Todd v. State

• Decision Date: 22 August 1994
• Docket Number: 92-4136,Nos. 92-4116,s. 92-4116
• Citation: 643 So.2d 625
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals
• Parties: 19 Fla. L. Weekly D1804 Jason TODD, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee, and Joseph Hugh HUTCHINSON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Page 625

643 So.2d 625

19 Fla. L. Weekly D1804

Jason TODD, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee, and Joseph Hugh HUTCHINSON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Nos. 92-4116, 92-4136.

District Court of Appeal of Florida First District.

Aug. 22, 1994.

Rehearing Denied as to 94-4116 only Oct. 11, 1994.

John G. Crabtree of Messer, Vickers, Caparello, Madsen, Lewis, Goldman & Metz, P.A., Tallahassee, for appellants.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., James W. Rogers, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen., Office of Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, Michael J. Neimand, Asst. Atty. Gen., Office of Atty. Gen., Dept. of Legal Affairs, Miami, for appellee.

Mitchell Horwich, Coral Gables, Marc D. Stern and Lois C. Waldman, American Jewish Congress, New York City, Thomas A. Horkan, Jr., Florida Catholic Conference, Tallahassee, for amici curiae.

MINER, Judge.

In these two cases, which have been consolidated for the purposes of briefing, oral argument and opinion, the appellants challenge, on constitutional grounds, section 806.13(2), Florida Statutes (1991), which makes it a felony to deface a church, synagogue, mosque or other place of worship or its religious contents. Additionally, appellant Todd, a minor at the time of sentencing, contends that the trial court, contrary to section 39.059(7), Florida Statutes (1991), failed to make written findings of fact or state in writing the reasons for its decision to impose adult sanctions against him. Finding no merit in such argument, we affirm on that point without further discussion. As to the constitutional challenges to section 806.13(2), which are issues of first impression in Florida, we conclude that the statute does not violate any constitutional command and therefore affirm.

The facts in these two cases are without dispute. Appellants were charged with three counts of criminal mischief each in violation of section 806.13(2), which makes it a third-degree felony to willfully and maliciously cause between $200 and $1,000 damage to a place of worship or its religious contents. Specifically, appellants were accused of spray painting three churches in Columbia County with anti-religious symbols and words. Appellants filed motions to dismiss, asserting state and federal equal protection and religion establishment challenges to the statute. Those motions were denied, and appellants subsequently pled no contest to the charges, reserving their rights to appeal the denial of the motions to dismiss. They were convicted and sentenced to serve 48 hours in jail followed by five years of probation and to perform 150 hours of community service for each count, with the probationary sentences to be served consecutively. This appeal followed.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

This court is obligated to honor the strong presumption in favor of the constitutionality of statutes. All doubt will be resolved in favor of the constitutionality of a statute, and an act will not be declared unconstitutional unless it is determined to be invalid beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Kinner, 398 So.2d 1360, 1363 (Fla.1981).

I. ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE

Appellants challenge section 806.13, Florida Statutes (1991), and particularly that portion of the statute which makes it a felony to deface a place of worship, ¹ asserting that it violates the Establishment Clauses of both the state and federal constitutions. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." ² Article I, Section 3, of the Florida Constitution is substantially the same. It provides: "There shall be no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting or penalizing the free exercise thereof." ³ The Establishment Clause was intended to afford protection against sponsorship, financial support, and active involvement of the sovereign in religious activities. Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602, 612, 91 S.Ct. 2105, 2111, 29 L.Ed.2d 745, 755 (1971). Three tests have been developed to determine whether a statute violates the Establishment Clause. First, the statute must have a secular legislative purpose; second, its principal or primary effect must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion; and third, the statute must not foster excessive government entanglement with religion. Id. at 612-13, 91 S.Ct. at 2111, 29 L.Ed.2d at 755.

Although not controlling, we find People v. Carter, 228 Ill.App.3d 526, 170 Ill.Dec. 55, 592 N.E.2d 491, appeal denied, 146 Ill.2d 635, 176 Ill.Dec. 807, 602 N.E.2d 461 (1992), persuasive in determining that section 806.13(2) does not violate the Establishment Clause. In Carter, the defendant raised an establishment challenge to a criminal statute that permitted the sentencing court to impose a more severe sentence upon a defendant who committed an offense in a place of worship. In determining that the statute did not violate the Establishment Clause, the court applied the tests announced in Lemon. The court found that the articulated purpose, i.e., to protect places of worship and those who use them, provided the requisite secular basis. The statute merely reflected the legislature's determination that crimes committed in such places, like crimes against the elderly, are more repugnant to the community than some other offenses. It acknowledges our country's long tradition of respect for the free exercise of religion. Id. at 497, 91 S.Ct. at 2053. In determining that the statute's primary effect did not advance religion, the court found that the statute's primary effect falls on criminals rather than their victims. While some benefit was conferred on those who attend religious services in houses of worship, the court concluded that such benefit was too indirect to violate the Establishment Clause. Id. at 498, 91 S.Ct. at 2053-54. Citing State v. Vogenthaler, 89 N.M. 150, 548 P.2d 112 (Ct.App.1976), which upheld a statute that criminalized defacing a church, the court noted that statutes which provide penalties for damaging property do not advance religion. Id. As to the question of excessive entanglement, the court found none, because the statute did not benefit religious institutions other than indirectly and it did not establish a continuing relationship between the religious institutions and government which required day-to-day surveillance or administration of religious activities. Id. After considering the Lemon tests, we agree with the result in Carter, as indicated in the following analysis.

A. Turning to the first test, secular legislative purpose, as explained in Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints v. Amos, 483 U.S. 327, 107 S.Ct. 2862, 97 L.Ed.2d 273 (1987), this does not mean that the law's purpose must be unrelated to religion--that would amount to a requirement that the government show a callous indifference to religious groups, which the Establishment Clause has never been interpreted to mean. Rather, the purpose requirement is aimed at preventing the government from abandoning neutrality and acting with the intent of promoting a particular point of view in religious matters. To warrant a finding that a statute is unconstitutional for lack of secular purpose, the challenge must demonstrate conclusively that the statute was motivated wholly by religious consideration. Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668, 680, 104 S.Ct. 1355, 1362, 79 L.Ed.2d 604, 614 (1984). The relevant inquiry is the legislative purpose of the statute and not the possible religious motives of the legislators. Board of Educ. of Westside Community v. Mergens, 496 U.S. 226, 249, 110 S.Ct. 2356, 2371, 110 L.Ed.2d 191, 215 (1991). Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578, 586-87, 107 S.Ct. 2573, 2579, 96 L.Ed.2d 510, 521 (1987) (court is normally deferential to state's articulation of a secular purpose).

In the instant case, the Staff Summary and Analysis concerning the addition of subsection 806.13(2) provides: "It is believed that legislation of this type is necessary to curtail the increasing number of criminal mischief acts committed in a place of worship and in cemeteries." Since the legislature's articulated purpose was to deter criminal mischief, it cannot be said that the statute lacks a secular purpose. See Lynch (concluding that city's inclusion of nativity scene in its Christmas display did not violate the Establishment Clause, because there were legitimate secular purposes for its inclusion, i.e., to celebrate the holiday and depict the origins of it); Lemon (where statutes for providing financial support to non-public schools and paying supplements to teachers in non-public schools were aimed at improving secular education in all schools, the legislative purpose was not to advance religion, rather the state had a legitimate concern in maintaining minimum standards in all schools); Committee for Pub. Educ. & Religious Liberty v. Nyquist, 413 U.S. 756, 93 S.Ct. 2955, 37 L.Ed.2d 948 (1973) (where legislature specified purposes for law granting financial aid to non-public schools were to preserve health and safe environment for all children, promote pluralism and diversity, and to avoid overburdening the public school system, all those were legitimate secular considerations and did not require a finding of unconstitutionality under the first test). Appellants' argument ignores this stated legislative purpose, to which we give great deference, and instead relies on their assumption of the legislative purpose.

Appellant's reliance on Texas Monthly, Inc. v. Bullock, 489 U.S. 1, 109 S.Ct. 890, 103 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989), for the notion that a statute which confers a benefit only on religious institutions or organizations cannot have a secular purpose, to prove that section 806.13 necessarily lacks a secular purpose is misplaced for two reasons. First, Bullock dealt with a tax exemption which directly benefited religious organizations as it...