Parker v. State, 68987

• Decision Date: 08 July 1986
• Docket Number: No. 68987,68987
• Citation: 11 Fla. L. Weekly 304,491 So.2d 532
• Parties: 11 Fla. L. Weekly 304 Robert Lacy PARKER, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 532

491 So.2d 532

11 Fla. L. Weekly 304

Robert Lacy PARKER, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 68987.

Supreme Court of Florida.

July 8, 1986.

Robert J. Link, Jacksonville, for appellant.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen. and Henri C. Cawthon and Mark C. Menser, Asst. Attys. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

The appellant, Robert Lacy Parker, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, and one count of third-degree murder, and was sentenced to death. We affirmed the convictions and sentences. Parker v. State, 458 So.2d 750 (Fla.1984), cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1088, 105 S.Ct. 1855, 85 L.Ed.2d 152 (1985). Appellant's motion to vacate judgment and sentence and his application for a stay of execution before the trial court, pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, was denied by the trial court without an evidentiary hearing. Appellant seeks review of that denial. We have jurisdiction, article V, section 3(b)(1), Florida Constitution, and we affirm.

Appellant raises three claims, two of which we find to be meritless, and only one which warrants discussion.

Appellant alleges a Brady ¹ violation because the prosecutor at appellant's trial had made some cash payments, for lunch, travel expenses and loss of earnings, to several state witnesses. While we express no opinion on the propriety of these payments, see Groover v. State, 489 So.2d 15 (Fla.1986), we find appellant has shown nothing entitling him to relief.

Initially, we note that this issue has been addressed before. Counsel for appellant discovered, subsequent to appellant's trial and advisory sentencing proceeding, that three witnesses, Carl Barton, Spencer Hance and Joan Bennett, had each received $20 from the prosecutor during the course of appellant's trial. Appellant brought this issue to the trial court's attention in his motion for new trial; this motion was denied. Appellant raised this issue before this Court on direct appeal; we found the issue to be insufficient to require reversal. 458 So.2d at 752. In the hearing below upon the instant motion, the trial court stated in its order denying appellant's motion for a subpoena duces tecum for records of these payments in the control of the state's attorney's office and motion for evidentiary hearing, that the evidence sought to be subpoenaed was cumulative to that presented in appellant's motion for a new trial, and raised on direct appeal before this Court. We agree.

Even if we assume that the nondisclosure of these small payments were a Brady violation, and that evidence of the extent and amount of these payments was not available to appellant until this year as counsel for appellant alleges, we find that appellant is not entitled to relief. In United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985), the United States Supreme Court held that evidence is "material" for Brady purposes, "only if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different." Id. at 3384. Under this test, appellant's claim must fail. Appellant concedes that the testimony of Bennett and Long was crucial to the state's case. Our review of the trial record shows that appellant cross-examined Bennett about her interest in testifying, informing the jury that Bennett received a reduction in charges from first-degree murder to accessory after the fact in exchange for her testimony...