State ex rel. Johnson v. Mayo
| Decision Date | 05 January 1954 |
| Citation | 69 So.2d 307 |
| Parties | STATE ex rel. JOHNSON v. MAYO. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Ernest D. Jackson, Jacksonville, Francisco A. Rodriguez, Tampa, and Releford McGriff, Jacksonville, for petitioner.
Richard W. Ervin, Atty. Gen., and Bart Cohen, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
This is a proceeding wherein the petitioner has applied to this Court for the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus upon the ground that the death sentence heretofore imposed upon him for the commission of a murder in the first degree 'is excessive and discriminatory and deprives him of the equal protection of the law as required by section 1, Declaration of Rights, Constitution of the State of Florida [F.S.A.], and by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, in that the death penalty for the crime for which he has been convicted is meted out to those of his age group to those only of his racial identity.' Attached to the petition is a copy of certain statistics purportedly prepared by the Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics showing that during the 12-year period extending from 1940 through 1952 there were 7 deaths from legal executions of non-white persons in the 15 to 19 year age group, while during the same period there no deaths from legal executions of white persons in the same age group.
The contention is that from these statistics it is established that over a period of years trial juries in Florida have adopted a consistent and undeviating policy of returning death-penalty verdicts in all capital cases where Negro defendants are involved and of returning lesser verdicts in such cases where white defendants are involved. Some assertion is made that because of this practice the state statute which empowers trial juries in capital cases to return guilty verdicts either with or without a recommendation to mercy, the latter recommendation having the effect of reducing the penalty from death to life imprisonment, is thereby rendered unconstitutional and void under the equal protection clause of the Federal and State Constitutions.
Assuming, for the moment, that the contention has any possible validity, it must be plain to everyone that the statistics cited by the petitioner to sustain it are of such an inconclusive nature as to be wholly worthless for the purpose. They do not reveal, for example, the total number of capital crimes committed during the 12-year period by persons in the age group involved. They do not reveal the precise nature of the crimes committed, or whether any of them were perpetrated by white persons. See sections 779.07, 782.04, 790.16, 794.01, and 805.02, Florida Statutes 1951, F.S.A., for capital crimes involving the death sentence. They do not reveal whether the criminal acts committed were acts of murder, or rape, or both--a matter that would naturally have great bearing upon the question of whether or not mercy should be recommended in any particular case. Without some showing of these things the mere fact that 7 Negro defendants in the 15 to 19 year age-group were legally executed during the 12-year period, while no white persons within this age-group were executed, does not prove, or tend to prove, any acts of discrimination as between the races.
But aside from this aspect of the petition, there is still another reason why the writ of habeas corpus should not be granted. It is elementary that a writ of habeas corpus cannot be used as a substitute for appeal, motion to quash or a motion in arrest of judgment. State ex rel. Linick v. Coleman, 144 Fla. 458, 198 So. 100; Skipper v. Schumacher, 124 Fla. 384, 169 So. 58, certiorari denied 299 U.S. 507, 57 S.Ct. 39, 81 L.Ed. 376; Collingsworth v. Mayo, Fla., 37 So.2d 696; Harlan v. McGourin, 218 U.S. 442, 31 S.Ct. 44, 54 L.Ed. 1101, 21 Ann.Cas. 849. In the instant case the petitioner was represented throughout the course of his trial by competent counsel who presented a vigorous defense to the criminal charge lodged against him. The same attorneys represented him on the appeal. The judgment and sentence of the court below were affirmed by this Court on October 24, 1952, after extensive briefs had...
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Durley v. Mayo
...he could have raised in any such prior proceedings. Washington v. Mayo, 77 So.2d 620; Irvin v. Chapman, 75 So.2d 591; State ex rel. Johnson v. Mayo, 69 So.2d 307.4 In arguing before us that the issues now raised were or were not raised in prior proceedings, the parties have relied somewhat ......
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Barber v. Gladden
...raised in any such prior proceedings. Washington v. Mayo, Fla., 77 So.2d 620; Irvin v. Chapman, Fla., 75 So.2d 591; State ex rel. Johnson v. Mayo, Fla., 69 So.2d 307. * * We interpret our own statute, ORS 34.710, to mean that a denial of the writ of habeas corpus is res judicata on a subseq......
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State ex rel. Copeland v. Mayo
...and determined or that he had a fair and adequate opportunity to raise and have determined in previous proceedings. State ex rel. Johnson v. Mayo, Fla., 69 So.2d 307, certiorari denied 347 U.S. 992, 74 S.Ct. 855, 98 L.Ed. 1125; Irvin v. State, Fla., 66 So.2d 288, certiorari denied 346 U.S. ......
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State ex rel. Saunders v. Boyer, 5135
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...of the discrimination present in the imposition of death sentences between black and white defendants); State ex rel. Johnson v. Mayo, 69 So. 2d 307, 308 (Fla. 1954) (ruling that statistics showing a disparity in imposing the death sentence between black and white defendants did not prove a......