Opinion

Brown v. State

  • 976 So. 2d 1201
  • 2008 Fla. App. LEXIS 4345
  • 2008 WL 783283
Court
District Court of Appeal of Florida
Filed
Mar 26, 2008
Status
Published
Author
Fulmer
On the bench
Davis, Fulmer, Wallace
Cited by
1 cases
Authority
More cited than 65.6%

The opinion

FULMER, Judge.

Dwauneario Brown challenges his conviction for first-degree murder, raising five issues. We affirm the conviction and sentence and comment only on his assertion that he was denied his right to the first and last closing argument.

Brown argues that the trial court erred in allowing the State to have first and last closing argument because the statute authorizing this procedure, section 918.19, Florida Statutes (2006), which became effective October 1, 2006, was unconstitutional and the new procedure was not yet adopted as a rule by the Florida Supreme Court at the time of trial (October 31 through November 2, 2006). 1

This issue has been addressed by the First and Fourth Districts in Grice v. State, 967 So.2d 957 (Fla. 1st DCA 2007), and Taylor v. State, 969 So.2d 583 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007). In those cases, the courts concluded there was no error in denying the defendants the first and last closing argument. We aligned ourselves with the First District on this issue in Sullivan v. State, 972 So.2d 918 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007). In accord with Sullivan , we reject this claim for the reasoning expressed in Grice and Taylor .

Affirmed.

DAVIS and WALLACE, JJ., Concur.

. Brown acknowledges that the Florida Supreme Court has since adopted the statute in amending Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.250 and adopting new rule 3.381. See In re Amendments to the Fla. Rules of Criminal Procedure — Final Arguments, 957 So.2d 1164 (Fla.2007).

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

A word about cookies

We need a few to keep you signed in and the library working. The rest help us see which pages people use and where they get stuck. They stay off unless you say yes.