Tillman v. State

Summary

The Supreme Court of Florida affirmed Gary Tillman's first-degree murder conviction but vacated his death sentence and remanded for a new sentencing proceeding. The court held that the State breached the plea agreement by presenting aggravating evidence beyond the agreed terms, requiring resentencing before a new judge and jury. It also held that the trial court failed to properly evaluate Tillman's objection that the State used peremptory challenges based on race.

Holdings

1. A breach of a plea agreement by the State, however slight and regardless of whether the sentencing judge was influenced by the breach or whether the breach was intentional, requires reversal of the affected sentencing proceeding.
2. Because Tillman did not move to withdraw his guilty plea before appeal, the court would not permit withdrawal of the plea; the proper remedy was a new sentencing proceeding conducted according to the plea agreement.
3. When a timely objection establishes that peremptory strikes were used against members of a distinct racial group and there is a strong likelihood that the strikes were based solely on race, the burden shifts to the striking party to provide race-neutral reasons; the trial judge must evaluate the credibility of the proffered reasons and determine whether they are supported by the record.
4. The State's acceptance of one Black juror does not defeat a claim that another juror was improperly excluded because of race.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the State's introduction of aggravating evidence beyond the scope of the plea agreement required relief despite the trial judge's statement that the evidence did not influence the sentence.
2. Whether the trial court followed the required procedure for evaluating Tillman's objection that the State exercised peremptory strikes against prospective jurors because of race.
3. Whether Tillman could withdraw his guilty plea for the breach of the plea agreement when he had objected to the evidence at trial but had not moved to withdraw the plea before appeal.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded