HARRY FLYNN, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE; FRANK STORY, APPELLANT, V. STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 1977-11-01
Nos. 76-421, 76-482
ANSTEAD and LETTS, JJ., concur.
351 So. 2d 377 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1977) Positive Treatment
Cited by 20 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

Flynn and Story appealed their joint conviction for delivery of cannabis, raising eight issues. The Fourth District reversed and remanded due to two significant trial errors: the court's refusal to allow defendants to testify about conversations with the police informant to support their entrapment defense, and the court's failure to inquire into whether prejudice resulted from non-disclosure of a rebuttal witness.


Holding

The court reversed and remanded for new trial on two grounds: first, preventing defendants from testifying about their conversations with the informant to explain their motives removed the heart of their entrapment defense; second, the trial court failed to make adequate inquiry into whether prejudice resulted from the non-disclosure of the rebuttal witness as required by discovery rules. The court rejected other arguments regarding refusal to direct acquittal, prosecutor misconduct, jury instructions, and sentencing.


Headnotes

[1] A defendant's testimony regarding conversations with a police informant is admissible to show the defendant's state of mind and motive, even if the informant's identity i…

[2] A prosecutor's failure to disclose a rebuttal witness's identity, when that witness has information relevant to the offense or defense, requires the court to inquire into…

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Key Quotes

“To disallow the Defendants to testify about the conversations, as they recalled them, was to remove the heart of their defense. It matters not that the identity of the "confidential" informant was made known to the Defendants prior to trial because the error was not in disallowing the informant's testimony but in not permitting the Defendants to explain their motives and states of mind at the time of the alleged inducement.”

Establishes that defendants have the right to testify about their own state of mind regarding an entrapment defense, and that non-disclosure of informant identity does not cure this error.

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Facts & Procedural History

Flynn and Story were jointly tried for delivery of cannabis. They asserted an entrapment defense, claiming they acted only to help a troubled friend w…

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Opinion of the Court
DAUKSCH, Judge.

DAUKSCH, Judge.

Appellants appeal their conviction and sentence for delivery of cannabis. Their trial was joint and their appeals have been consolidated. In their briefs they have raised eight matters for our consideration. We shall speak to each.

The first point involves the trial court’s refusal to allow a defendant’s testimony as to a discussion had between him and the police informant involved in the setting up of the delivery. Apparently the informant’s father is a house painter and a reserve policeman. The painter and his son came to the Defendant’s residence to discuss the drug transaction. At trial the Defendants asserted the entrapment defense alleging they did what they did only to help out a troubled friend — the informant. To disallow the Defendants to testify about the conversations, as they recalled them, was to remove the heart of their defense. It matters not that the identity of the “confidential” informant was made known to the Defendants prior to trial because the error was not in disallowing the informant’s testimony but in not permitting the Defendants to explain their motives and states of mind at the time of the alleged inducement. The testimony offered was not offered to prove the truth of the informant’s statements but to attempt to show the state of the Defendants’ minds. Brown v. State, 299 So. 2d 37 (Fla. 4th DCA 1974). We reverse and remand for a new trial because of this error. In rebuttal the State called a co-defendant who had previously pleaded guilty. His name was not furnished to the Defendants on discovery although rebuttal witnesses are not excluded from the requirements of Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.220. They must be included if they are among those “persons known to the prosecutor to have information which may be relevant to the offense charged, and to any defense with respect thereto.” Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.220(a)(1) (i). There are various sanctions provided under Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.220(j) which the court has the discretion to impose. Or the court may impose no sanctions if it finds no prejudice to the defendant on account of the non-disclosure. Richardson v. State, 246 So. 2d 771 (Fla.1971). But the court must make adequate inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the non-compliance to determine the lack of prejudice. Here the court failed to make inquiry. We reverse on that point as well and remand for retrial. See also Hardison v. State, 341 So. 2d 270 (Fla. 2d DCA 1977) and Frazier v. State, 336 So. 2d 435 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976). Ramirez v. State, 241 So. 2d 744 (Fla. 4th DCA 1970). Lavigne v. State, 349 So. 2d 178 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977).

The Appellants next complain of the court’s refusal to direct a judgment of acquittal alleging the State failed to overcome the defense of entrapment. Richert v. State, 338 So. 2d 40 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976), holds “. . . when the undisputed testimony of a defendant is the sole basis for an entrapment defense, entrapment is not established as a matter of law but rather is an issue for the jury to decide.” The facts in Richert, supra, are stronger for the defense. We reject Appellants’ contention on this point based on the evidence in this record.

The next point concerns the prosecutor’s questions and comments about a defendant’s not having told “officially” (other than his lawyer) of his entrapment. A possible oblique reference to a prior invocation of the privilege to refuse to vocally incriminate oneself. Royal v. State, 347 So. 2d 742 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977). Prosecutors cannot do this and courts cannot allow it to be done.

The next point involves various alleged improper conduct by the prosecutor including laughing and alleged improper remarks. No trial is sterile and no lawyer can be expected to be a model, stone-faced throughout. Suffice it to say we, like the prosecutor, might have chuckled ourselves when defense counsel, after objection, changed his leading question to a doubly leading question. The remarks were not improper. Objections to them were sustained. No curative instructions were requested.

Next, the court said on voir dire of the jurors: “Guilty or not guilty, that’s the question you answer.” These remarks do not fall to the depths of error found in Kozakoff v. State, 323 So. 2d 28 (Fla. 4th DCA 1975), so we decline the invitation to reverse on this point but note them as such to be avoided. An “Allen Charge” or any approach to it can only be made in limited circumstances. Allen v. United States, 164 U.S. 492, 17 S.Ct. 154, 41 L.Ed. 528 (1896). Certainly not on voir dire. As this trial judge was urged in Kozakoff, supra, to consider the possibility of misstatement resulting from informal instructions to the jury we must again implore a strict adherence to the requisite formality.

The next point involves remarks of the trial judge. First, during voir dire the defense attorney asked a question which the juror did not understand. While reasking the question the court interrupted and said,

“You know something. This jury is going — I’m going to submit one issue to them, a simple issue. Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s whether or not the state has proven these two men or one of them or either of them did what they are charged with. Real simple. Ain’t no hypothetical or no question about that. That’s the issue submitted.

“That’s the issue of this case that’s going to be submitted. That’s the whole story. That’s all I’m going to try. I ain’t going to try no hypothetical case on cloud nine.”

The issues to be submitted to a jury are rarely that simple, especially to the jury. Even rarer are the issues capable of being discerned before the trial is completed. This comment of the judge came after defense counsel was attempting to explain an affirmative defense to the juror on voir dire and might very well indicate the issue is not so simple. Because we have already reversed and remanded we need not go any further into the remaining comments of the judge during trial about which the Appellants complain. But it is noted Appellants did not object to the comments at trial and we do not find them to be fundamental error requiring reversal. White v. State, 348 So. 2d 368 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977)

Last, Appellants say their sentence was too severe especially since the co-defendant’s was for a lesser term. They cite a death case, Slater v. State, 316 So. 2d 539 (Fla.1975), which is hardly relevant here. As Justice England mentioned in McArthur v. State, 351 So. 2d 972 (Fla.1977), opinion filed September 30, 1977, by quoting Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S. 280, 305, 96 S.Ct. 2978, 2991-92, 49 L.Ed. 944, 961 (1976), “. . . the penalty of death is qualitatively different from a sentence of imprisonment, however long.” Also, we don’t review lawful sentences.

REVERSED and REMANDED.

ANSTEAD and LETTS, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Lewis v. State, 369 So. 2d 667 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979)
    …Court approved Florida Standard Jury Instructions in Criminal Cases, Second Edition, as Instruction 2.21.1 Such a charge may be properly given depending on the circumstances of the particular case but only in limited circumstances, Flynn v. State, 351 So. 2d 377 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977); Kozakoff v. State, 323 So. 2d 28 (Fla. 4th DCA 1975). In the case sub judice, however, the trial court did not follow the standard jury instruction but, instead, formulated a charge of its own.2 Comparing the approved “Allen c…
  • Scott v. State, 396 So. 2d 271 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981)
    …cess was not preserved for appellate review by a proper and timely objection, motion for mistrial, or request for corrective instruction, Foreman v. State, 47 So. 2d 308 (Fla.1958); Pegues v. State, 361 So. 2d 433 (Fla.1st DCA 1978); Flynn v. State, 351 So. 2d 377 (Fla.4th DCA 1977); McCrea v. State, 210 So. 2d 724 (Fla.3d DCA 1968); see also Mack v. State, 270 So. 2d 382 (Fla.3d DCA 1972), and the comments were not so pernicious as to cause us to recognize them as fundamental error; (2) the refusal of the tr…
  • van Note v. State, 366 So. 2d 78 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978)
    …res should be followed in this type of error as there. Of course, we should hope this type of error will not occur again but we do note the same error has caused appellate concern from the same judicial circuit at least twice before. Flynn v. State, 351 So. 2d 377 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977); Kozakoff v. State, 323 So. 2d 28 (Fla. 4th DCA 1975). Some other matters have come to our attention which, when coupled with the foregoing, cause us to reverse the conviction and remand the case for new trial. Firstly, it was b…

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