BERNARD E. BROWN, APPELLANT,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 2002-06-12
No. 3D00-3246
Before JORGENSON, FLETCHER, and RAMIREZ, JJ.
818 So. 2d 652 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (2002)

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

Bernard E. Brown appeals his conviction for attempted first-degree murder, carrying a concealed weapon, and violating a domestic violence injunction. The appellate court affirmed, rejecting Brown's challenges to juror qualification, jury instructions on Williams Rule evidence, and instructions on justifiable/excusable homicide.


Holding

The trial court properly denied the motion to strike juror Merced because his direct and unequivocal response to the court's question about impartiality, combined with the trial court's unique vantage point in assessing bias, supported denial of the challenge. The trial court did not err in failing to give a Williams Rule limiting instruction because the defendant never requested one. The trial court did not err in the homicide instruction because the conviction for attempted first-degree murder was more than one step removed from attempted manslaughter, so the omission was not fundamental error.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court does not err in denying a motion to strike a prospective juror for cause when the juror, after initial equivocal responses, unequivocally states they can be…

[2] A party seeking to exclude a potential juror based on bias has the duty to demonstrate such bias through questioning.

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 question is can you be fair and impartial. When I send you back to the jury room, you have to — I need to know before that whether you can be fair and impartial. Can you listen to the evidence, sir? Can you listen to the evidence and put aside all of that experience and when you go back in there you can be fair and impartial to both sides?”

The trial court's proper question to juror Merced that elicited an unequivocal affirmative response establishing the juror's ability to be impartial despite personal experience with domestic violence.

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

Brown was tried by jury and convicted of attempted first-degree murder, carrying a concealed weapon, and violating an injunction against domestic viol…

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
RAMIREZ, J.

RAMIREZ, J.

Bernard E. Brown appeals from his conviction after a jury trial for attempted first degree murder, carrying a concealed weapon, and violation of an injunction against domestic violence. We affirm.

Brown argues that the trial court erred when it allowed a juror to sit despite Brown’s objection for cause. During voir dire, the prosecutor asked the venire if anyone had any experience with domestic violence. Prospective juror Merced revealed that his mother had been a victim of domestic violence. The prosecutor proceeded to ask Merced,

STATE: Do you think that whatever involvement you had in the context of your life, do you think that you’ll be able to put that aside and listen to the evidence in this case or do you think that will affect you as you listen to the evidence, so it may impact your ability to make a decision in this case?

JUROR: I think it could, but I can’t give a direct answer. COURT: All right. It’s not a question of whether it will impact on your decision to make a decision. The question is can you be fair and impartial. When I send you back to the jury room, you have to — I need to know before that whether you can be fair and impartial. Can you listen to the evidence, sir? Can you listen to the evidence and put aside all of that experience and when you go back in there you can be fair and impartial to both sides?

JUROR: Yes, sir. The trial court subsequently denied the defense motion to strike Merced for cause.

We find that the trial court correctly denied the defense motion to strike Merced for cause. The question asked by the prosecutor was not the proper legal standard for a juror’s qualification. The response to the prosecutor’s question was equivocal. On the other hand, the trial court’s question was appropriate and elicited a direct and unequivocal response. Merced’s acknowledgment that his mother had some domestic violence problems was not dispositive. See Dorsey v. State, 806 So. 2d 559, 561 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002)(pro-spective juror’s answers, when considered in full, left no reasonable doubt that he could render an impartial decision). Further, “[i]n reviewing a claim of error such as this, we have recognized that the trial court has a unique vantage point in the determination of juror bias.” Smith v. State, 699 So. 2d 629, 635-36 (Fla.1997).

It is important to note that the only two questions dealing with juror Merced’s feelings about domestic violence and his ability to be fair were quoted above. The defense asked no questions of this juror. As the Florida Supreme Court stated in Trotter v. State, 576 So. 2d 691, 694 (Fla.1990), “[i]t is the duty of a party seeking exclusion to demonstrate, through questioning, that a potential juror lacks impartiality.” If the defense had any doubts about the juror’s qualifications, as the party seeking the juror’s exclusion, the defense could have confronted the juror with his initial response to the prosecutor and explored any concerns about his fairness.

Brown also argues that the trial court erred when it failed to instruct the jury on the limited purpose for which Williams Rule evidence was introduced. However, the defendant never requested any instructions with respect to Williams Rule evidence. “In order to be entitled to a limiting instruction, a defendant must request such an instruction”. Pope v. State, 679 So. 2d 710, 714 (Fla.1996).

Finally, Brown argues that the trial court erred when it failed to instruct the jurors on the definitions of justifiable and excusable homicide. The court read the “Introduction to Attempted Homicide” and the jury was instructed on attempted first degree premeditated murder and the lesser included offenses of attempted second degree murder, attempted manslaughter, and aggravated battery. The defense made no objection to the proposed jury instructions either during the charging conference or prior to the instructions being read to the jury. In State v. Lucas, 645 So. 2d 425, 427 (Fla.1994), the Florida Supreme Court held that “the failure to give a complete initial instruction on manslaughter constitutes fundamental reversible error when the defendant is convicted of either manslaughter or a greater offense not more than one step removed.” In this case, Brown was convicted of attempted first degree murder, an offense more than one step removed from attempted manslaughter. Thus, the lack of a complete instruction is not reversible error. Affirmed.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw