Supreme Court of Florida

Trial court's imposition of the death sentence on defendant following resentencing is affirmed where: 1) although the trial court erred in holding that a juror's refusal to consider remorse a mitigator could only be a basis for a peremptory challenge, the claim is not preserved for appeal because defense counsel failed to question any of the prospective jurors about their consideration of remorse as mitigation for the remainder of voir dire after the trial court ruled on the issue; 2) trial court failed to expressly evaluate the remorse in its sentencing order, but was harmless error; 3) trial court erred in overruling defense counsel's objection to the prosecutor's statements, but it was harmless error; 4) trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the defense's motion to dismiss the venire' 5) defendant was not eligible to receive the sentencing option of a life sentence without the possibility of parole; 6) trial court's decision rejecting defendant's difficult childhood as a mitigating circumstance is affirmed; 7) trial court did not err in finding the pecuniary gain aggravator; 8) trial court did not err in finding the murder to have been committed in an especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel manner; 9) trial court did not err in finding that the murder was committed in the course of a sexual batter aggravator applied; and 10) defendant's sentence is proportional in relation to other death sentences that the court has upheld.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/19/2009
• Published 11/19/2009

Judges

• PER CURIAM.

Court

• Supreme Court of Florida

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Nancy A. Daniels, Public Defender, and David A. Davis, Assistant Public Defender, Second Judicial Circuit, Tallahassee, FL, for Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Bill McCollum, Attorney General, and Meredith Charbula, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, for Appellee.