ROBERT LACY PARKER, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Robert Lacy Parker was convicted of murders and sentenced to death. On collateral review, he challenged the trial court's denial of his motion to vacate based on alleged Brady violations from the prosecutor's undisclosed cash payments to state witnesses. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the denial, finding the payments immaterial under the Bagley standard.
The trial court properly denied Parker's motion without an evidentiary hearing. Even assuming the nondisclosure constituted a Brady violation, the payments were immaterial under United States v. Bagley because there is no reasonable probability that disclosure of the $20 payments would have changed the trial outcome, given that Parker had already cross-examined the key witnesses about their substantial incentives to testify (charge reductions and favorable sentencing).
[1] A claim of a Brady violation based on undisclosed witness payments is insufficient to warrant relief if the defendant cannot demonstrate a reasonable probability that the…
[2] Undisclosed payments to witnesses that are small in amount and characterized as reimbursement for lunch, travel, or lost earnings are unlikely to be considered material u…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“evidence is "material" for Brady purposes, "only if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different."”
The court applies the controlling legal standard from United States v. Bagley for evaluating materiality of undisclosed evidence in Brady violations.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceParker was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of third-degree murder and sentenced to death. After his convictions were affi…
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PER CURIAM.
The appellant, Robert Lacy Parker, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, and one count of third-degree murder, and was sentenced to death. We affirmed the convictions and sentences. Parker v. State, 458 So. 2d 750 (Fla.1984), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 105 S.Ct. 1855, 85 L.Ed.2d 152 (1985). Appellant’s motion to vacate judgment and sentence and his application for a stay of execution before the trial court, pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, was denied by the trial court without an evidentiary hearing. Appellant seeks review of that denial. We have jurisdiction, article V, section 3(b)(1), Florida Constitution, and we affirm.
Appellant raises three claims, two of which we find to be meritless, and only one which warrants discussion.
Appellant alleges a Brady1 violation because the prosecutor at appellant’s trial had made some cash payments, for lunch, travel expenses and loss of earnings, to several state witnesses. While we express no opinion on the propriety of these payments, see Groover v. State, 489 So. 2d 15 (Fla.1986), we find appellant has shown nothing entitling him to relief.
Initially, we note that this issue has been addressed before. Counsel for appellant discovered, subsequent to appellant’s trial and advisory sentencing proceeding, that three witnesses, Carl Barton, Spencer Hance and Joan Bennett, had each received $20 from the prosecutor during the course of appellant’s trial. Appellant brought this issue to the trial court’s attention in his motion for new trial; this motion was denied. Appellant raised this issue before this Court on direct appeal; we found the issue to be insufficient to require reversal. 458 So. 2d at 752. In the hearing below upon the instant motion, the trial court stated in its order denying appellant’s mo tion for a subpoena duces tecum for records of these payments in the control of the state’s attorney’s office and motion for evidentiary hearing, that the evidence sought to be subpoenaed was cumulative to that presented in appellant’s motion for a new trial, and raised on direct appeal before this Court.
We agree.
Even if we assume that the nondisclosure of these small payments were a Brady violation, and that evidence of the extent and amount of these payments was not available to appellant until this year as counsel for appellant alleges, we find that appellant is not entitled to relief. In United States v. Bagley, — U.S. -, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985), the United States Supreme Court held that evidence is “material” for Brady purposes, “only if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different.” Id. at 3384.
Under this test, appellant’s claim must fail. Appellant concedes that the testimony of Bennett and Long was crucial to the state’s case. Our review of the trial record shows that appellant cross-examined Bennett about her interest in testifying, informing the jury that Bennett received a reduction in charges from first-degree murder to accessory after the fact in exchange for her testimony against appellant. Long was similarly cross-examined by appellant about his interest in testifying, informing the jury that Long, who shot one of the victims, Nancy Shepard, was allowed to plead guilty to second-degree murder and received a thirty-year prison sentence in exchange for his testimony against appellant. Applying the Bagley test, we must conclude that even if the jury had been informed about the one or two $20 dollar payments each of these witnesses allegedly received, the result of the trial would not have been different.
Appellant alleges this same Brady violation with numerous collateral witnesses and contends that these collateral witnesses contradicted appellant’s testimony, thus undermining appellant’s credibility with the jury. According to appellant’s argument, had his counsel been aware of these payments, he would have been able to show these witnesses’ interest in testifying. Even if true, we find the result to be totally speculative. The amount of money involved in these payments is small, and was characterized as simply lunch money, travel expenses and loss of earnings, and we cannot conclude that had the defense been aware of the payments, the result of appellant’s trial would have been different.
Accordingly, the trial court’s denial of relief is affirmed.
It is so ordered.
McDonald, C.J., and ADKINS, BOYD, EHRLICH and SHAW, JJ., concur. OVERTON, J., dissents with an opinion.
. Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963).
OVERTON, Justice,
dissenting.
I find the allegations require an evidentiary hearing.
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Loren v. State, 601 So. 2d 271 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992)…and because the issue was raised below and ruled on by the trial court, any attempt to raise this particular effectiveness issue by postconviction proceedings is procedurally barred. See Johnson v. State, 522 So. 2d 356 (Fla.1988); Parker v. State, 491 So. 2d 532 (Fla.1986). We decline, however, to affirm the order insofar as it relates to the reasonableness of defense counsel’s delay in adequately preparing for trial, because we recognize that “counsel has a duty to make reasonable investigations or to mak…
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Parker v. State, 643 So. 2d 1032 (Fla. 1994)…ered. SHAW, KOGAN and HARDING, JJ., and McDONALD, Senior Justice, concur. OVERTON, J., dissents with an opinion, in which GRIMES, C.J. concurs. . This Court has also denied Parker’s various requests for postconviction relief. See Parker v. State, 491 So. 2d 532 (Fla.1986) (affirming denial of motion under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850); Parker v. State, Nos. 63,700, 78,700, 74,978 (Fla. Feb. 7, 1992) (unpublished order denying pro se petition for extraordinary relief); see also Parker v. Olliff,…
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Parker v. Dugger, 660 So. 2d 1386 (Fla. 1995)…2 (1985). Trial counsel, who also served as appellate counsel, filed Parker’s first 3.850 motion for postconviction relief,1 which the trial court denied without an evidentiary hearing. This Court affirmed that denial in July 1986. Parker v. State, 491 So. 2d 532 (Fla.1986). During the pendency of that collateral proceeding, the governor signed Parker’s first death warrant. Trial/appellate counsel also filed a petition for habeas relief in federal court. Although the district court granted partial relief, t…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (U.S. 1963)
- United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667 (U.S. 1985)
- Parker v. State, 458 So. 2d 750 (Fla. 1984)
- Groover v. State, 489 So. 2d 15 (Fla. 1986)