Supreme Court of Florida

Death row inmate's conviction and sentence are reversed and remanded where the trial court erred by: 1) allowing the State's peremptory strike of an Hispanic juror for race-neutral reasons that were clearly pretextual; and 2) denying Appellant's objections to the prosecutor's unnecessary appeal to the sympathies of the jurors during the State's penalty phase closing argument.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/30/2008
• Published 12/30/2008

Judges

• PER CURIAM.

Court

• Supreme Court of Florida

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Robert R. Berry and Gregory W. Eisenmenger of Eisenmenger, Berry and Peters, P.A., Viera, Florida, for Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, and Charmaine M. Millsaps and Barbara C. Davis, Assistant Attorneys General, Daytona Beach, Florida, for Appellee.