Thompson v. State

• Decision Date: 01 April 1993
• Docket Number: No. 75499,75499
• Citation: 619 So.2d 261
• Parties: 18 Fla. L. Week. S212 William Lee THOMPSON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 261

619 So.2d 261

18 Fla. L. Week. S212

William Lee THOMPSON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 75499.

Supreme Court of Florida.

April 1, 1993.

Rehearing Denied June 10, 1993.

Geoffrey C. Fleck of Friend, Fleck & Gettis, South Miami, for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and Giselle D. Lylen, Asst. Atty. Gen., Miami, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

William Lee Thompson appeals the imposition of the death penalty in a second sentencing hearing, after this Court remanded Thompson's case for resentencing. We have jurisdiction ¹ and affirm the imposition of the death penalty.

The procedural history of this cause reflects that on April 14, 1976, Thompson and Rocco Surace were charged by indictment with the first-degree murder, kidnapping, and involuntary sexual battery of Sally Ivester. Thompson entered a plea of guilty in the trial court but, on appeal, this Court allowed him to withdraw his plea and remanded the case for further proceedings. Thompson v. State, 351 So.2d 701 (Fla.1977). Thompson entered a second plea of guilty and a penalty phase jury recommended the death penalty. The trial judge imposed the death penalty and this Court affirmed the trial judge's order in Thompson v. State, 389 So.2d 197 (Fla.1980). Thompson then filed a Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 motion, which this Court denied in Thompson v. State, 410 So.2d 500 (Fla.1982). After this Court denied the rule 3.850 motion, Thompson sought federal habeas corpus relief. Both the United States District Court and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals denied Thompson relief. Thompson v. Wainwright, 787 F.2d 1447 (11th Cir.1986). Thompson then filed a second rule 3.850 motion, asserting the failure of the sentencing judge to allow presentation and jury consideration of nonstatutory mitigating circumstances in the penalty phase. The trial court denied relief, but this Court reversed under the authority of Hitchcock v. Dugger, 481 U.S. 393, 107 S.Ct. 1821, 95 L.Ed.2d 347 (1987), and remanded for resentencing. Thompson v. Dugger, 515 So.2d 173 (Fla.1987), cert. denied, 485 U.S. 960, 108 S.Ct. 1224, 99 L.Ed.2d 424 (1988). This second sentencing proceeding is the subject of this appeal.

The pertinent facts, as articulated by this Court in Thompson v. State, 389 So.2d 197, 198 (Fla.1980), are as follows:

Thompson, Rocco Surace, Barbara Savage, and the victim Sally Ivester were staying in a motel room. The girls were instructed to contact their homes to obtain money. The victim received only $25 after telling the others that she thought she could get $200 or $300. Both men became furious. Surace ordered the victim into the bedroom, where he took off his chain belt and began hitting her in the face. Surace then forced her to undress, after which the appellant Thompson began to strike her with the chain. Both men continued to beat and torture the victim. They rammed a chair leg into the victim's vagina, tearing the inner wall and causing internal bleeding. They repeated the process with a night stick. The victim was tortured with lit cigarettes and lighters, and was forced to eat her sanitary napkin and lick spilt beer off the floor. This was followed by further severe beatings with the chain, club, and chair leg. The beatings were interrupted only when the victim was taken to a phone booth, where she was instructed to call her mother and request additional funds. After the call, the men resumed battering the victim in the motel room. The victim died as a result of internal bleeding and multiple injuries. The murder had been witnessed by Barbara Savage, who apparently feared equivalent treatment had she tried to leave the motel room.

In the second penalty phase proceeding, the State introduced into evidence the prior testimony of the eyewitness, Barbara Savage, whom the State was unable to locate to testify in person. The trial court found that the State had made a diligent effort to locate this witness prior to the resentencing proceeding. Next, the State introduced Thompson's prior testimony at the trial of his codefendant, Rocco Surace, in which Thompson admitted hitting the victim with a chain belt and battering her with a chair leg and a billy club. In this testimony, Thompson denied Surace's participation and confessed to the repeated beating of the victim.

Thompson presented numerous witnesses who testified in mitigation of his conviction, including a former church pastor, a church elder, a church member, an elementary school principal, and several family members. Thompson's former church pastor described Thompson as a slow learner and a follower who did not exhibit any violent or aggressive behavior. A church elder described Thompson as someone needing to be led, while the elder's wife described him as very faithful. Testifying from school records, an elementary school principal stated that Thompson had an IQ of seventy-five, had been recommended for special educational placement, and had been a follower, not a leader. Family members testified regarding the filthy home and affectionless environment in which Thompson had been raised. Thompson's ex-wife and mother of his two children described Thompson as a loving and gentle husband who was never physically violent or abusive. She also described Thompson as mentally slow and a follower and that their marriage failed partly because of his alcoholism.

In an affidavit introduced by Thompson, Barbara Savage characterized the codefendant, Rocco Surace, as the gang-leader who knew how to manipulate people. She described Thompson as a gullible and easygoing person, who was easily manipulated. However, Savage's characterization of Thompson as a person dominated by Surace was contradicted by her testimony at the original trial.

A psychologist who examined Thompson stated that Thompson was a battered child and characterized him as an extremely depressed person. The psychologist stated that Thompson's IQ was at the lowest possible level of low-average intelligence. The psychologist also found Thompson to be brain-damaged and that his touch with reality was so loose and fragile that she could not tell whether Thompson was aware of what he was doing during the assault.

A psychiatrist testified that he found Thompson to be retarded and easily led and threatened by Surace. He believed Thompson to have been brain-damaged since childhood, possibly since birth. He diagnosed Thompson as having organic brain disease and suffering from personality and stress disorders. A neurologist also testified that Thompson suffered from organic brain disease.

In rebuttal, the State called the codefendant, Rocco Surace. Surace blamed Thompson for the attack on the victim, while acknowledging that he had entered guilty pleas to the same offense. A psychiatrist presented by the State testified that he had evaluated Thompson after the incident in 1976. He found that Thompson could process information and that his memory was intact. The psychologist concluded that Thompson suffered from an inadequate personality disorder and a long-standing pattern of antisocial and impulsive behavior.

The State called another psychiatrist as an expert witness, who had seen Thompson in 1976, and, while he stated that "there was tremendous anger, rage, aggression, and diminished control with the involvement of alcohol and a number of drugs that were used," he did not feel that Thompson's conduct resulted from a mental disorder. He stated his belief that Thompson had the capacity to know what was right and what was wrong. A psychiatrist presented by the prosecution stated that he had examined Thompson in November of 1988 and had found no indication of organic brain disease or any serious deficiencies in Thompson's ability to reason, understand, or know right from wrong. He also stated that he did not believe that Thompson acted under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance or that Thompson's capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct was substantially impaired. Furthermore, the psychiatrist stated that he did not believe Thompson acted under the substantial domination of another. Another psychologist presented by the State testified that Thompson had adequate communication skills and good general memory. He did not find Thompson to be overly susceptible to suggestion and found no evidence of major mental illness.

The jury, by a vote of seven to five, recommended the imposition of the death penalty. The trial judge imposed the death sentence, finding four aggravating circumstances, specifically that: (1) the crime was committed while Thompson was engaged in the commission of the crime of sexual battery; (2) the crime was committed for financial gain; (3) the crime was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel; and (4) the crime was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification. The trial judge expressly rejected, in detail, each of the mitigating circumstances, including that Thompson lacked the capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct. The trial judge noted in this regard that, although Thompson's IQ score was in the dull-normal range, there was evidence that Thompson functioned on a higher level. The trial judge concluded that "the aggravating factors in this case far outweigh[ed] any possible mitigating circumstances."

Thompson raises six claims in this appeal, specifically that: (1) the trial court erred in ruling that the State's chief witness, Barbara Savage, was unavailable, thus permitting her prior testimony to be read to the jury; (2) the trial court erred by failing to grant Thompson's motion to strike the jury panel and in failing to conduct an individual voir dire when it became apparent that the jury was concerned that Thompson, if sentenced to life, could be released after twelve years because he had already served thirteen years; (3) the trial court erred in permitting the State to...