Reino v. State

• Decision Date: 27 October 1977
• Docket Number: Nos. 50656 and 50705,s. 50656 and 50705
• Citation: 352 So.2d 853
• Parties: Renaldo REINO, Sr., Petitioner, v. The STATE of Florida and the Honorable Gerald T. Wetherington, as Judge of the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in and for Dade County, Florida, Respondent. STATE of Florida ex rel. Renaldo REINO, Jr., Petitioner, v. The Honorable Gerald T. WETHERINGTON, as Judge of the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in and for Dade County, Florida, Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 853

352 So.2d 853

Renaldo REINO, Sr., Petitioner, v. The STATE of Florida and the Honorable Gerald T. Wetherington, as Judge of the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in and for Dade County, Florida, Respondent.

STATE of Florida ex rel. Renaldo REINO, Jr., Petitioner, v. The Honorable Gerald T. WETHERINGTON, as Judge of the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in and for Dade County, Florida, Respondent.

Nos. 50656 and 50705.

Supreme Court of Florida.

Oct. 27, 1977.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 28, 1977.

Theodore L. Tripp, Jr. and Tobias Simon, Miami, and Phillip A. Hubbart, Public Defender, Miami, and Elliot H. Scherker, Asst. Public Defender, Miami, for petitioner.

Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, Richard E. Gerstein, State Atty., Miami, Paul M. Rashkind and Kurt Marmar, Asst. State Attys., Miami, for respondent.

SUNDBERG, Justice.

By indictment filed August 5, 1976, petitioners were charged with murder in the first degree. Specifically, the indictment charged that the petitioners shot a man to death on September 7, 1972. Both father and son are charged with the same crime and both have filed a suggestion for writ of prohibition contending that prosecution is barred by the statute of limitations in effect on the date of the alleged offense. ¹ We have issued a rule nisi in prohibition as to each petition. The causes have been consolidated for briefing, oral argument, and final disposition.

On November 17, 1976, a lengthy hearing was conducted on the petitioners' motions to dismiss. The petitioners argued that they should be released on the grounds that the statute of limitations had run prior to the filing of the indictment. It was their assertion that the crime was subject to a two-year period of limitations because the murder followed the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (1972), and preceded the adoption of a new death penalty statute on October 1, 1972. Predicated on his discernment of legislative intent, the trial judge rejected this contention and denied the motions to dismiss. The instant petitions seeking the issuance of writs of prohibition followed.

Jurisdiction in this Court is predicated on Article V, Section 3(b)(4), Florida Constitution, wherein writs of prohibition are authorized in causes within the jurisdiction of this Court to review. Petitioners claim this Court has jurisdiction to review both final and non-final orders in causes in which the death penalty can be imposed. Article V, Section 3(b)(1) and (3), Florida Constitution. While they assert that no death penalty is available in these cases, petitioners contend the trial court's ruling does reach to another and different major characteristic of capital crimes the non-applicability of the statute of limitations. Petitioners argue causes may be "capital" for purposes of this Court's jurisdiction even though the death penalty is unavailing. They maintain this construction is logical because the trial judge found that the instant causes retained enough vigor as a capital crime to prevent the statute of limitations from applying despite the Furman decision. If causes can be "capital" for some trial purposes but not for others, they should be "capital" for purposes of this Court's jurisdiction in the instant cases.

Although the jurisdictional point is novel and not without doubt, since the trial court has concluded that the State is not time-barred from prosecuting petitioners under a statute of limitations providing for prosecution at any time for an "offense punishable by death," we conclude jurisdiction lies in this Court pursuant to Article V, Section 3(b)(4), Florida Constitution.

The determinative question before this Court is whether "capital" crimes committed between July 24, 1972, the effective date of the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Furman v. Georgia, supra, and October 1, 1972, the period when capital crimes did not exist in the State of Florida, are subject to the two-year statute of limitations codified in Section 932.465, Florida Statutes (1973).

At the hearing on the motions to dismiss the indictments, petitioners relied heavily on this Court's decision in State ex rel. Manucy v. Wadsworth, 293 So.2d 345 (Fla.1974). The Manucy opinion was rendered in consolidated cases which were before the Court on a petition for writ of prohibition as to Manucy and petition for certification of question as to Wilbur Estell Barber and Huey Leroy Fullard. In Manucy, the petitioner was charged on September 7, 1972, with first degree murder. The offense charged was alleged to have occurred four years preceding the filing of the affidavit for the arrest warrant. The warrant for arrest was issued on September 7, 1972, and Manucy was arrested on September 9, 1972. Prosecution against Barber and Fullard was commenced by issuance of an arrest warrant on January 14, 1972, charging them with murder in the first degree for a homicide occurring August 17, 1969. A grand jury indictment was filed on January 20, 1972.

The Court recited that the common question involved in the consolidated cases arose as an incidental consequence of the Furman decision. In analyzing the Manucy case, the Court pointed out that the death penalty was abrogated in Florida for the period from July 24, 1972, to October 1, 1972 (the hiatus period) as a result of Furman and the legislature's subsequent enactment of Section 921.141, Florida Statutes (1973), effective October 1, 1972. Hence, capital crimes were abolished during the hiatus period subjecting all former capital crimes to prosecution within a two-year period. Manucy contended that statutes of limitation are procedural and, consequently, the statute in force (Section 932.465(2), Florida Statutes (1971)) at the time of his arrest was applicable to bar prosecution. The Court rejected this contention by holding that statutes of limitation in criminal prosecutions vest substantive rights. Consequently, the statute in effect at the time of the incident giving rise to the criminal charge is controlling. 293 So.2d 345 at 347.

The State urges, and the trial court concluded, that the statement in the Manucy opinion "subjecting all former capital crimes to prosecution within a two year period" (293 So.2d 345, 346) is mere dictum. The prosecution maintains that the only holding of the decision is that statutes of limitation are substantive rather than procedural. Lane v. State, 337 So.2d 976 (Fla.1976), is cited by the State as supportive of this position. The question in Lane was whether the application of a statute of limitations is a quasi-procedural matter so as to fall within subsection (3) of Section 775.011, Florida Statutes (1975). We determined that it is not and cited Manucy as authority for this proposition. However, such reference to Manucy in Lane can hardly be determinative of the issue before us in the instant cases.

As pointed out by petitioners, Manucy stands for two interrelated propositions of law; (i) the two-year statute of limitations was in effect for crimes previously denominated capital during the hiatus period; and (ii) the statute of limitations in effect at the time of the commission of the crime controls. Brief of Renaldo Reino, Jr., p. 17. Had the Court not first concluded that the two-year statute of limitations would apply during the hiatus period, it would not have been necessary to distinguish between the date of the alleged crime and the date of arrest, for Manucy's contention would have been irrelevant. In essence, the question of whether the statute of limitations is substantive or procedural is relevant only if it is necessary to determine the time at which the statute is to be applied. If there were no distinction between pre-Furman and the hiatus period insofar as the period of limitations is concerned, then it would not have been necessary to ascertain the date for application of the statute. Accordingly, we reject the notion that the first proposition of law from Manucy enunciated above is dictum.

Accepting that one of the holdings of Manucy was that the two-year statute of limitations was in effect during the hiatus period, we are confronted with the assertion by the trial judge that this Court's decision "represents a simplistic and mechanistic dictum on the subject." With all due respect to the learned trial judge, his conclusion fails to consider Manucy in light of Donaldson v. Sack, 265 So.2d 499 (Fla.1972), decided on July 17, 1972 (prior to denial of rehearing in Furman ). In anticipation that Furman would not be revised on rehearing, this Court in Donaldson undertook an analysis of the ramifications of the United States Supreme Court decision. The specific issue presented in Donaldson concerned the jurisdiction of circuit courts to try cases charging first degree murder. Article V, Section 9(2), Florida Constitution of 1968, vested jurisdiction in the criminal courts of record of this State over "all criminal cases not capital." Article V, Section 6(3), Florida Constitution of 1968, granted jurisdiction to the circuit courts with respect to "all criminal cases not cognizable by subordinate courts." The Court opined that since Furman eliminated capital cases (those in which the death penalty is a possible punishment), circuit courts, until such time as new legislation might revive "capital cases," did not have jurisdiction in those cases theretofore delineated as capital. Consequently, it was held that subsequent to Furman, jurisdiction in such cases then pending or being filed vested in the courts of record in the seventeen counties having such courts. The authorities cited in Donaldson uniformly hold that the death penalty must be a possible punishment in order for the offense to be a "capital offense." This Court in that case alluded to the "valiant attempt" on the part of the attorney general "to analyze and to analogize" the statutes...