EDDIE ALLEN MOORE, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 1976-08-06
No. 75-1520
CROSS and ALDERMAN, JJ., concur.
335 So. 2d 877 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1976) Caution
Cited by 2 cases

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Synopsis

The defendant was convicted of aggravated assault after being charged with second-degree murder. The trial court improperly granted the state additional peremptory challenges beyond the ten allowed by Florida Criminal Procedure Rule 3.350(a), and the appellate court reversed and remanded for a new trial.


Holding

The trial court erred by granting the state more than ten peremptory challenges. Because the case involved only a single information with one count, subsection (a) of Rule 3.350 applied, not subsection (e), and subsection (a) contains no discretionary provision allowing additional challenges regardless of the circumstances.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court errs by granting a party more peremptory challenges than permitted by Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.350(a) when the information contains only one cou…

[2] Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.350(e) applies only when an indictment or information contains two or more counts or when two or more indictments or informations are…

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Key Quotes

“the trial court erred by granting the state more than the ten peremptory challenges permitted by subsection (a) of the rule”

States the core holding that the trial court lacked authority to grant additional challenges under the applicable rule provision.

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Facts & Procedural History

Eddie Allen Moore was charged with second-degree murder in a single-count information. During jury voir dire, after the state exhausted its ten peremp…

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Opinion of the Court
DOWNEY, Judge.

DOWNEY, Judge.

This appeal involves the propriety of the trial court’s granting the state’s motion for additional peremptory challenges over and above those allowed by Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.350.

Appellant was charged in a single count information with second degree murder. He was convicted of aggravated assault and sentenced to five years in prison.

During the voir dire examination of the jury at a point where the state had exhausted its ten peremptory challenges, the state moved the court to grant each side three additional peremptory challenges. Appellant, who at that time had only used five of his peremptory challenges, objected to the motion. It appears that since the homicide allegedly occurred during a homosexual advance by the victim upon appellant, the trial court felt that there were “extenuating circumstances” provided by subsection (e) of Rule 3.350 enabling him to authorize additional peremptory challenges.

In the circuit court both the court and the parties all treated this case as though subsection (e) of the rule was applicable. On appeal, the parties continue to treat this case as though subsection (e) applies, appellant relying upon Sanders v. State, 328 So. 2d 268 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976). Our reading of the entire rule leads us to conclude that subsection (e)1 does not apply because there was only one information and only one count therein. In our view subsection (a)2 of the rule applies to the present case. Sanders v. State, supra, concerned a two count information and thus involved subsection (e). However, one of the principles set forth in the Sanders case pertains equally to subsection (a), and it is that principle3 which requires reversal here. Thus, the trial court erred by granting the state more than the ten peremptory challenges permitted by subsection (a) of the rule.

Accordingly, we reverse the judgment and remand the cause for a new trial.

CROSS and ALDERMAN, JJ., concur. .“If an indictment or information contains two or more counts or if two or more indictments or informations are consolidated for trial, the defendant shall be allowed the number of peremptory challenges which would be permissible in a single case, but in the interest of justice the judge may use his judicial discretion in extenuating circumstances to grant additional challenges to the accumulate maximum based on the number of charges or cases included when it appears that there is a possibility that defendant may be prejudiced. The State shall be allowed as many challenges as are allowed the defendant.”

. “Each party shall be allowed the following number of peremptory challenges: “(a) Ten, if the offense charged is punishable by death or imprisonment for life; * * * ”

. The trial court has no discretion to grant the state a greater number of peremptory challenges than any part of Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.350 permits. See, generally, cases cited at Annot: Peremptory Challenges — Number, 95 A.L.R.2d 957, § 7.


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Citator

Cited By

  • West v. State, 584 So. 2d 1044 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991)
    …te, case law cited by appellant holding as reversible error per se a court’s grant of peremptory challenges in excess of those permitted by law is irrelevant to this case. Compare Sanders v. State, 328 So. 2d 268 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976); Moore v. State, 335 So. 2d 877 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976). Implicit in appellant’s argument is rank speculation that the first jury pool would have provided him a more favorable jury. Appellant does not assert any prejudice to him as a result of the dismissal of the first venire and hi…

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