STATE OF FLORIDA, PETITIONER,
v.
TEDDY RAY, RESPONDENT

Fla. 4th DCA | 1992-09-02
No. 92-1735
DOWNEY, STONE and WARNER, JJ., concur.
604 So. 2d 1249 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1992) Positive Treatment
Cited by 10 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 Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal quashed a trial court order compelling a crime victim to appear at a live lineup for identification purposes. The court held that Florida law does not authorize compelling crime victims to participate in lineups absent a showing of compelling circumstances necessary to prevent manifest miscarriage of justice.


Holding

The trial court lacked authority to compel the victim to appear at a live lineup. Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.220 contains no express provision authorizing such an order, and the defense failed to show the strong or compelling circumstances necessary for this exceptional remedy.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court order compelling a crime victim to appear at a live lineup is quashed absent a showing of strong or compelling reasons.

[2] Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.220 does not expressly authorize compelling a crime victim to appear at a lineup.

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Key Quotes

“Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.220, governing criminal discovery, contains no express provision authorizing an order to compel the victim of a crime to appear at a lineup or otherwise comply with similar discovery requests.”

Establishes the absence of statutory authority for the trial court's order.

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Facts & Procedural History

Ray was charged with armed robbery and attempted first-degree murder. The victim had previously identified Ray from a photo lineup. Ten months after t…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

We grant the state’s petition for writ of certiorari and quash the trial court order compelling the victim of a criminal offense to appear at a live lineup and identify the person who committed the offenses upon her. Ray is charged with armed robbery and attempted first degree murder. The victim identified the respondent from a photo lineup. Ten months after the incident, defense counsel moved the court to require the victim to appear at a live lineup and to identify the person who committed the subject crimes.

Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.220, governing criminal discovery, contains no express provision authorizing an order to compel the victim of a crime to appear at a lineup or otherwise comply with similar discovery requests. In State v. Smith, 260 So. 2d 489 (Fla.1972), the supreme court held that the trial court lacked authority to order witnesses, who might be used by the state to identify persons involved in a crime, to be examined for visual acuity by a specific physician, even though the state’s case depended on these same eyewitnesses for identifying the defendant. However, while the supreme court ruled that the trial court lacked authority to order this discovery, it conceded that there may be rare instances where justice requires some physical examination of a witness. The court added that much more would have to be shown in such an instance.

Applying Smith, the First District Court, in State v. Diamond, 553 So. 2d 1185 (Fla. 1st DCA 1988), granted certiorari and quashed a trial court order construed as requiring the complaining child witnesses to consent to physical examination by the defendant’s expert gynecologist. The First District said that such a trial court order departed from the essential requirements of law. In its en banc decision, a plurality stated that the supreme court’s strong language in Smith must be looked at as a “firm warning to those who would feel moved to lead the jurisprudence of our state into unchartered waters by creating, via spontaneous generation, a criminal defense right to have crime victims or witnesses subjected to physical examinations.” Id. at 1194.

The en banc decision also noted this court’s opinion in Dinkins v. State, 244 So. 2d 148 (Fla. 4th DCA 1971), where we upheld a trial court’s denial of a defendant’s motion to compel the victim of sexual battery to submit to a psychiatric examination, stating that there was absolutely no showing that the exam was essential to preventing manifest miscarriage of justice. The court expressly rejected any concept of a court’s inherent power to require such an exam except under the most compelling circumstances necessary to insure a just and orderly disposition of the cause. This court said that it would discourage the practice in “any but the most extreme instances.” Dinkins, 244 So. 2d at 150. More recently, this court has quashed similar orders requiring examinations of witnesses, in the absence of compelling necessity, in State v. Farr, 558 So. 2d 437 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990) and State v. Drab, 546 So. 2d 54 (Fla. 4th DCA), rev. denied, 553 So. 2d 1164 (Fla.1989). See also State v. Coe, 521 So. 2d 373 (Fla.2d DCA 1988).

We recognize that the above cases are inapposite as they involve physical examinations and invasions of privacy rights, but they also concern defendants’ rights to confrontation and discovery and are therefore analogous.

Here, the defense did not make the showing of strong or compelling reasons or circumstances to warrant the exceptional remedy of an order compelling a victim to appear and participate in a live lineup.

DOWNEY, STONE and WARNER, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • State v. Huntsman, 643 So. 2d 1172 (Fla. 3d DCA 1994)
    …om bodily intrusion. Nevertheless, the same rationale that applies to the involuntary physical examination cases has also been applied to cases where the trial court has ordered a victim to appear and participate at a five line-up. See State v. Ray, 604 So. 2d 1249 (Fla. 4th DCA) (analogizing a trial court’s order which requires the victim of an armed robbery to appear at a live line-up to cases involving involuntary physical examinations), rev. denied, 613 So. 2d 8 (Fla.1992); see also State v. Cobb, 619 So.…
  • State v. Carlton Eddie Cobb, 619 So. 2d 1056 (Fla. 5th DCA 1993)
    …HARRIS, Judge. The petition for writ of certiorari is granted and the order requiring the eyewitness to attend a pre-trial line-up is quashed. See State v. Ray, 604 So. 2d 1249 (Fla. 4th DCA), rev. denied, 613 So. 2d 8 (Fla.1992). PETITION GRANTED. W. SHARP, and THOMPSON, JJ. concur.…
  • State v. Jonte Oshea Thomas, 657 So. 2d 89 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995)
    …rari is granted, and the order requiring the eyewitness to attend pretrial line-ups is quashed for lack of a proper showing. See State v. Cobb, 619 So .2d 1056 (Fla. 5th DCA 1993); State v. Kuntsman, 643 So. 2d 1172 (Fla. 3d DCA 1994); State v. Ray, 604 So. 2d 1249 (Fla. 4th DCA), review denied, 613 So. 2d 8 (Fla.1992). PETITION GRANTED. DAUKSCH, GOSHORN and GRIFFIN, JJ., concur.…

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