highway patrol for speeding. “Flight alone [will] not support an instruction that such flight is evidence of consciousness of guilt, as it would be no more consistent with guilt than with innocence.” Whitfield v. State, 452 So. 2d 548, 550 (Fla.1984) (citing Proffitt v. State, 315 So. 2d 461 (Fla.1975), aff'd, 428 U.S. 242, 96 S.Ct. 2960, 49 L.Ed.2d 913 (1976)). From the evidence presented at trial, the jury could not reasonably infer that Rhodes was fleeing to avoid prosecution.…
  • Crosley Alexander Green v. State, 641 So. 2d 391 (Fla. 1994)
    …U.S. -, 115 S.Ct. 107, - L.Ed.2d - (1994). Before Fenelon a trial court could give the flight instruction “in the limited circumstance where there is significantly more evidence against the defendant than flight standing alone.” Whitfield v. State, 452 So. 2d 548, 549 (Fla.1984). We note that although Green objected to the trial judge giving the flight instruction, he did not object to the actual evidence that Green fled to avoid prosecution. A friend of Green’s testified that Green told him shortly after th…

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