PATRICIA J. VACZEK, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 5th DCA | 1985-10-03
No. 84-1563
COBB, C.J., and DAUKSCH, J., concur.
477 So. 2d 1034 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (1985) Positive Treatment
Cited by 8 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

Patricia Vaczek was convicted of attempted first degree murder for stabbing a pregnant coworker. The appellate court reversed and remanded for a new trial, finding that the prosecutor violated a pretrial order by eliciting testimony about the victim's pregnancy, which was so inflammatory that it could not be deemed harmless error despite a curative instruction.


Holding

The court held that the prosecutor's questioning was clearly erroneous and reprehensible, and the inflammatory fact of the loss of an unborn child could not be deemed harmless error or cured by the judge's instruction. The conviction was reversed because absent the improper testimony, it is not clear beyond a reasonable doubt that the jury would have returned a guilty verdict on attempted first degree murder rather than a lesser offense.


Headnotes

[1] A prosecutor's improper questioning, especially after a court order excluding the evidence, can constitute reversible error.

[2] The inflammatory nature of a victim's pregnancy loss can render an otherwise curative instruction insufficient to overcome prosecutorial misconduct.

Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“The prosecutor's questioning was clearly erroneous, and all the more reprehensible in light of the trial court's previous order of exclusion.”

Establishes that the prosecutor violated the express pretrial ruling and aggravated the error

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Vaczek, a registered nurse, stabbed her friend and coworker during an altercation, causing the victim to lose her pregnancy. The defense obtained a mo…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
SHARP, Judge.

SHARP, Judge.

Vaczek appeals from her attempted first degree murder conviction. We reject her contention that the evidence regarding premeditation was insufficient to present a jury question, but we agree that the prosecutor’s improper questioning requires reversal for a new trial.

The charge arose out of an altercation between Vaczek and her friend, a co-worker. Both were registered nurses. Vaczek lost her temper and stabbed the friend with a knife. Apparently the friend was pregnant at the time of the stabbing, and as a result of the attack, she lost her baby.

Defense counsel filed a motion in limine seeking, inter alia, to prevent the prosecutor from revealing to the jury that the victim of Vaczek’s attack was pregnant at the time of the incident and now is childless. At the motion hearing, the prosecutor represented he was not going to introduce such testimony and the trial court granted that portion of the defendant’s motion in limine pertaining to the victim’s pregnancy.

At trial, the prosecutor initially asked the victim many general questions about herself, including whether she had any children. She replied that she had none. Later in his questioning the prosecutor asked the victim whether she was pregnant at the time of the incident and she responded that she was. Defense counsel objected and requested a mistrial. The trial court sustained the objection but refused to grant a mistrial and instead gave this curative instruction, “The jury should disregard the question and the answer. It is simply not an issue in this case.” The prosecutor’s questioning was clearly erroneous, and all the more reprehensible in light of the trial court’s previous order of exclusion. The loss of the victim’s unborn child was such an inflammatory fact that we cannot deem the error harmless nor cured by the judge’s instruction under the rule set forth in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967).1 Absent the improper questioning and resultant testimony, it is not clear beyond a reasonable doubt that the jury would have returned a verdict of guilty on attempted first degree murder rather than some lesser crime because the evidence was not overwhelming on that point.

We therefore reverse the defendant’s conviction and remand for a new trial. On retrial, the trial court should instruct the jury on all necessarily included lesser offenses unless the defendant expressly waives the instruction.2

REVERSED AND REMANDED FOR NEW TRIAL.

COBB, C.J., and DAUKSCH, J., concur. . State v. DiGuilio, 10 F.L.W. 430 (Fla. Aug. 29, 1985); State v. Murray, 443 So. 2d 955 (Fla.1984).

. In Harris v. State, 438 So. 2d 787 (Fla.1983), 104 S.Ct. 2181, 80 L.Ed.2d 563 (1984), a capital case, the court determined the defendant had a constitutional right to jury instructions on necessarily lesser included offenses unless there is "an express waiver of the right to these instructions by the defendant, and the record must reflect that it was knowingly and intelligently made.” Id. at 797. In Jones v. State, 459 So. 2d 475 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984), this court affirmed the defendant’s conviction but certified the following question to the supreme court:

Harris v. State, 438 So. 2d 787 (Fla.1983), recognizes a constitutional right of a accused in a capital case to have the jury instructed as to necessarily lesser included offenses and that the violation of that right constitutes fundamental error, a waiver of which, to be effective, must be made on the record knowingly and intelligently by the accused personally rather than by counsel. Do those charged with non-capital crimes enjoy this constitutional right as well as those charged with capital crimes?

459 So. 2d at 476. This question has not yet been answered, although in January 1985, the Florida Supreme Court granted the petition for review of this case, and oral argument is scheduled for October 8, 1985.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Rosso v. State, 505 So. 2d 611 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987)
    …; Singletary v. State, 483 So. 2d 8 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985); Gomez v. State, 415 So. 2d 822 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982); McMillian v. State, 409 So. 2d 197 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982); where a prosecutor refers to testimony or items not in evidence, e.g., Vaczek v. State, 477 So. 2d 1034 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985); Williamson v. State, 459 So. 2d 1125 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984); Lane v. State, 459 So. 2d 1145 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984); Salazar-Rodriguez v. State, 436 So. 2d 269 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983), or where a prosecutor indulges in personal attacks upon a…
  • Lewek v. State, 702 So. 2d 527 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997)
    …he jury could cure the prejudice. As the Fifth District noted when considering a similar question, the evidence regarding Lisa’s pregnancy is so inflammatory and so prejudicial that only a mistrial could have been the proper remedy. Vaczek v. State, 477 So. 2d 1034 (Fla. 5th DCA1985). Not only did the introduction of the term date of Lisa’s pregnancy violate a portion of the trial court’s own ruling in limine, but such testimony was unduly prejudicial and could only be calculated to play upon the jury’s passio…
  • Campbell-Eley v. State, 718 So. 2d 327 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998)
    …350 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988) (holding that the trial court erred by preventing the defense from questioning the jurors as to whether they harbored an unyielding bias against the defendant because he was a convicted felon); see generally Vaczek v. State, 477 So. 2d 1034, 1035 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985) (discussing the inflammatory nature of evidence that a victim lost her unborn child); Lewek v. State, 702 So. 2d 527, 533-34 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997). The trial court also erred by denying Appellant’s motion to sever the charge…

Previewing 3 of 4 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw