State v. Green

• Decision Date: 05 March 1981
• Docket Number: No. 57398,57398
• Parties: 7 Media L. Rep. 1025 STATE of Florida, Petitioner, v. Adelita Quejado GREEN, Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 532

395 So.2d 532

7 Media L. Rep. 1025

STATE of Florida, Petitioner, v. Adelita Quejado GREEN, Respondent.

No. 57398.

Supreme Court of Florida.

March 5, 1981.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., and James H. Greason, Asst. Atty. Gen., Miami, for petitioner.

Roy E. Black, Miami, for respondent.

Talbot D'Alemberte and Donald M. Middlebrooks, of Steel, Hector & Davis, Miami for Post-Newsweek Stations, Florida, Inc., amicus curiae.

OVERTON, Justice.

This is a petition for writ of certiorari from a decision of the Third District Court of Appeal, reported at 377 So.2d 193 (Fla.3d DCA 1979), in which it certified to this Court the following question to be of great public interest:

Whether a trial court is constitutionally required (under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article I, section 9, of the Florida Constitution) to prohibit electronic media coverage of court proceedings in a criminal case upon a demonstration that such coverage would render an otherwise competent defendant incompetent to stand trial?

We have jurisdiction. ¹ Applying the facts of the instant case to the certified question, we approve the affirmative answer of the district court and hold that a trial court's evidentiary finding that actual in-court electronic coverage would render an otherwise competent defendant incompetent to stand trial meets the requirements of the "qualitatively different" test set forth in In re Post-Newsweek Stations, Florida, Inc., 370 So.2d 764 (Fla.1979). ² This answer is also mandated by the principles expressed by the United States Supreme Court in Drope v. Missouri, 420 U.S 162, 95 S.Ct. 896, 43 L.Ed.2d 103 (1975). See Lane v. State, 388 So.2d 1022 (Fla.1980).

The district court reversed and remanded the cause for a new trial based on three trial court errors: (1) the trial court's failure to require a pretrial evidentiary hearing on respondent's motion to exclude electronic media; (2) the trial court's failure to enforce respondent's subpoena duces tecum; and (3) the trial court's exclusion of two of respondent's impeachment witnesses.

We approve the district court decision and find points two and three were properly decided, do not concern the certified question, and necessitate no further discussion.

The relevant facts concerning the first issue, which is the basis of the certified question, are as follows. Respondent, an attorney, was charged with grand larceny for allegedly misappropriating client funds. After three court-appointed psychiatrists found respondent incompetent to stand trial, the trial court postponed the proceedings. Several months later, respondent was reexamined by the same three psychiatrists and found to be competent to stand trial, although each agreed that she continued to be mentally disturbed. After an evidentiary hearing on the issue, the trial judge found that respondent was indeed competent for trial and set a trial date.

Defense counsel thereafter moved for the exclusion of electronic media from the trial, asserting as grounds the history of respondent's mental illness and, by affidavit, set forth the opinion of one of the court-appointed psychiatrists who allegedly had concluded:

(A)ppearance of the electronic media in this case would adversely affect the defendant. Her anxiety and depression will be heightened and actively interfere with her ability to defend herself and to communicate with counsel.

Defense counsel further stated:

That based upon his extensive contact with the defendant over a ten month period he has concluded that extensive media coverage of the trial will severely lessen defendant's ability to properly defend herself. Up to a month ago this defendant was unable to actively assist in the preparation of her defense: she was totally apathetic, had no interest in discussing the details of the transactions involved, and continually expressed extreme depression concerning the future.

Her condition is still very fragile; articles in newspapers, radio and television affect her greatly. The intrusion of cameras into the courtroom would paralyze her with apprehension and consequently prevent her from defending herself.

The motion also included the report of respondent's treating psychiatrist who had concluded that the presence of electronic media in the courtroom would adversely impact respondent's competency to stand trial. The trial court heard argument on the merits of the motion but refused to take any testimony on the issues presented. The motion was denied.

On appeal, the Third District Court correctly rejected respondent's contention that she had an absolute constitutional right at her option to exclude electronic media coverage of the judicial proceedings, Chandler v. Florida, --- U.S. ----, 101 S.Ct. 802, 66 L.Ed.2d 740, 99 U.S.L.W. 4141 (1981); Post-Newsweek ; but found that respondent's motion to exclude electronic media alleged probable prejudice violative of constitutional due process standards sufficient to require an evidentiary hearing on the matter. The district court expressly found from the record:

Although the trial court adjudged the defendant competent to stand trial, no determination or inquiry was ever made by the trial court as to whether such competency would exist in the event the trial were televised.... (I)t was incumbent upon the trial court to conduct a full evidentiary hearing thereon which, at a minimum, should have included testimony or reports by the court-appointed psychiatrists as to the impact which electronic media coverage of this trial would have on the defendant's competency to stand trial.

377 So.2d at 200-01. The district court concluded that the trial court committed reversible error in refusing to provide an evidentiary hearing on this issue.

The issue in the instant case sharpens the focus on the discretionary authority given the trial judge to restrict electronic coverage as it applies to criminal defendants and other trial participants generally. We established the test for the trial judge to apply in Post-Newsweek :

The presiding judge may exclude electronic media coverage of a particular participant only upon a finding that such coverage will have a substantial effect upon the particular individual which would be qualitatively different from the effect on members of the public in general and such effect will be qualitatively different from coverage by other types of media.

Id. at 779. This "qualitatively different" test gives the trial judge definitive guidelines by which he is allowed to exclude electronic media from court proceedings. We note that the trial judges' discretionary authority in this regard is analogous to the authority trial judges have traditionally applied in cases where special injury and special damages arise resulting from public disclosure of confidential informants, trade secrets, and details of child custody proceedings.

The instant test emphasizes that any general effect resulting from public notoriety of the case will not suffice to trigger electronic media exclusion. We realize that courtrooms are intimidating and that apprehension accompanies most individuals who must participate in a court proceeding. This, however, is not a product of electronic media's presence. Courtrooms were intimidating long before the advent of electronic media. Trials with considerable public interest have always resulted in courtrooms full of spectators, news reporters, and sketch artists, all of whom add to the intimidation of the courtroom atmosphere. In our view, the single addition of the camera in the courtroom in these circumstances should not increase tension significantly, given the fact that electronic media will report the proceedings whether or not its camera is actually in the courtroom.

Wider dissemination of information concerning judicial proceedings is not a reason to exclude the camera from the courtroom. Local knowledge of the proceedings will be no greater proportionately with electronic media than when this country was primarily agrarian and commonplace court attendance resulted in widespread knowledge of courtroom proceedings. As our society has become more complex and urbanized, more citizens have become dependent on the media for courtroom knowledge rather than actual observation. The camera's physical presence in the courtroom once again allows, to a limited extent, personal observation of the judicial process.

We determined in our Post-Newsweek decision that the presence of electronic media in and of itself was not prejudicial. In fact, answers to a questionnaire submitted to witnesses, jurors, and court personnel reflected that there was almost no difference in concern about the dissemination and publication of their trial participation by the print media as compared to its dissemination by the electronic media. ³ We concluded that under these circumstances, citizens should not be denied this additional means to see their government in operation absent a truly overriding interest.

In Post-Newsweek we recognized certain examples which might meet the qualitatively different test: (a) witnesses who are undercover officers or confidential informants; (b) witnesses who, because of their prior testimony, have new identities; (c) witnesses who are presently incarcerated and have real fears of reprisal upon return to prison environment; (d) rape victims; and (e) child custody...