Supreme Court of Florida

In convictions for first degree murder, armed robbery and forgery-related crimes, denial of postconviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851 is affirmed where: 1) regardless of whether criminal-appellant stabbed victim in the throat while he was still alive or only after victim was dead, criminal-appellant could still be convicted as a principal of either premeditated murder or first-degree felony murder; 2) even if criminal-appellant received a new trial, criminal-appellant's brother/co-conspirator recanted testimony was not of such nature that it would probably produce an acquittal of criminal-appellant or even a conviction on a lesser charge; 3) criminal-appellant's brother's testimony was not of such a nature that it would probably produce a life sentence recommendation; 4) trial counsel's performance was not deficient for the failure to present an intoxication defense; 5) criminal-appellant failed to show that his trial counsel was ineffective during the penalty phase for the failure to investigate and present a number of mitigating circumstances; 6) trial counsel was not ineffective for failing to raise a meritless challenge, and criminal-appellant was not entitled to relief on that claim; 7) the court has repeatedly held that Florida's capital sentencing scheme does not violate the United States Constitution under Ring v. Arizona; and 8) criminal-appellant's jury-instruction claim was procedurally barred in this collateral context.

Appellate Information

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

Judges

• PER CURIAM.

Court

• Supreme Court of Florida

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Neal A. Dupree, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, William M. Hennis, III, Litigation Director, CCR Counsel and Roseanne Eckert, Assistant CCR Counsel, Southern Region, Fort Lauderdale, FL, for Appellant.


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