DENISE YOUNT HUMBLE, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Denise Humble appeals her second-degree murder conviction, challenging the trial court's exclusion of a domestic violence advocate as an expert witness on battered-spouse syndrome and its failure to reinstruct the jury on justifiable and excusable homicide. The appellate court affirms, holding that the witness lacked sufficient academic credentials and that the procedural error regarding jury instructions was not preserved for review.
The trial court properly exercised its discretion in excluding Wilson as an expert witness because her administrative experience in domestic violence programs, without formal academic training or clinical experience in psychology or mental health, was insufficient to qualify her under Florida Statute § 90.702. Although the trial court erred in failing to reinstruct on justifiable and excusable homicide, the error was not preserved for appellate review because defense counsel failed to object and such errors are not considered fundamental during jury reinstructions.
[1] A trial court has discretion to determine whether a witness is qualified as an expert based on their education, training, and experience, and their ability to assist the…
[2] A witness's extensive experience in operating domestic violence programs is insufficient to qualify them as an expert on battered-spouse syndrome without formal academic…
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“that her lack of academic training in the disciplines of psychology or mental health, or clinical experience involving the study, treatment or diagnosis of battered-wife syndrome rendered her unqualified to describe the syndrome to the jury”
Establishes the trial court's rationale for excluding the witness based on insufficient educational and clinical qualifications
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceDenise Humble stabbed and killed her husband on September 5, 1992, and raised battered-spouse syndrome as a defense. The defense sought to qualify Joa…
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ERVIN, Judge.
On appellant’s motion for rehearing and certification, we withdraw our opinion and substitute the following. We deny appellant’s motion.
Denise Humble appeals her conviction of second-degree murder, contending that the trial court erred in declining to qualify a defense witness as an expert regarding battered-spouse syndrome and in reinstructing the jury on the offenses of second-degree murder and manslaughter without first consulting counsel for the parties. We affirm.
Humble stabbed and killed her husband on September 5, 1992, and asserted the battered-spouse syndrome as a defense.1 At trial, the defense sought to qualify Joan Wilson as an expert witness for the sole purpose of describing the syndrome to the jury, but not to give her opinion concerning whether appellant was suffering from the syndrome when she killed her husband. Wilson has 17 years experience working in the field of domestic violence, operating shelters and domestic-violence programs, and has attended and taught numerous workshops on spouse abuse. She has a bachelor’s degree in music, however, and no formal education in the field of mental health.
The trial court concluded that Wilson’s administrative experience in planning and operating domestic-violence programs was extensive, but that her lack of academic training in the disciplines of psychology or mental health, or clinical experience involving the study, treatment or diagnosis of battered-wife syndrome rendered her unqualified to describe the syndrome to the jury.2 We agree that the trial court properly exercised its discretion by concluding that Wilson’s experience was insufficient to enable her to “assist the trier of fact in understanding the evidence or in determining a fact in issue.” § 90.702, Fla.Stat. (1991).
Appellant failed to preserve her second issue regarding the court’s reinstruction for appellate review. Although the trial court erred by failing to reinstruct the jury on justifiable and excusable homicide when the jury requested reinstruction on manslaughter, defense counsel did not object either before or after the judge responded, and such error is not considered fundamental when it occurs during a reinstruction. Castor v. State, 365 So. 2d 701 (Fla.1978); McGee v. State, 570 So. 2d 1079 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990), review denied, 582 So. 2d 623 (Fla.1991).
Moreover, pursuant to our directions, the trial court conducted an evidentiary hearing during the pendency of this appeal and concluded that both parties’ counsel were in the courtroom when the court reinstructed the jury; thus appellant had the opportunity to object. See Mills v. State, 620 So. 2d 1006 (Fla.1993) (counsel objected after court responded to jury question); Woods v. State, 634 So. 2d 767 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994) (counsel preserved issue by asking court to reconsider its response' to jury question).
AFFIRMED.
MINER and WOLF, JJ., concur. . In Rogers v. State, 616 So. 2d 1098 (Fla. 1st DCA), approved in part, quashed in part, 630 So. 2d 177 (Fla.1993), this court and the supreme court held that battered-spouse syndrome has gained general acceptance in the relevant scientific community as a matter of law. In the Rogers opinion below, this court stated that the “relevant scientific community” is the psychological community. Rogers, 616 So. 2d at 1099. Accord Bechtel v. State, 840 P. 2d 1, 7 (Okla.Crim.App. 1992).
. In contrast, James Beller, a psychotherapist who did qualify as an expert, testified in much greater detail than did Wilson about different aspects of the syndrome, incorporating the re-suits of the tests he performed on Humble and his knowledge of other psychological conditions when describing the different symptoms she exhibited.
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Citator
Cited By
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Eichelberger v. State, 662 So. 2d 1025 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995)…has raised such a child, she might even have been qualified as an “expert” witness to so testify. . § 827.03(l)(a), Fla.Stat. (1993). . See, e.g., cases on the battered spouse syndrome. State v. Hickson, 630 So. 2d 172 (Fla.1993); Humble v. State, 652 So. 2d 1213 (Fla. 1st DCA), rev. denied, 659 So. 2d 1087 (Fla. June 23, 1995); Ward v. State, 519 So. 2d 1082 (Fla. 1st DCA 1988); Hawthorne v. State, 470 So. 2d 770 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985). . If Killevy's opinion as a lay witness with respect to the ability of a…
Authorities Cited
- Castor v. State, 365 So. 2d 701 (Fla. 1978)
- Mills v. State, 620 So. 2d 1006 (Fla. 1993)
- Rogers v. State, 616 So. 2d 1098 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993)
- State v. Rogers, 630 So. 2d 177 (Fla. 1993)
- WAY v. State, 630 So. 2d 177 (Fla. 1993)
- Olin J. Dewberry, Jr. v. State, 570 So. 2d 1079 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990)
- McGEE v. State, 570 So. 2d 1079 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990)
- Woods v. State, 634 So. 2d 767 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994)