Supreme Court of Florida

In a capital murder case, circuit court's denial of defendant's post-conviction relief on grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel is affirmed where: 1) defendant's claim that trial counsel provided ineffective assistance during the guilt phase is without merit and insufficiently pleaded as he failed to assert that he would not have pleaded guilty but for counsel's advice about Ring v. Arizona; 2) defendant's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel during the penalty-phase is also without merit as he did not establish that he was induced to waive his penalty-phase jury by trial counsel's advice about Ring; 3) counsel's strategic decision was reasonable and did not amount to deficiency regarding mental health expert; and 4) defendant has failed to demonstrate that counsel should have known that his uncles was available as a penalty-phase witness or that the defendant was prejudiced.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/04/2009
• Published 09/04/2009

Judges

• PER CURIAM.

Court

• Supreme Court of Florida

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Bill Jennings, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, Richard E. Kiley, James Viggiano, Jr., and Ali A. Shakoor, Staff Attorneys, CCRC Middle Region, Tampa, FL, for Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, Carol M. Dittmar and Katherine M. Diamandis, Assistant Attorneys General, Tampa, FL, for Appellee.