Supreme Court of Florida

Defendant's request for postconviction relief is granted and the death sentences vacated and remanded where the newly disclosed evidence shows the following: 1) after defendant was arrested and counsel was appointed, the State intentionally created a situation likely to induce defendant to make incriminating statements to a jailhouse informant in violation of defendant's Sixth Amendment right to counsel; 2) although the prosecutor at defendant's first trial knew that his statements were impermissibly elicited and that his testimony was inadmissible, the prosecutor knowingly used false testimony and misleading argument to convince the court to admit the testimony; and 3) because defendant's testimony was admitted and later used by a different prosecutor at defendant's 1988 trial, and because the State has failed to show that this error did not contribute to the jury's advisory sentences of death, the death sentences are vacated and remanded under Giglio v. US.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/14/2010
• Published 01/14/2010

Judges

• PERRY, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of Florida

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Martin J. McClain of McClain and McDermott, Wilton Manors, FL, and Terri L. Backhus of Backhus and Izakowitz, P.A., Tampa, FL, for Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, Candance M. Sabella, Bureau Chief, and Katherine V. Blanco, Assistant Attorneys General, Tampa, FL, for Appellee.