Supreme Court of Florida

An order granting in part and denying in part petitioner's motion to vacate his first-degree murder conviction and sentence of death, and a petition for habeas relief, are affirmed and denied, respectively, over claims of error regarding: 1) whether the convictions were constitutionally unreliable as established by newly discovered evidence; 2) a denial of due process under Brady by the state's suppression of evidence; 3) ineffective assistance of counsel; 4) error in a denial of relief with regard to dog tracking evidence; 5) rules prohibiting defendant's lawyers from interviewing jurors were unconstitutional; 6) summary denial of claims regarding juror misconduct and counsel's failure to challenge cross-race identification; 7) the proportionality of the death penalty; 8) whether execution by lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment; 9) whether his Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment will be violated as he may be incompetent at the time of execution. On cross-appeal by the state, the judgment ordering a new penalty phase is affirmed as the trial court properly determined that counsel was prejudicially ineffective in failing to investigate the case file in defendant's prior New York case.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/11/2007
• Published 10/11/2007

Judges

• PER CURIAM.

Court

• Supreme Court of Florida

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• John W. Jennings, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, and Mark S. Gruber, Assistant CCR Counsel, Middle Region, Tampa, FL, for Appellant/Cross-Appellant/Petitioner.


• For Appellees:
  
• Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, and Barbara C. Davis, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, FL, for Appellee/Cross-Appellee/Respondent.