Supreme Court of Florida

Convictions and death sentences for two counts of first degree murder are affirmed over claims of error that: 1)the trial court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that the juror's expression of confusion arising from other jurors' misstatements of the law was inherent in the verdicts and, therefore, not a permissible method of impeaching those verdicts; 2) the trial court did not err in allowing the jury to proceed to the penalty phase after the juror expressed that the guilty verdicts were not hers because there was no basis for allowing the juror to recede from her verdict; 3) the trial court also did not err in denying appellant's motion for a jury interview because the juror's concerns arose from matters which inhered in the verdict itself and thus could not be the subject of a jury interview; 4) the trial court did not err in its handling of the issues arising from the juror's alleged recantation of her guilty verdicts; 5) defendant was not entitled a new trial because the trial court never ruled on admissibility of defendant's "reverse Williams rule" motion; 6) prosecutorial comments during guilt and penalty phase closing arguments were brief and did ont constitute fundamental error; 7) there was sufficient evidence to support appellant's convictions; and 8) based on the specific facts and circumstances of the murders and the aggravators and mitigators found by the trial court in this case, the death sentences were proportionate.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/12/2009
• Published 02/12/2009

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Court

• Supreme Court of Florida

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