Hoskins v. State

• Decision Date: 19 April 2007
• Docket Number: No. SC05-28.,SC05-28.
• Citation: 965 So.2d 1
• Parties: Johnny HOSKINS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

965 So.2d 1

Johnny HOSKINS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. SC05-28.

Supreme Court of Florida.

April 19, 2007.

Rehearing Denied August 8, 2007.

James S. Purdy, Public Defender and Christopher S. Quarles, Assistant Public Defender, Seventh Judicial Circuit, Daytona Beach, FL, for Appellant.

Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL and Kenneth S. Nunnelley, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, FL, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Johnny Hoskins appeals a circuit court judgment imposing a sentence of death upon resentencing. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons explained below, we affirm.

I. THE FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The facts supporting Hoskins's convictions are detailed in our decision on his direct appeal of his convictions and previous death sentence. Hoskins v. State, 702 So.2d 202, 203-04 (Fla.1997). We briefly summarize them. On Sunday, October 18, 1992, police went to eighty-year-old Dorothy Berger's home after neighbors discovered that her door was open but no one was home. The television and air-conditioning were on; a small amount of blood, a bent pair of eyeglasses, and a green hand towel were on the bed; several items in the room appeared to be out of place; a shoe impression was visible in the dust on the floor; and Berger's car was gone. There was no sign of forced entry. The victim had last been heard from around 6:30 p.m. the previous evening.

Hoskins lived with his girlfriend next door to the victim. On the evening of October 17, a witness saw him driving a car similar to the victim's. At about 5 a.m. the next morning, Hoskins arrived at his parents' house in Georgia driving that same car. After he arrived, he borrowed a shovel and left. He returned about twenty minutes later. On Monday, October 19, he was stopped in Georgia for a traffic violation. Police later determined that the car he was driving belonged to the victim. Police found vegetation and blood in the trunk of the car. Thereafter, Hoskins's father led police to an area near his home where the type of vegetation found in the trunk grew. The victim was discovered there in a grave with her hands tied behind her back and a gag in her mouth.

Further examination revealed that the victim had been raped; had numerous injuries to her body; had several blows to her head, one of which likely caused her to become unconscious; and had died of strangulation, which occurred after the sexual battery and beating. DNA analysis revealed that the semen found on the victim and on the victim's bed sheet could have come from Hoskins.

The jury convicted Hoskins of first-degree murder, burglary of a dwelling, sexual battery with physical force, kidnapping, and robbery, and the circuit court sentenced him to death for the first-degree murder. Hoskins, 702 So.2d at 203. The trial court set aside the original penalty phase proceeding. Id. at 204. Before the second proceeding, at the suggestion of defendant's mental health expert (Dr. Krop), the defense requested neurological testing to develop mitigating mental health evidence. The trial judge denied the request. Id. In the second penalty phase proceeding, the jury unanimously recommended, and the trial judge imposed, a death sentence. Id. On appeal, we affirmed Hoskins's convictions and the sentences, except the death sentence.¹ As to the death sentence, we remanded for a PET scan and subsequent evidentiary hearing to determine whether the PET scan showed an abnormality and, if so, whether the results caused Dr. Krop to change his testimony. Id. at 210-11. The trial judge concluded that the PET scan showed an abnormality and that (as conceded by the State) Dr. Krop's testimony changed as a result. Hoskins v. State, 735 So.2d 1281, 1281 (Fla.1999). The trial court did not reach the validity of the PET scan or conduct a hearing pursuant to Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013, 1014 (D.C.Cir.1923) (requiring new or novel scientific principles to "have gained general acceptance in the particular field in which it belongs"). 735 So.2d at 1281 n. 1. Based on the trial court's findings, we vacated the death sentence and remanded for a new penalty phase proceeding, with the validity of the PET scan and Frye issues to be considered as part of the new sentencing proceeding. Id. The trial court held a Frye hearing and overruled the State's objection to the admissibility of the PET scan evidence.

Following the new penalty phase proceeding, the jury recommended death by a vote of 11-1. By special interrogatories, the jury found three aggravating circumstances: (1) the capital felony was committed during the course of or in flight after committing the crimes of robbery, sexual battery, or kidnapping (vote of 12-0); (2) the capital felony was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest (vote of 12-0); and (3) the capital felony was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel (HAC) (vote of 10-2). The trial court found the same aggravating circumstances had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

The trial court found the following mitigating circumstances: (1) the Defendant formed and maintained loving relationships with his family (little weight); (2) the Defendant was a father figure to his siblings (little weight); (3) the Defendant protected his mother from his father's abuse (little weight); (4) low IQ (little weight); (5) low mental functional ability (little weight); (6) some abnormalities in the brain which may cause some impairment (little weight); (7) an impoverished and abusive background (some weight); (8) mental age equivalent (between fifteen and twenty-five) (little weight); (9) the Defendant helped support his family financially (little weight); (10) the Defendant had and cared for many pets (little weight); (11) no disciplinary problems in school (little weight); (12) the Defendant suffered from poor academic performance and left school at age sixteen to work to help his family (little weight); (13) the Defendant was not malingering (little weight); (14) the Defendant expressed remorse (little weight); (15) potential for rehabilitation and lack of future dangerousness (little weight); and (16) good jail conduct, including death row behavior (little weight).² The trial court concluded that any one of the aggravating circumstances standing alone far outweighed all of the mitigating circumstances and resentenced Hoskins to death.

II. ISSUES ON APPEAL

Hoskins raises six claims: (1) the trial court erred in overruling his objection to the State's use of a peremptory challenge to an African-American juror; (2) the trial court erred in limiting Hoskins's voir dire examination regarding the potential jurors' ability to consider "gory photographs" which were already in evidence; (3) the trial court erred in failing to give the requested limiting instruction on victim impact evidence at the time of introduction; (4) the trial court erred in denying Hoskins's requested jury instructions; (5) the trial court included improper aggravating circumstances, excluded existing mitigating circumstances, and failed to properly find that the mitigating circumstances outweighed the aggravating circumstances; and (6) Florida's capital sentencing process is unconstitutional under Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002), and Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). The State cross-appealed, asserting the trial court improperly admitted PET scan evidence. Below we address each of Hoskins's claims and the proportionality of Hoskins's death sentence. Because we affirm, we do not address the State's cross-appeal.

A. Peremptory Challenge

Hoskins claims the trial court erred in permitting the State's peremptory challenge of an African-American juror (Ms. Harp) because: (1) the record does not support the prosecutor's and trial court's interpretation of Ms. Harp's voir dire responses; (2) the State accepted similarly situated jurors; (3) the State's questioning "singled out" Ms. Harp; and (4) the trial court erred in focusing on the "reasonableness" of the State's reason rather than its "genuineness."

As we stated in Melbourne v. State, 679 So.2d 759, 764 (Fla.1996):

A party objecting to the other side's use of a peremptory challenge on racial grounds must: a) make a timely objection on that basis, b) show that the venireperson is a member of a distinct racial group, and c) request that the court ask the striking party its reason for the strike. If these initial requirements are met (step 1), the court must ask the proponent of the strike to explain the reason for the strike.

At this point, the burden of production shifts to the proponent of the strike to come forward with a race-neutral explanation (step 2). If the explanation is facially race-neutral and the court believes that, given all the circumstances surrounding the strike, the explanation is not pretext, the strike will be sustained (step 3).

(Footnotes omitted.) Peremptory challenges "are presumed to be exercised in a nondiscriminatory manner." Jones v. State, 923 So.2d 486, 490 (Fla.2006) (quoting Melbourne, 679 So.2d at 764). "[T]he appropriate standard for appellate review for determining the threshold question of whether there is a likelihood of racial discrimination in the use of peremptory challenges is the abuse of discretion standard." Files v. State, 613 So.2d 1301, 1304 (Fla. 1992). The trial court's decision turns on an assessment of credibility and will be affirmed unless clearly erroneous. Jones, 923 So.2d at 490. Below, we detail the circumstances surrounding the strike, address each of Hoskins's arguments, and conclude that Hoskins has failed to establish that the trial court's decision was clearly erroneous.

The parties conducted jury selection over two days. Each day, the State asked potential jurors about prior contact with law enforcement and whether they, members of their families,...