Spaziano v. Florida, 468 U.S. 447 (1984)

Spaziano v. Florida

No. 83-5596

Argued April 17, 1984
Decided July 2, 1984
468 U.S. 447

CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF FLORIDA

Syllabus

At petitioner’s trial for first-degree murder, the Florida trial court informed him that it would instruct the jury on lesser included, noncapital offenses if he would waive the statute of limitations, which had expired as to those offenses. Petitioner refused to waive the statute, and the jury was instructed solely on capital murder. After the jury returned a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder, a sentencing hearing was conducted before the same jury, a majority of which recommended life imprisonment. Under Florida law, the jury’s sentencing recommendation in a capital case is only advisory, and the trial court must conduct its own weighing of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances to determine the proper sentence. If a death sentence is imposed, specified written findings are required. In this case, the trial court imposed the death sentence and entered its findings in support thereof. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the conviction, rejecting petitioner’s contention that Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625 -- which held that a statute prohibiting lesser included offense instructions in capital cases was unconstitutional -- required reversal because of the trial court’s failure to instruct the jury on lesser included offenses absent a waiver of the statute of limitations on those offenses. However, the Florida Supreme Court reversed the death sentence because of the trial judge’s consideration of a confidential portion of the presentence investigation report, neither party having received a copy of the confidential portion. On remand, the trial court again imposed the death penalty after a hearing to allow petitioner to present evidence in response to a new presentence investigation report. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed, holding, inter alia, that there was no constitutional infirmity in the Florida procedure whereby the judge is allowed to override the jury’s recommendation of life imprisonment.

Held:

1. On the facts, it was not error for the trial judge to refuse to instruct the jury on lesser included offenses. Beck v. Alabama, supra, recognized the risk of an unwarranted conviction that is created when the jury is deprived of the "third option" of convicting the defendant of a lesser included offense. Petitioner’s general premise that a criminal defendant may not be required to waive a substantive right -- here the right to a statute of limitations -- as a condition for receiving an otherwise constitutionally fair trial does not apply to petitioner’s situation. In Beck, the element found to be essential to a fair trial was not simply a lesser included offense instruction in the abstract, but the enhanced rationality and reliability the existence of the instruction introduced into the jury’s deliberations. Where no lesser included offense exists, a lesser included offense instruction detracts from, rather than enhances, the rationality of the process. The defendant has the option of waiving the expired statute of limitations on lesser included offenses in order to have the jury instructed on those offenses, or of asserting the statute of limitations. Pp. 454-457.

2. There is no constitutional requirement that a jury’s recommendation of life imprisonment in a capital case be final, so as to preclude the trial judge from overriding the jury’s recommendation and imposing the death sentence. The fundamental issue in a capital sentencing proceeding is the determination of the appropriate punishment to be imposed on an individual, and the Sixth Amendment does not guarantee a right to a jury determination of that issue. Nothing in the safeguards against arbitrary and discriminatory application of the death penalty necessitated by the qualitative difference of the penalty requires that the sentence be imposed by a jury. And the purposes of the death penalty are not frustrated by, or inconsistent with, a scheme in which imposition of the penalty is determined by a judge. The fact that the majority of jurisdictions with capital sentencing statutes give the life-or-death decision to the jury does not establish that contemporary standards of fairness and decency are offended by the jury override. The Eighth Amendment is not violated every time a State reaches a conclusion different from a majority of its sisters over how best to administer its criminal laws. Pp. 457-465.

3. The determination that there is no constitutional imperative that a jury have the responsibility of deciding whether the death penalty should be imposed also disposes of petitioner’s double jeopardy challenge to the jury-override procedure. If the judge is vested with sole responsibility for imposing the penalty, the jury’s advice does not become a judgment simply because it comes from the jury. P. 465.

4. Application of the Florida standards allowing a trial court to override a jury’s recommendation of a life sentence does not violate the constitutional requirement of reliability in capital sentencing. There is no indication that the application of the jury-override procedure has resulted in arbitrary or discriminatory application of the death penalty, either in general or in this particular case. The trial judge here based his decision on the presence of two statutory aggravating circumstances and the absence of any mitigating circumstances. The Florida Supreme Court reviewed petitioner’s sentence and concluded that the death penalty was properly imposed under state law. Whether or not "reasonable people" could differ over the result, there is nothing irrational or arbitrary about the imposition of petitioner’s death penalty. Pp. 465-467.

433 So.2d 508, affirmed.

BLACKMUN, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BURGER, C.J., and POWELL and O’CONNOR, JJ., joined; in all but a portion of page 456 in Part II of which WHITE and REHNQUIST, JJ., joined; and in Part II of which BRENNAN, MARSHALL, and STEVENS, JJ., joined. WHITE, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, in which REHNQUIST, J., joined, post, p. 467. STEVENS, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which BRENNAN and MARSHALL, JJ., joined, post, p. 467.