Supreme Court of Florida

Conviction of first-degree murder and a sentence of death arising from the fatal shooting of victim during a robbery are affirmed where: 1) the trial court did not abuse its discretion because the substantial similarities between the crimes greatly outweighed the dissimilarities; 2) the trial court did not abuse its discretion by allowing the collateral crime evidence because it was probative of material issues and its probative value was not substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice.; 3) criminal-appellant's claim that the state lethal injection process is unconstitutional was without merit; 4) death sentence was proportionate to the case; 5) criminal-appellant was not entitled to a new penalty phase; 6) it was irrelevant for constitutional purposes that the sentencing jury heard evidence beyond that required to prove the fact of conviction; 7) criminal-appellant's claims that the standard penalty-phase jury instructions given in his case unconstitutionally shifted the burden of proof to him to establish mitigating circumstances and to show that those factors outweighed the aggravating circumstances were without merit; and 8) the evidence was sufficient to support the conviction under a felony murder theory.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/29/2009
• Published 01/29/2009

Judges

• PER CURIAM.

Court

• Supreme Court of Florida

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• J. Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Andrea M. Norgard, Special Assistant Public Defender, Tenth Judicial Circuit, Bartow, FL, for Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, and Katherine V. Blanco, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, FL, for Appellee.