Jones v. State, 2D98-01473.
Decision Date | 19 January 2000 |
Docket Number | No. 2D98-01473.,2D98-01473. |
Citation | 749 So.2d 561 |
Parties | Cornell E. JONES, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Pierce J. Guard, Jr., of Pierce J. Guard, Jr., P. A., Lakeland, for Appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and John M. Klawikofsky, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.
Appellant, Cornell E. Jones, challenges his conviction for robbery. Appellant asserts that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the "show up" identification and courtroom identification made by the victim; his motion to strike the jury panel; and his motion for mistrial. We affirm the trial court's denial of appellant's motion to suppress and motion for mistrial without further comment. We however reverse the denial of appellant's motion to strike the jury panel because the procedure used by the circuit to excuse prospective jurors was contrary to the law.
Prior to trial, appellant filed a motion to strike the jury panel. Appellant argued that several potential jurors had been improperly excused by the clerk of court. The chief judge of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit had issued a memorandum, dated February 9, 1993, to the clerk of court authorizing the excusal of prospective jurors in certain circumstances. Some of the circumstances listed were:
Appellant argued that the procedures outlined in the chief judge's memorandum were contrary to the law and were an improper delegation of a judicial function. The trial court ruled that appellant's motion was untimely and denied the motion. Section 40.013, Florida Statutes (1997), contains nine circumstances in which a prospective juror may or must be excused from jury service. Only subsections (5) and (6) implicate the trial court's discretion. See Hoskins v. State, 702 So.2d 202, 205 (Fla.1997)
(. ) Section 40.013(5) and (6) provides that:
§ 40.013(5), (6) Fla. Stat. (1997). Subsections (5) and (6) correspond to several of the circumstances listed in the chief judge's memorandum. Thus, the chief judge's memorandum authorized the clerk of court to excuse jurors under the discretionary authority granted trial judges under subsections (5) and (6). This was clearly error.
In Hoskins v. State, 702 So.2d 202, 205 (Fla.1997), a defendant filed a "motion with reference to jury procedure" arguing that his jury was unfairly selected because the chief judge had issued an administrative order that authorized the clerk of court to excuse jurors under certain circumstances which included the conditions listed in section 40.013(5), Florida Statutes (1995). The supreme court held that the motion was untimely because the jurors at issue had already been excused, and the defendant's motion was not a challenge to the jury panel itself. See id. at 205-06. The supreme court however stated:
In reaching this decision, however, we emphasize that we are in no way sanctioning any process whereby a clerk of court is to carry...
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