ROBERT LEE BRIDGES, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 2004-08-04
No. 4D03-755
WARNER and TAYLOR, JJ., concur.
878 So. 2d 483 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (2004) 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

Robert Lee Bridges was convicted of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon after striking a victim with a machete. Bridges appealed arguing the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury that the state must prove the absence of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt and in failing to instruct on justifiable use of non-deadly force. The court affirmed, holding that neither issue was preserved for appeal and that Florida law does not require such instructions.


Holding

The court held that both issues were not preserved for appeal because neither was raised at trial. Additionally, Florida law does not require an instruction that the state must prove the absence of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt, and failure to instruct on a defense cannot be raised for the first time on appeal.


Headnotes

[1] A failure to instruct the jury on a defense cannot be raised for the first time on appeal, as it does not constitute fundamental error.

[2] The state is not required to prove the absence of a defendant's self-defense claim beyond a reasonable doubt in Florida.

Previewing 2 of 5 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

“Unlike the failure to instruct on an essential element of a crime, however, the failure to instruct on a defense cannot be raised for the first time on appeal.”

Establishes that failure to instruct on defenses is not fundamental error and must be preserved at trial

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

Appellant struck the victim with a machete, causing a cut requiring twenty-two stitches and knocking the victim unconscious. Appellant testified he ac…

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
KLEIN, J.

KLEIN, J.

Appellant was convicted of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. He argues that the trial court should have instructed the jury that the state was required to prove the absence of his self-defense claim beyond a reasonable doubt. In addition, he contends that the court erred in not instructing the jury as to the justifiable use of non-deadly force. Neither issue was raised in the trial court, however, and we affirm.

It was undisputed that appellant struck the victim with a machete, knocking him unconscious. He received a cut which required twenty-two stitches to close. Appellant testified that he knew the victim owned a gun, that they had words on the morning of the incident, and that he struck the victim in self-defense, because he was afraid that the victim was going to shoot him. Other than the testimony of the defendant, there was no evidence that the victim had a gun or that the victim provoked the attack. The court instructed the jury that the justifiable use of force likely to cause death or great bodily harm was a defense to the charged crime. Appellant did not request, and the trial court did not give, an instruction on the justifiable use of non-deadly force. Such an instruction would have been necessary, if requested, because whether the force used by the defendant was deadly or non-deadly was a jury issue. Williams v. State, 727 So. 2d 1062 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999). Unlike the failure to instruct on an essential element of a crime, however, the failure to instruct on a defense cannot be raised for the first time on appeal. Sochor v. State, 619 So. 2d 285 (Fla.1993) (failure to give voluntary intoxication instruction not fundamental error); Holiday v. State, 753 So. 2d 1264 (Fla. 2000).

Appellant also argues that the trial court committed fundamental error in not instructing the jury that the state had the burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the absence of the defendant’s claim that he acted in self-defense.

The court instructed that “the Defendant cannot justify the use of force likely to cause death or great bodily harm” unless he used every possible means to avoid the danger. It also instructed the jury that “the Defendant cannot justify the use of force” if after arming himself he renewed the difficulty with the victim. It further instructed the jury that, if it had reasonable doubt on the issue of whether the defendant was justified in using force, it should find him not guilty.

Our standard jury instructions, from which the above instructions were taken, do not include an instruction that the state has the burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the absence of self-defense, where self-defense is raised. Nor has appellant cited any Florida case which would require the giving of such an instruction. Appellant relies on cases from other jurisdictions which do require such an instruction.1

Florida does require instructions involving the state’s burden as to two affirmative defenses, entrapment and insanity. It has been held, however, that the failure to give such an instruction does not violate due process and is therefore not fundamental error. Smith v. State, 521 So. 2d 106 (Fla.1988); Holiday v. State, 753 So. 2d 1264 (Fla.2000); Cardenas v. State, 816 So. 2d 724 (Fla. 1st DCA 2002).

Appellant also argues that the court should not have allowed the testimony of a witness on rebuttal who had not previously been disclosed to the defense. In this case, however, the witness was necessary to rebut unexpected testimony presented by the defense, which the state could not have anticipated, and there was accordingly no requirement for disclosure. Grant v. State, 474 So. 2d 259 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985).

Affirmed.

WARNER and TAYLOR, JJ., concur. . State v. Warren, 9 Neb.App. 60, 608 N.W. 2d 617 (2000); Duckett v. State, 966 P. 2d 941 (Wyo.1998); Barone v. State, 109 Nev. 778, 858 P. 2d 27 (1993); State v. Gelormino, 24 Conn.App. 556, 590 A. 2d 476 (Ct.App.1991); State v. Hunter, 142 Ariz. 88, 688 P. 2d 980 (1984); State v. Kirtley, 162 W.Va. 249, 252 S.E. 2d 374 (1978); State v. Bartlett, 136 Vt. 142, 385 A. 2d 1109 (1978); State v. Abbott, 36 N.J. 63, 174 A. 2d 881 (1961)

Apparently the federal constitution does not require such an instruction. Leland v. Oregon, 343 U.S. 790, 72 S.Ct. 1002, 96 L.Ed. 1302 (1952) (no constitutional infirmity in placing burden of proof of insanity on defendant.).


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Mosansky v. State, 33 So. 3d 756 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010)
    …as the instruction read in this case — adequately informed the jury that the defendant must be acquitted if there was any reasonable doubt concerning the defendant’s use of force against the victim. Id. at 1209. More recently, in Bridges v. State, 878 So. 2d 483 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004), the court rejected the appellant’s argument that the trial court fundamentally erred by failing to instruct the jury that the state had the burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not act in self-defense…
  • Sloss v. State, 965 So. 2d 1204 (Fla. 5th DCA 2007)
    …; availability of affirmative defense did not obviate defendant’s responsibility to request instruction, issue of defendant’s knowledge was not disputed at trial, and evidence did not support a finding of lack of guilty knowledge); Bridges v. State, 878 So. 2d 483 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004) (explaining that unlike the failure to instruct on an essential element of a crime, the failure to instruct on a defense cannot be raised for the first time on appeal); Goode v. State, 856 So. 2d 1101 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003) (reitera…
    1 / 2
  • Mohammed v. State, 309 So. 3d 269 (Fla. 5th DCA 2020)
    …v. State, 619 So. 2d 285, 290 (Fla. 1993); see also Gregory v. State, 211 So. 3d 292, 293 (Fla. 4th DCA 2017) (finding no fundamental error when defendant did not request, and trial court did not issue, a self-defense instruction); Bridges v. State, 878 So. 2d 483, 484 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004) (same); Muteei v. State, 708 So. 2d 626, 628–29 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998) (same). In Knight, the Florida Supreme Court announced a new test to determine fundamental error in jury instructions: Properly understood, the fundamental…

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