01-3062 MORRISON V. STATE

State: Florida

Court: Florida Southern District Court

Docket No: 3d01-3062

Case Date: 10/08/2003

Plaintiff: 01-3062 MORRISON

Defendant: STATE

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IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF FLORIDA THIRD DISTRICT

DEMETRIUS L. MORRISON, Appellant, vs. THE STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee.

JULY TERM, A.D. 2003 ** ** ** ** ** ** CASE NO. 3D01-3062 LOWER TRIBUNAL CASE NO. 97-31434

Opinion filed October 8, 2003. An appeal from the Circuit Court of Miami-Dade County, David C. Miller, Judge. Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender, and Bruce A. Rosenthal, Assistant Public Defender, for appellant. Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, and John D. Barker, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee. Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and LEVY and FLETCHER, JJ. FLETCHER, Judge. Demetrius L. Morrison appeals from the trial court's judgment and sentence for manslaughter. trial. Morrison, a juvenile at the time, was charged with the first degree murder of Laurent Valme, but was found incompetent to stand We reverse and remand for a new

trial

based

on

his

history

of

mental

illness.

Morrison

was

eventually deemed competent and went to trial.

At trial, the state

introduced Morrison's voluntary confession to the police, but over defense's proper objection, the trial court permitted the state to selectively redact those portions of Morrison's statement referring to his mental illness and of being on medication for mental illness at the time he committed the crime. Although urged to do so, we

cannot find this to be harmless error,1 because the content and context of the entire statement is directly related to Morrison's state of mind at the time of the offense, given his history of difficult interactions with the victim. Redacting those portions

of Morrison's statement which went to his defense of self-defense precluded the jury from considering all of the relevant evidence necessary to establishing the element of intent required by the

charged crime as well as the crime of which Morrison was eventually found guilty. See Long v. State, 610 So. 2d 1276 (Fla. 1992); Chao

v. State, 661 So. 2d 1246 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1995)(a party, in the interest of fairness, has the option to introduce all or part of a recorded statement if the opposing party "opens the door" by referring to portions of it during its case);

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