Kight v. State

• Decision Date: 18 January 2001
• Docket Number: No. SC95208.,SC95208.
• Citation: 784 So.2d 396
• Parties: Charles Michael KIGHT, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

784 So.2d 396

Charles Michael KIGHT, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. SC95208.

Supreme Court of Florida.

January 18, 2001.

Rehearing Denied May 4, 2001.

Todd G. Scher, Litigation Director, and Christine Haydinger, Special Assistant CCRC, Office of the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel—South, Fort Lauderdale, FL; and Bret Strand, Tallahassee, FL, for Appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Curtis M. French, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Charles Michael Kight, a prisoner under sentence of death, appeals the trial court's denial of his motion for postconviction relief pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const.

Kight was convicted of first-degree murder for the 1982 killing of a Jacksonville cab driver by multiple stab wounds. The evidence against Kight included statements that he made to the police regarding his presence during the killing. However, Kight stated that codefendant Gary Hutto actually stabbed the victim. Kight also took the police to the site where the victim's cab had been driven off a bridge and his jewelry had been hidden in a deserted house. The other evidence presented at trial included: the testimony of four former inmates of the Duval County jail that Kight had bragged about killing the victim and blaming it on Hutto; the testimony of a fifth inmate that Hutto had bragged about killing the victim and getting away with it; and Hutto's testimony¹ that he was present in the cab but that Kight actually killed the victim and that Hutto was so intoxicated from drugs and alcohol that he blacked out and did not remember the incident for four months. The trial court followed the jury's recommendation and imposed the death penalty.

On direct appeal, this Court affirmed Kight's conviction and sentence. See Kight v. State, 512 So.2d 922 (Fla.1987). In our opinion, this Court noted that prior to his direct appeal Kight had filed a "Motion for Leave to File Petition for Writ of Coram Nobis," which was denied. In that motion, Kight alleged newly discovered evidence of Brady² violations involving undisclosed concessions made to state witnesses in return for their testimony. 512 So.2d at 933. Because these alleged violations had not been presented to the trial court, this Court declined to reach the merits of the claim and noted that Kight could raise the claim before the trial court in a 3.850 motion for postconviction relief. Id.

After a death warrant was signed in 1989, Kight filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus with this Court and a rule 3.850 motion with the trial court. The trial court summarily denied most of the claims raised in Kight's 3.850 motion, but granted an evidentiary hearing on the claim that the State deliberately used false and misleading testimony and withheld material exculpatory evidence. After the hearing, the trial court denied all relief. On appeal, this Court affirmed the denial of relief, finding that there was competent evidence to support the trial court's denial of relief on the alleged Brady violations. See Kight v. Dugger, 574 So.2d 1066, 1073 (Fla.1990). In denying relief on this claim, the trial court concluded that there were no undisclosed concessions made to the jailhouse informants in exchange for their testimony and that the evidence presented to the court was not material to Kight's conviction and sentence. This Court found that there was sufficient competent evidence to support the trial court's denial of relief on this claim and that it was within the trial court's discretion to find the state witnesses more credible than those of the defense. See id. This Court also denied Kight's habeas petition. Id.

In 1992, Kight filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in this Court based on the United States Supreme Court's decision in Espinosa³ that Florida's instruction on the heinous, atrocious, or cruel aggravating circumstance was unconstitutionally vague. The petition was denied. See Kight v. Singletary, 618 So.2d 1368 (Fla. 1993).

After another witness, William O'Kelly, was located with newly discovered evidence as to Hutto's culpability,⁴ Kight filed a second 3.850 motion, raising four claims. The trial court originally denied relief without hearing, but upon a motion for reconsideration filed by Kight, conducted a Huff⁵ hearing and subsequently scheduled an evidentiary hearing on the newly discovered evidence claim.⁶

At the evidentiary hearing, O'Kelly testified that Hutto confessed to him that he had stabbed the victim and was going to save himself by blaming Kight because he believed that a mentally challenged person could not be sentenced to death in Florida.⁷

In the order denying relief, the circuit court found that the newly discovered evidence would not have indicated that Kight was innocent of felony murder because, while it implicated Hutto, it did not absolve Kight. While this information could have been helpful during the penalty phase, the court concluded that the new evidence would not probably produce a life sentence if a new penalty phase were granted because it was cumulative to the evidence already presented at trial. However, the court went on to state that Kight's death sentence "appears unconstitutionally disparate" because the record indicates that Hutto's culpability for the murder was at least equal to Kight's. The court found this aspect of the case "very troubling" but, relying on Steinhorst v. Singletary, 638 So.2d 33 (Fla.1994), concluded that the issue was procedurally barred.

On appeal to this Court, Kight raises three claims relating to the denial of his motion for postconviction relief: (1) that the trial court erred in denying sentencing relief after finding that Kight's death sentence is "unconstitutionally disparate"; (2) that the newly discovered evidence of Hutto's involvement entitled Kight to a new trial and sentencing; and (3) that the trial court failed to consider the cumulative effect of all the evidence not presented at Kight's original trial.

In the order denying relief, the trial court concluded that the new evidence presented in O'Kelly's testimony did not absolve Kight of the crime and thus would not result in an acquittal on retrial. The court also concluded that this new evidence was at best cumulative because both the jury and trial judge heard other incriminating statements made by Hutto and were presented forensic evidence that implicated Hutto. Thus, the court concluded "it is hard to imagine how the new evidence... could have affected" the penalty phase outcome.

In addressing Kight's claim of disparate sentencing, the court noted that the record indicates that Hutto's culpability for the murder "was at least equal to that of" Kight and thus Kight's death sentence "appears unconstitutionally disparte [sic]." However, the court ultimately concluded that any claim of disparate sentencing was procedurally barred because "the relative involvement of the two [codefendants] was well known at the time of trial, and argued vigorously at that time."

We agree with Kight that it is contradictory for the trial court to conclude that O'Kelly's testimony constituted newly discovered evidence but that the claim of disparate sentencing was procedurally barred. In order to bring a motion for postconviction relief in a capital case more than one year after the judgment and sentence become final, "the facts on which the claim is predicated [must be] unknown to the movant or the movant's attorney and [must] not have been [ascertainable] by the exercise of due diligence." Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.850(b)(1). Further, a successive motion will be dismissed if "it fails to allege new or different grounds for relief" or if the failure "to assert those grounds in a prior motion constituted an abuse of the procedure." Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.850(f).

In finding the disparate sentencing claim to be procedurally barred, the trial court relied upon this Court's decision in Steinhorst v. Singletary. The petitioner in Steinhorst asked this Court for habeas corpus relief, arguing that his death sentence was disproportionate and a violation of his due process and equal protection rights when compared with the lesser sentences imposed on his codefendants. See 638 So.2d at 34. We determined that Steinhorst's claim was procedurally barred because he had made the same claim in an earlier motion for postconviction relief and had alleged no new facts as a predicate for his successive claim. Id.⁸

The instant case is distinguishable from Steinhorst because Kight's claim of disparate sentencing is predicated on facts unknown to Kight, namely the newly discovered evidence of Hutto's culpability revealed by O'Kelly. Thus, the trial court erroneously concluded that this claim was procedurally barred. However, this does not mean that Kight can prevail on the merits of his disparate sentencing claim.

The real issue here is whether the newly discovered evidence of Hutto's inculpatory statement would preclude a death sentence for Kight when Hutto received a life sentence as a result of his plea bargain with the State. In certain instances this Court has concluded that a codefendant or accomplice's life sentence precluded a death sentence for the defendant. See, e.g., Slater v. State, 316 So.2d 539, 542 (Fla.1975) (holding that less culpable nontriggerman cannot receive a death sentence when the more culpable triggerman receives a life sentence); Hazen v. State, 700 So.2d 1207, 1214 (Fla.1997) (same as to two nontriggermen where one of the defendants is a prime instigator and the other is not). However, disparate treatment of codefendants is permissible in situations where a particular defendant is more culpable. See, e.g., Larzelere v. State, 676 So.2d 394, 406-07 (Fla.1996) (upholding death sentence where evidence showed that defendant was dominating force behind murder and was far more culpable than the...