Patton v. State, No. SC02-423
| Citation | 878 So.2d 368 |
| Decision Date | 20 May 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. SC02-423, No. SC02-2158. |
| Parties | Robert PATTON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. Robert Patton, Petitioner, v. James V. Crosby, Jr., etc., Respondent. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Todd G. Scher, Special Assistant CCRC — Southern Region, Miami, FL, and Suzanne Myers, Assistant CCRC, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel — Southern Region, Fort Lauderdale, FL, for Appellant/Petitioner.
Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, and Sandra S. Jaggard, Assistant Attorney General, Miami, FL, for Appellee/Respondent.
Robert Patton appeals an order of the trial court denying a motion for postconviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. He also petitions the Court for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), (9), Fla. Const. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm the trial court's order denying postconviction relief, and we deny habeas relief.
On September 2, 1981, a Miami police officer attempted to stop Patton for driving a car the wrong way on a one-way street. Patton abandoned the car, which had been stolen, and fled the scene on foot. He ran down an alley with the officer in pursuit. Patton hid in the alley and waited for the officer to approach before shooting him twice. One bullet penetrated the officer's heart, killing him instantly, and another entered the officer's foot in a manner which indicated that the officer had been shot after he was dead and lying prostrate.
Immediately after the shooting, Patton took a different car at gunpoint and fled the area. He was arrested later that day and charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery, grand theft, and violation of probation. Two days later, after obtaining a search warrant, the police recovered the murder weapon from beneath a heating grate in Patton's grandmother's home. See Patten v. State, 467 So.2d 975, 975-76 (Fla.1985)
.1
Patton was convicted of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and grand theft, and violation of probation for the offense of auto theft. The jury was deadlocked six-to-six on whether Patton should be sentenced to death. Instead of ordering a mistrial, the trial judge instructed the jury to continue deliberating pursuant to Allen v. United States, 164 U.S. 492, 501-02, 17 S.Ct. 154, 41 L.Ed. 528 (1896) (). A short time later, the jury recommended a sentence of death by a seven-to-five vote. The trial court accepted the recommendation of death and sentenced Patton accordingly. On appeal, this Court vacated the death sentence and remanded for a new sentencing, holding that the Allen charge was erroneously given. See Patten v. State, 467 So.2d 975 (Fla.1985)
.
Patton then petitioned the United States Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari claiming that a resentencing would put him in double jeopardy. That petition was denied. See Patten v. Florida, 474 U.S. 876, 106 S.Ct. 198, 88 L.Ed.2d 167 (1985). Patton then made the same claim to this Court in a petition for writ of prohibition. He argued that the initial jury deadlock amounted to a recommendation of life; therefore, on remand, the issue should be limited to whether there was a proper jury override. That petition was denied. See Patten v. Morphonios, 492 So.2d 1334 (Fla.1986).
Patton next filed a federal petition for writ of habeas corpus, again alleging that a new sentencing proceeding would violate his double jeopardy rights. In accordance with the magistrate's report and recommendation, the petition was denied. See Patton v. Dugger, 678 F.Supp. 1567 (S.D.Fla.1988)
.
After the second sentencing proceeding, by a vote of eleven to one, the jury again recommended death. See Patten v. State, 598 So.2d 60 (Fla.1992)
. The trial judge found two aggravating factors: that Patton was previously convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of violence, and that the crime was committed to disrupt or hinder lawful arrest and the probation officer's function since Patton was on probation at the time of this offense. See id. at 61. The trial judge found that no mitigating circumstances existed. See id. Again, Patton was sentenced to death. See id. This Court affirmed that sentence. See id. at 63.
Patton then filed a motion for postconviction relief. The trial court summarily denied the motion in its entirety. On appeal, this Court remanded the case for an evidentiary hearing "on the claims relating to whether counsel was ineffective for failing to raise voluntary intoxication or insanity as a defense to first-degree murder" and whether counsel was ineffective for failing to question the jury about mental illness during voir dire. Patton, 784 So.2d at 395. On all the other claims, this Court affirmed the trial court's summary denial of relief. See id. at 396. The trial court held an evidentiary hearing as directed, and denied relief. This appeal follows.
Patton raises two issues on appeal. First, he argues that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel for three reasons: that his trial counsel failed to utilize evidence of voluntary intoxication at the time of the offense; that the defense of insanity should have been advanced; and that trial counsel failed to conduct adequate voir dire. Second, Patton argues that the trial court erroneously denied his discovery request to interview jurors after the verdict. He wanted to interview them in order to establish that trial counsel's failure to voir dire the jurors about drug abuse and mental illness was prejudicial. We affirm the denial of relief on both claims.
Claims of ineffective assistance of counsel are mixed questions of fact and law subject to de novo review. See Porter v. State, 788 So.2d 917, 923 (Fla.2001)
.
The trial court's legal conclusions are subject to independent review by this Court, but the factual findings must be given deference. See id.; see also Stephens v. State, 748 So.2d 1028, 1034 (Fla.1999). In recognizing the trial court's superior vantage point at the evidentiary hearing, this Court will not substitute its judgment for the trial court's judgment on questions of fact, credibility of the witnesses, and weight of the evidence. See Porter, 788 So.2d at 923. The factual findings must demonstrate both that counsel was deficient in performance and that the defendant was prejudiced. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984).
Patton first argues that the voluntary intoxication defense was not pursued as vigorously as it should have been and that there was sufficient evidence to support and succeed on this defense. Patton's trial counsel presented voluntary intoxication as a defense in a limited and narrow manner. As the trial court found, Patton had a history of drug abuse. However, counsel wanted to disassociate Patton from that pervasive drug culture in Miami at the time. Patton's trial counsel testified that she wanted to portray Patton as a clean-cut, middle-class young man who had a drug problem. This strategy was consistent with counsel's theory that Patton acted out of panic and fear when he killed the officer and he did not have a specific intent to kill. Certain witnesses testified as to Patton's drug use, and counsel relied on the limited evidence of intoxication elicited from the State's witnesses, all of which was enough to support a jury instruction on voluntary intoxication. Cf. Gardner v. State, 480 So.2d 91, 92-93 (Fla.1985)
(). We accept the trial court's findings of fact as supported by competent, substantial evidence in the record.
Patton disagrees with trial counsel's strategy to downplay the intoxication defense. However, "[c]laims expressing mere disagreement with trial counsel's strategy are insufficient." Stewart v. State, 801 So.2d 59, 65 (Fla.2001). Occhicone v. State, 768 So.2d 1037, 1048 (Fla.2000) (citations omitted).
Trial counsel thoroughly considered her options, weighed the pros and cons of aggressively advancing the intoxication defense, and chose to utilize voluntary intoxication to a limited extent in an effort to disassociate Patton from the culture of drugs and violence that plagued Miami at the time. Her strategy, though criticized by Patton in hindsight, was reasonable at the time and under the circumstances. The trial court determined that counsel's decision to use voluntary intoxication in a limited manner did not fall below reasonable norms of professional conduct. This determination is thoroughly supported by the factual findings.
Patton next argues that trial counsel had ample evidence to present and succeed on an insanity defense, and was ineffective for not doing so. We considered the substance of this argument in our opinion on direct appeal. See Patten v. State, 467 So.2d 975, 978-79 (Fla.1985)
. In assessing Patton's claim that the State bore the burden of affirmatively showing that Patton was sane at the time of trial, we stated:
After all four court-appointed experts found appellant competent to stand trial and competent at the time of the offense under the state's modified M'Naghten test, counsel did not attempt to affirmatively assert the defense of insanity under that test. In our view, this was not an inadvertent omission by counsel. Facing the obvious improbability of a successful insanity...
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