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Lugo v. State2/20/2003
state resources was jeopardized by such foolish remarks. The evidence here was overwhelming but a prosecutor unnecessarily elected to walk a thin line.
PENALTY PHASE
State's Closing Argument
Lugo further contends that the State made several improper remarks in its penalty phase closing argument that warrant relief. Lugo objected to some of these statements, but not to others. We first address those remarks Lugo preserved for review by a contemporaneous objection.
Lugo challenges the following remarks the prosecutor made near the beginning of her closing argument:
PROSECUTOR: You've already determined that the defendant murdered Frank Griga and Krisztina Furton, now your job is to weigh the aggravating factors against the mitigating factors. I'm not here to discuss the merits or the pitfalls of the death penalty. You all agreed when you took your oath that in an appropriate case, if the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors, you could return a recommendation for death. This is done in every single case where the death penalty is imposed. It's not just new to this case. It's a big burden. It's an awesome responsibility. But these are horrible, horrible murders for which there is no other sentence.
LUGO'S DEFENSE COUNSEL: Objection, Your Honor. There is another sentence.
TRIAL JUDGE: Overruled. Deal with it in closing.
In Henyard v. State, 689 So. 2d 239, 249-50 (Fla. 1996), we stated that "a jury is neither compelled nor required to recommend death where aggravating factors outweigh mitigating factors." However, in Henyard we also determined that no reversible error occurred when the prosecutor at least three times misstated the law with regard to the jury's role in Florida's sentencing scheme. We noted there that the trial judge properly instructed jurors on their role. Lugo here asserts a single misstatement of the law by the prosecutor in her closing argument. Moreover, the trial judge in the instant case properly instructed the jurors on their role in the sentencing scheme. First, in context, there was no legal misstatement of the law. In context, the prosecutor was asserting that the horribleness of the conduct deserved the death penalty as a factual comment, not a legal analysis. Thus, the comment was not erroneous. However, even if it were interpreted as a comment on the applicable law, which we do not believe it was, the trial judge fully and correctly instructed on the subject and the single sentence does not constitute reversible error.
The next set of remarks which Lugo challenges is in the context of Lugo and Doorbal's torturing of Krisztina Furton in an attempt to extract the security codes for Frank Griga's house. Lugo wanted the codes to gain entry into the house to discover information concerning, and to obtain access to, Griga's considerable personal wealth, some of which Lugo believed was in foreign banks.
PROSECUTOR: She tries to give the numbers. And then when she gets upset again, she calls out for Frank, this defendant holds her down and directs Doorbal to shoot her up again.
Now, she's quite dead. Who cares? He's gonna go to the house, take Sabina there, go into the house. They're going to push the buttons, they're gonna get in the house and he's going to have all the money in the world.
What happens to her? She's just garbage. She's going into a packing box in another hour.
But the numbers don't work and he calls up, wake her up . Get the numbers out again. And she's dead. She's cold and dead. And now, now he's really got garbage, huh? Human bodies that he treats like garbage.
Lugo obje
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