State v. Knight

• Decision Date: 21 August 2003
• Docket Number: No. SC02-1106., No. SC01-1415
• Citation: 866 So.2d 1195
• Parties: STATE of Florida, Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. Thomas KNIGHT n/k/a Askari Abdullah Muhammad, Appellee/Cross-Appellant. Thomas Knight n/k/a Askari Abdullah Muhammad, Petitioner, v. James V. Crosby, Jr., etc., Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

866 So.2d 1195

STATE of Florida, Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. Thomas KNIGHT n/k/a Askari Abdullah Muhammad, Appellee/Cross-Appellant.

Thomas Knight n/k/a Askari Abdullah Muhammad, Petitioner, v. James V. Crosby, Jr., etc., Respondent.

Nos. SC01-1415, SC02-1106.

Supreme Court of Florida.

August 21, 2003.

Rehearing Denied December 19, 2003.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, and Sandra S. Jaggard, Assistant Attorney General, Miami, FL, for Appellant/Cross-Appellee, and Respondent.

Heidi E. Brewer, Registry Counsel, Tallahassee, FL, for Appellee/Cross-Appellant, and Petitioner.

PER CURIAM.

The State appeals a trial court order vacating Askari Muhammad's death sentence and granting a new sentencing proceeding pursuant to Muhammad's Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 motion. Muhammad cross-appeals the denial of his claim that he is entitled to have his conviction for first-degree murder vacated and also petitions this Court for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), (9), Fla. Const. For the reasons expressed below, we reverse the portion of the trial court's order vacating Muhammad's death sentence.

I. PROCEEDINGS TO DATE

The facts in this case are set forth in this Court's opinion on direct appeal. See Muhammad v. State, 494 So.2d 969, 970 (Fla.1986) (Muhammad I)

. Briefly stated, Muhammad, who was awaiting execution on death row,¹ fatally stabbed Department of Corrections (DOC) guard James Burke on the afternoon of October 12, 1980. Muhammad was charged with Burke's murder. Before trial, Muhammad's motion to proceed pro se was twice denied by two separate judges, who later recused themselves from the case. Muhammad's first trial ended in mistrial. When Muhammad renewed his motion to proceed pro se, a third judge allowed him to represent himself. The jury found Muhammad guilty as charged and Muhammad waived his right to a jury recommendation in the penalty phase. The trial court sentenced Muhammad to death, finding nothing in mitigation and three aggravating circumstances: the defendant was under sentence of imprisonment, he had been convicted of a prior capital felony, and the murder was heinous, atrocious or cruel. See Muhammad I, 494 So.2d at 972. On direct appeal, this Court affirmed Muhammad's judgment and sentence.²

Id. at 976. The Supreme Court denied certiorari in Muhammad v. Florida, 479 U.S. 1101, 107 S.Ct. 1332, 94 L.Ed.2d 183 (1987).

In February of 1989, Muhammad filed his 3.850 motion with eighteen claims, each of which was summarily denied by the trial court. See Muhammad v. State, 603 So.2d 488 (Fla.1992) (Muhammad II)

. On appeal of the trial court's order, Muhammad sought review of fifteen rejected claims.³

Id. This Court affirmed the trial court's summary denial of all of Muhammad's claims except one, and remanded on a limited issue regarding Muhammad's Brady⁴ claim:

[W]e agree with Muhammad that summary denial was improper as to the State's alleged failure to disclose exculpatory employee statements in violation of Brady v. Maryland, (part of claim 9). Gorham v. State, 521 So.2d 1067 (Fla. 1988). In summarily denying this claim, the trial court stated that "this is an issue that should have been raised on direct appeal." However, some claims arising under Brady are proper in a rule 3.850 motion. Demps v. State, 416 So.2d 808 (Fla.1982). In this case, Muhammad alleges that despite his repeated requests for discovery the State suppressed exculpatory statements of prison employees who witnessed the offense. He further alleges that the State insisted that it had no such statements, when in fact there were such employee statements. Muhammad contends that these statements contained exculpatory information regarding his mental state at the time of the offense, and that he was denied his right to effectively cross-examine witnesses against him based on the statements. Because the trial court believed that this point was inappropriate to a rule 3.850 proceeding, it did not address the merits of whether the alleged Brady violation would require a new trial. Accordingly, we reverse the trial court's ruling on the alleged Brady violation and remand to the trial court for an evidentiary hearing on this issue.

Muhammad II, 603 So.2d at 489-90.

After a protracted exchange of pleadings concerning public records requests, the trial court held an evidentiary hearing on the Brady claim on June 12 and 13, 2000. At the hearing, the defense introduced several exhibits relating to alleged Brady evidence. In particular, Muhammad introduced various documents that were apparently part of the Department of Corrections (DOC) investigatory file on Burke's murder. The documents included employee and inmate statements that were taken during the course of the investigation. Among these documents was a letter dated June 2, 1981, from L.E. Turner, an investigator with DOC, to the prosecutor in the case, Thomas Elwell. In the letter, Turner indicated that he had, at Elwell's request, reinterviewed and received the statements of Florida State Prison (FSP) personnel who had the closest contact with Muhammad immediately following the murder of Officer Burke. Attached to the letter were seven typed unsigned, undated, and unattributed statements. Additionally, at the evidentiary hearing, Muhammad introduced testimony from a number of witnesses, including several witnesses that testified as to the import of the June 2, 1981, letter and its attached statements.⁵

After the evidentiary hearing, the trial court entered an order dated May 8, 2001, which found that Muhammad was entitled to a new sentencing hearing, and denied all other requested relief.

II. 3.850 MOTION

A. State's Appeal

Initially, we would note that the scope of our previous remand was narrow. Specifically, we remanded for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the State failed "to disclose exculpatory employee statements in violation of Brady v. Maryland." Muhammad II,603 So.2d at 489. Accordingly, the trial court recognized that much of the evidence that Muhammad introduced at the evidentiary hearing and the arguments associated therewith were not germane to the issue at hand. In fact, given the large amount of additional information that was introduced, it was unclear from the evidentiary hearing and from the trial court's order which evidence Muhammad was alleging was Brady evidence. At oral argument, Muhammad identified the documents that his Brady claim was premised on: the June 2, 1981, letter from Turner and the statements attached to it.

The State is required to disclose to the defense evidence in its possession or control that is favorable to the accused or that tends to negate the guilt of the accused. See United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985)

; Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). The defendant must prove three elements to establish a Brady claim: "[1] The evidence at issue must be favorable to the accused, either because it is exculpatory, or because it is impeaching; [2] that evidence has been suppressed by the State, either willfully or inadvertently; and [3] prejudice must have ensued." Strickler v. Greene, 527 U.S. 263, 281-82, 119 S.Ct. 1936, 144 L.Ed.2d 286 (1999); see also Way v. State, 760 So.2d 903, 910 (Fla.2000). In assessing the prejudice element of a Brady claim, a court should determine whether the favorable evidence could "reasonably be taken to put the whole case in such a different light as to undermine confidence in the verdict." Strickler, 527 U.S. at 290,

119 S.Ct. 1936 (quoting Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 435, 115 S.Ct. 1555, 131 L.Ed.2d 490 (1995)); see also Occhicone v. State, 768 So.2d 1037, 1041 (Fla.2000). Furthermore, in reviewing whether prejudice has ensued, "[t]he question is not whether the defendant would more likely than not have received a different verdict with the evidence, but whether in its absence he received a fair trial, understood as a trial resulting in a verdict worthy of confidence." Strickler, 527 U.S. at 289-90,

119 S.Ct. 1936.

The trial court's order does not analyze Muhammad's claim according to the three elements necessary to prove a Brady claim.⁶ Moreover, it is not clear from the evidence adduced at the evidentiary hearing that the State suppressed the letter and its attached statements, either willfully or inadvertently. Bernstein, Muhammad's attorney before he elected to proceed pro se, testified that he did not recall the letter or its attached statements and that he probably would have remembered receiving such documents because he would have turned them over to mental health experts. However, Bernstein also acknowledged that he had forgotten receiving other documents that the State could prove had been turned over.⁷

Nevertheless, even if we were to assume that the State had either willfully or inadvertently suppressed the letter and its attached statements, we would still hold that Muhammad has not demonstrated that he was prejudiced and thus, his claim fails under the third prong of the Brady test. At best, the seven unattributed, unsigned, and undated statements contain limited and conflicting information regarding Muhammad's state of mind around the time of the murder.⁸ Moreover, although the descriptions of Muhammad in the statements were unsigned, they were consistent with the descriptions given by FSP personnel who were deposed by Bernstein. Thus, as the State notes, the information contained in the allegedly suppressed employee statements was cumulative to information from employee depositions. The record reflects that those depositions were turned over to Muhammad, yet he did not use them to present any mental mitigation. Under these circumstances, no likelihood that Muhammad would have used the similar and cumulative information in the June 2, 1981, letter and its attachments to argue mental mitigation has been established. In addition, there has been...