Lane v. State

• Citation: 388 So.2d 1022
• Decision Date: 25 September 1980
• Docket Number: No. 52176,52176
• Parties: Hayward LANE, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Florida

Page 1022

388 So.2d 1022

Hayward LANE, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 52176.

Supreme Court of Florida.

Sept. 25, 1980.

Virgil Q. Mayo, Public Defender, and H. Guy Green, Asst. Public Defender, Marianna, for appellant.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., and A. S. Johnston and Raymond L. Marky, Asst. Attys. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

The appellant, Hayward Lane, was convicted of murder in the first degree. The trial judge imposed the death sentence in accordance with the jury's advisory sentence recommendation. We have jurisdiction. ¹

For the reasons expressed, we find we must set aside this conviction and sentence because competency of the appellant at the time of trial was not properly determined under the standards set by the United States Supreme Court in Drope v. Missouri, 420 U.S. 162, 95 S.Ct. 896, 43 L.Ed.2d 103 (1975), and prior cases.

We have further considered the issue of whether the State of Florida has territorial jurisdiction to try the appellant for first-degree murder. We find jurisdiction does exist because essential elements of the offense may be able to be established beyond a reasonable doubt in Florida even though the fatal blow and the victim's death occurred in Alabama. We find that upon being determined competent, the appellant may be tried in the State of Florida.

The following are the relevant facts necessary to determine the controlling issues in this cause. On June 17, 1975, the appellant, a resident of the State of Alabama, drove to Holmes County, Florida, which borders on Alabama, to discuss the purchase of a car engine at Odie Slay's junkyard. At the junkyard appellant talked with Earl Slay who was awaiting his brother Odie's return. After Odie's arrival, he and appellant discussed their business. Appellant drove off in his car while Odie's brother, Earl, stayed to talk for another thirty minutes. The next morning Earl's dead body was discovered lying aside a bridge in nearby southern Alabama. Appellant was taken into custody on June 18, 1975, the day after the offense was committed. He waived extradition to Florida, made a confession, and accompanied state investigators to the scene of the crime to retrace the route he had taken when he killed the victim, Earl Slay. Appellant showed an investigator the dirt road in Florida where he stopped the victim, Earl Slay, and stated he there ordered the victim to hand over his wallet. The confession of the appellant reflects that at this point he hit the victim over the head after which the victim ran into an adjacent soybean field. The appellant followed the victim and hit him several more times, and carried him to the trunk of his car. The confession of the appellant concludes that he drove to the bridge in Alabama, got the victim out of the trunk, and beat him again.

The physical facts establish that an investigation of the Holmes County, Florida, dirt road revealed nothing to indicate that the blow was struck there although there was evidence of bloodstains in an adjacent soybean field. The physical facts at the Alabama bridge reflect that there were two sets of footprints for two different persons, and that there was blood on the vegetation and a substantial amount of blood under the body of the victim. A toxicologist who investigated the death and performed an autopsy on the body testified that the victim died at the site in Alabama and that there were three possible independent causes of death, including (1) the severing of the left maxillary artery, (2) an intercranial hemorrhage, and (3) a ruptured liver. There was considerable blood beneath the body at the death site in Alabama, which is consistent with the severing of the artery at that location. An expert witness who examined the trunk of appellant's car found bloodstains inside but testified that the amount of blood found in the trunk would have had to be only from a superficial cut and not a major wound. Further, a witness testified it would take twenty-five to thirty-five minutes driving time from the location where the victim was first struck in Florida to the bridge site in southern Alabama where his body was found.

On June 25, 1975, eight days after the offense, counsel filed a suggestion of insanity. The two doctors appointed by the court reached opposite conclusions from their respective examinations; one found the appellant was competent, and the other found that he was not competent to stand trial. The court ordered a third examination by another physician who concluded that the appellant was not competent to stand trial. On December 16, 1975, six months after the offense, the court determined the appellant was not mentally competent to stand trial and committed him to the Division of Mental Health. On July 8, 1976, a competency hearing was held and it was determined after the court received medical testimony from a Florida State Hospital psychiatrist that the appellant was competent to stand trial and able to assist counsel in the preparation of his defense. Subsequent motions suggesting insanity were filed on July 28, 1976, and March 18, 1977. On April 22, 1977, the trial court held a hearing to consider appellant's motion for continuance on the assertion by appellant's counsel that:

(R)easonable grounds do exist that the defendant may be insane at this time. And because of the physical nature and seriousness of this charge it asks the Court to continue the trial . . . and further to set a hearing pursuant to Rule 3.210, Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, and determine the sanity at the time of trial.

At the hearing on the motion, the appellant presented a psychiatrist and a psychologist who testified that neither could determine whether the appellant was competent to stand trial and suggested that the appellant needed to be examined at Florida State Hospital for ten days to two weeks in order to determine competence. The psychiatrist further testified that he could not make a recommendation as to whether the appellant could assist counsel in the preparation of his defense.

The state presented the testimony of a state psychiatrist who approximately nine months previously had examined the appellant at Florida State Hospital and had found him competent. The state psychiatrist testified that she had examined the appellant on the day of the hearing but that she did not try to ascertain at that time whether the appellant knew and understood the events that were transpiring. She further opined that on or about July 7, 1976, when he left the hospital, the appellant did have the ability to assist counsel in his defense and understand the nature of the charges, but on the date of the hearing stated: "It's hard to tell, really, on the basis of this brief meeting with him, I think that-I hate to speculate-I would not express any definite opinion." She related that the appellant was depressed but in contact with reality; however, she did not "want to make any firm statements on my today's observation."

The record reflects that the appellant has an intelligence quotient of 56, which places him in a retarded classification. There was also testimony of a jailer that the appellant had refused to take his medication.

The trial court denied the motion for continuance, holding that: "(T)his defendant is now malingering and that there's no reason why he cannot participate with his counsel in the defense of this case and I'm going to require that this case go to trial Monday morning as scheduled."

The trial commenced as ordered by the trial judge. The jury found the appellant guilty of first-degree murder and recommended the imposition of the death sentence. During the sentencing phase of these proceedings, three psychiatrists testified and although there was evidence of mental disorder, all three agreed that the appellant knew right from wrong at the time of the commission of the crime. The trial judge followed the recommendation of the jury and imposed the death sentence.

Competency to Stand Trial

The law in this area has been established by a series of cases of both the United States Supreme Court, Drope v. Missouri, 420 U.S. 162, 95 S.Ct. 896, 43 L.Ed.2d 103 (1975); Pate v. Robinson, 383 U.S. 375 (1966); Dusky v. United States, 362 U.S. 402, 80 S.Ct. 788, 4 L.Ed.2d 824 (1960); Bishop v. United States, 350 U.S. 961, 76 S.Ct. 440, 100 L.Ed. 835 (1956), and this Court in Jones v. State, 362 So.2d 1334 (Fla.1978), and Fowler v. State, 255 So.2d 513 (Fla.1971). We implemented the constitutional mandate in Dusky in our Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.210.

The United States Supreme Court in Dusky restated the historical rule that a person accused of a crime who is incompetent to stand trial shall not be proceeded against while he is incompetent. The law is now clear that the trial court has the responsibility to conduct a hearing for competency to stand trial whenever it reasonably appears necessary, whether requested or not, to ensure that a defendant meets the standard of competency set forth in Dusky. The United States Supreme Court reiterated this directive in Drope and said:

The import of our decision in Pate v. Robinson is that evidence of a defendant's irrational behavior, his demeanor at trial, and any prior medical opinion on competence to stand trial are all relevant in determining whether further inquiry is required, but that even one of these factors standing alone may, in some circumstances, be sufficient. There are, of course, no fixed or immutable signs which invariably indicate the need for further inquiry to determine fitness to proceed; the question is often a difficult one in which a wide range of manifestations and subtle nuances are implicated. . . .

Even when a defendant is competent at the commencement of his trial, a trial court must always be alert to circumstances suggesting a change that would render the accused unable to meet the standards of competence to stand trial.

420 U.S. at 180-181, 95 S.Ct. at 908.

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