McArthur v. State

Citation351 So.2d 972
Decision Date30 September 1977
Docket NumberNo. 49526,49526
PartiesNadean O. McARTHUR, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
CourtFlorida Supreme Court

Chester Bedell, Jacksonville, Eugene P. Spellman, Miami, and Raymond E. Ford, Fort Pierce, for appellant.

Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, Harry M. Hipler and Basil S. Diamond, Asst. Attys. Gen., West Palm Beach, for appellee.

ENGLAND, Justice.

By direct appeal we have before us for review the 1975 conviction of Nadean McArthur for the first degree murder of her husband, Charles McArthur. We have jurisdiction because the trial court upheld the validity of two statutes, Sections 40.01(1) and 775.082(1), Florida Statutes (1975). 1

Appellant argues that, in addition to the two constitutionally infirm statutes, reversal of her conviction is required by six errors which occurred during her trial. After careful examination of the record, we find that five of these contentions require neither reversal nor extensive discussion. 2Appellant's constitutional challenges require more detailed analysis, but similarly do not warrant reversal.

Appellant's challenge to the jury selection statute, Section 40.01(1), Florida Statutes (1975), essentially asks that we reconsider Wilson v. State, 330 So.2d 457 (Fla.1976), in which we sustained this statute, in light of the United States Supreme Court's decision in Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522, 95 S.Ct. 692, 42 L.Ed.2d 690 (1975). That case held unconstitutional a Louisiana jury selection statute which operated to exclude women from jury service, since they were exempt unless requesting to serve, on the ground that the statute deprived defendants of their right to a jury selected "from a fair cross section of the community". 3 At the time of trial the Florida statute provided in relevant part that

"expectant mothers and mothers with children under eighteen years of age, upon their request, shall be exempted from grand and petit jury duty." 4

The record fairly depicts the operation of the statute. Several mothers with children under the age of 18 were excused from jury service on the representation that hardship would be suffered if they could not be at home to care for their children. Some mothers were excused under the statute simply "upon their request", even though they held jobs outside the home and made no plea of hardship. One father asked to be excused because of the hardship to his seven motherless children if he could not earn his $110 weekly income. His request was denied by the court; however, counsel for both sides later requested that he be excused and the trial judge acceded. No expectant mothers were present to request exemption from jury duty. 5

Since mothers with children under 18 were exonerated from jury duty simply on request, our concern is whether their absence denied defendants the opportunity to select a jury from a fair cross section of the community. We think not. The sixth amendment to the United States Constitution requires that no "large, distinctive groups are excluded from the (jury) pool". 6 This standard establishes two tests, and although the excluded group here appears sufficiently large to pass the "size of group" test, it fails what may be called the "nature of the group" test.

To evoke constitutional concern, the group excluded must be sufficiently "distinctive" to eliminate "the subtle interplay of influence" or the "distinct quality (which) is lost if either sex is excluded" totally. 7 Mothers of young children are not, we believe, so distinctive a class as to evoke sixth amendment concerns. Those eligible for jury service include mothers of older children, women without children, and fathers with children of all ages. No distinctive quality of parenthood or sex is lost by the exclusion of mothers who presently have children under 18. 8 Thus, while the legislative exclusion does not require hardship and may therefore operate automatically to exempt from jury service mothers who have no more compelling need to tend young children than fathers or the parents of older children, the class excluded is not constitutionally significant.

Appellant's second constitutional challenge asserts the invalidity of Section 775.082(1), Florida Statutes (1975), which requires a person convicted of a capital felony and sentenced to life imprisonment "to serve no less than 25 years before becoming eligible for parole . . . ." We have already upheld this statute against an assertion that it is an impermissible legislative usurpation of executive branch powers. 9 Appellant here contends that the statute imposes a cruel and unusual punishment, since it operates without regard to the circumstances of individual defendants or the crimes for which the defendants have been convicted. The state argues that the severity of the penalty is commensurate with the severity of the crime.

This very issue was recently addressed by the Second District Court of Appeal in Quick v. State, 342 So.2d 850 (Fla. 2d DCA), aff'd per curiam, No. 51,246 (Fla. Sept. 29, 1977), in which a majority of the court upheld the statute. Judge McNulty filed a forceful dissent analogizing the situation to Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S. 280, 96 S.Ct. 2978, 49 L.Ed.2d 944 (1976), where the United States Supreme Court ruled that a mandatory death penalty for first degree murder is cruel and unusual punishment. We believe the Quick majority was correct, for in Woodson the Court recognized that term sentencing minima are significantly different from death sentences as regards federal constitutional criteria. The Court said:

"While the prevailing practice of individualizing sentencing determinations generally reflects simply enlightened policy rather than a constitutional imperative, we believe that in capital cases the fundamental respect for humanity underlying the Eighth Amendment . . . requires consideration of the character and record of the individual offender and the circumstances of the particular offense as a constitutionally indispensable part of the process of inflicting the penalty of death.

This conclusion rests squarely on the predicate that the penalty of death is qualitatively different from a sentence of imprisonment, however long. " 10 (Emphasis Supplied.)

Relevant to the same concerns under Florida's Constitution is O'Donnell v. State, 326 So.2d 4 (Fla.1975), in which we upheld a statute imposing a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years imprisonment for kidnapping. 11 In O'Donnell we reaffirmed the time-honored principle that any sentence imposed within statutory limits will not violate Article I, Section 8 of the Florida Constitution, and the reasoning used there is persuasive here. The correlation in seriousness and potential deterrent value between a minimum 30 year sentence and the crime of kidnapping is similar to the correlation between the minimum mandatory sentence imposed by Section 775.082(1) and the palpably more serious crime of premeditated murder. All this, of course, was at the heart of Banks v. State, 342 So.2d 469 (Fla.1976), in which we rejected the very contention which appellant now raises. We held in Banks that this statute did not impose constitutionally proscribed cruel and unusual punishment, and we now reiterate that view.

We come to appellant's last and principal contention before us, that as a matter of law there was insufficient evidence of her guilt to support her conviction. Appellant and the state agree as to the legal standard to be applied in cases where a conviction is based on circumstantial evidence, 12 as here, but they sharply disagree as to the application of that standard to the record in this case.

A review of prior decisions of this Court in similar cases 13 is not helpful to the analysis required here, since the nature and quantity of circumstantial evidence in each case is unique. Moreover, while we have examined all of the evidence in the record before us, we can see no jurisprudential value in a lengthy recitation of that evidence in this opinion. A lengthy summary will suffice.

In general, the jury received two categories of circumstantial evidence scientific and non-scientific. Our study of both types leads us to conclude that, on balance, neither is inconsistent with innocence. 14

The non-scientific evidence in the record, consisting of witness testimony from the funeral home owner, ambulance drivers, police officials, and a local merchant, 15 is reasonably consistent with the version of events which appellant conveyed to investigating officers when they first arrived at the scene of her husband's death. She had told the officers that her husband had been concerned about her and their child's safety during his many absences, and that he had asked her to take out and check a gun which had been purchased two years before, in order to be sure she could handle it. While her husband lay in bed on his left side, she sat with the gun indian-style on the bed facing him, half on a pillow and half off. She told the officers that she had forgotten how the gun functioned and was fumbling with it, apparently while it was still inside a cloth bag. Her husband became impatient, grabbed for the gun, it went off, and he was shot in the head.

Appellant related the same outline of events to each other person who inquired as to what had occurred, except to one officer who stated that he was told the "gun fell, hit her knee, and went off". Although this officer was present at the scene of death with others who received a different explanation, no inquiry was made as to the conflict in statements, and the one officer's recitation is the only conflicting explanation in the record. Another witness to the same conversation in fact had no recollection of this statement by appellant.

All attempts by the state and by the defense to elicit from witnesses more details of appellant's statements at the time of death were unsuccessful. Based on the...

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  • Cochran v. State, 67972
    • United States
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • July 27, 1989
    ...a fact by circumstantial evidence, the evidence must be inconsistent with any reasonable hypothesis of innocence. McArthur v. State, 351 So.2d 972, 976 n. 12 (Fla.1977). Where the element of premeditation is sought to be established by circumstantial evidence, the evidence relied upon by th......
  • Jones v. State
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    • February 26, 1985
    ...of review of the sufficiency of the evidence applies where a conviction is wholly based on circumstantial evidence. In McArthur v. State, [351 So.2d 972 (Fla.1977) ] (citation omitted), we reiterated this standard to be that '[w]here the only proof of guilt is circumstantial, no matter how ......
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    • February 27, 2013
    ...cannot be sustained unless the evidence is inconsistent with any reasonable hypothesis of innocence.’ ” Id. (quoting McArthur v. State, 351 So.2d 972, 976 n. 12 (Fla.1977) (emphasis added). However, where “the State presents both direct and circumstantial evidence, courts do not apply the s......
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    ...the circumstantial evidence gives rise to inferences equally consistent with the defendant's innocence or guilt. 3 In McArthur v. State, 351 So.2d 972 (Fla.1977), the court said the proofs were consistent with guilt, but that they were "equally" or "likewise consistent with Where the proof ......
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