Supreme Court of Florida

Denial of defendant's motion to vacate his sentence of death and a petition for habeas relief are affirmed and denied, respectively, over claims of error regarding: 1) ineffective assistance of trial and appellate counsel; 2) whether counsel was operating under a conflict of interest; 3) whether the trial court erred by instructing the jury regarding aggravating factors that did not apply; 4) cumulative error; 5) the constitutionality of the murder "in the course of a felony" aggravator, and a related ineffective-assistance claim; 7) the aggravating circumstance of "the victim of the capital felony was a person less than 12 years of age"; 8) trial court's failure to conduct an inquiry under Nelson; and 9) whether defendant's execution would constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/15/2007
• Published 11/15/2007

Judges

• PER CURIAM.

Court

• Supreme Court of Florida

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• D. Todd Doss, Lake City, FL, for Appellant/Petitioner.


• For Appellees:
  
• Bill McCollum, Attorney General, and Meredith Charbula, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, for Appellee/Respondent.