Case Name: Richard Earl SHERE, Jr., Petitioner, v. Michael W. MOORE, etc., Respondent
Court: Florida Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2002-09-12
Citations: 830 So. 2d 56
Docket Number: No. SC00-1960
Parties: Richard Earl SHERE, Jr., Petitioner, v. Michael W. MOORE, etc., Respondent.
Judges: SHAW, WELLS, LEWIS, and QUINCE, JJ., and HARDING, Senior ' Justice, concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 830
Pages: 56–72

Head Matter:
Richard Earl SHERE, Jr., Petitioner, v. Michael W. MOORE, etc., Respondent.
No. SC00-1960.
Supreme Court of Florida.
Sept. 12, 2002.
Rehearing Denied Oct. 28, 2002.
Bill Jennings, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel-Middle, Robert T. Strain, Assistant CCRC, April E. Haughey, Assistant CCRC, and Elizabeth A. Williams, Staff Attorney, Tampa, FL, for Petitioner.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Kenneth S. Nunnelley, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, FL, for Respondent.

Opinion:
PER CURIAM.
Richard Earl Shere petitions this Court for writ of habeas corpus. We have juris-
diction. See art. V, § 3(b)(9), Fla. Const. For the reasons stated below, we deny his petition for habeas relief.
PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Shere and Bruce Demo were charged with the murder of Drew Snyder, and in April 1989, Shere was convicted of first-degree murder. The jury recommended a sentence of death by.a vote of seven to five. Upon submission of memoranda by the parties and a Spencer hearing, the trial court sentenced Shere to death. In the meantime, and before Shere was sentenced, Demo was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Shere's counsel unsuccessfully urged the trial court to consider Demo's life sentence as a reason to sentence Shere to life. Shere's conviction and death sentence were affirmed on direct appeal without reference to Demo's sentence. See Shere v. State, 579 So.2d 86 (Fla.1991). This Court did not discuss the proportionality of Shere's sentence in its opinion. However, of the three aggravators found by the trial court, this Court struck the heinous, atrocious, and cruel (HAC) aggra-vator, and sustained the cold, calculated, and premeditated aggravator (CCP) and the aggravator concerning hindrance of law enforcement. See id. at 95-96.
In 1993 and 1997, pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, Shere filed a number of claims for postconviction relief. Subsequent to an evidentiary hearing on one of the claims, the trial court denied Shere's claims. In 1999, the trial court's denial of relief was affirmed by this Court. See Shere v. State, 742 So.2d 215 (Fla.1999), Shere now files this petition for habeas corpus relief, alleging several claims of ineffectiveness of appellate counsel in his initial appeal.
BACKGROUND
As described by this Court on direct appeal, the circumstances of this crime were established at trial:
The victim, Drew Snyder, was reported missing in December 1987, and the ensuing investigation led to Shere, whom police contacted three weeks after Snyder's disappearance. Shere waived his Miranda rights, made a series of statements, and led detectives to various scenes involved in the murder.
According to those statements, Shere said Bruce "Brewster" Demo told him on December 24 that Snyder was going to inform the police about Demo's and Snyder's theft of some air conditioners. Demo also advised Shere that Snyder was a "big mouth" who "had ratted out" on Shere as well Shortly after midnight on the morning of December 25, Shere received a telephone call from Demo advising him that Demo was thinking about killing Snyder, and Demo threatened to kill Shere if he did not help. Shere then went to Demo's house where Demo loaded a shovel into Shere's car. They smoked marijuana, drank beer, went to Snyder's house at about 2:30-3:00 a.m., and talked Snyder into going rabbit hunting.
At some point during the hunt in the early morning hours, Shere placed his .22-caliber pump action rifle on the roof of the car so he could relieve himself. Suddenly, Shere said, Demo grabbed the rifle, and Shere heard the weapon discharge. Shere dropped to the ground and heard Snyder say, "Oh, my God, Brewster," followed by several more shots. When the shooting stopped, Shere got up and saw Snyder, still breathing, lying on the back seat of the car. Shere said he wanted to take Snyder to the hospital, but Demo took out his own gun, a .22-caliber pistol, and shot Snyder in the forehead, pulled him out of the car, and shot Snyder again in the chest. After the last shot was fired, they loaded Snyder's body into the trunk and drove to a nearby location where Shere said Demo made him dig a hole and bury the body. Then Shere took Demo home, drove to his own house, cleaned up, and burned the bloodied back seat of his car in the back yard.
At Demo's suggestion, Shere said, he and his girlfriend, Heidi Greulich, went to Snyder's house later that day, gathered some of Snyder's belongings, then drove to Clearwater to dump the belongings, hoping to leave the impression that Snyder had suddenly left town. Shere also said he traded the .22-caliber rifle after the murder. Detectives recovered the rifle and Shere identified it as one of the weapons used to shoot Snyder
Contradicting Shere's account, Demo made a statement to detectives in which he accused Shere of firing the first shots. Detective Alan Arick testified in the defendant's case without objection that Demo said he turned his back to the car to relieve himself when he heard a shot. He turned and saw Shere pointing the rifle at Snyder, then Shere fired at Snyder five or six times through the car's window. Demo said Shere pointed the gun at him and told him to finish off Snyder, Arick testified. Demo said he fired the pistol two times into Snyder's head and one time to the heart, including "the fatal shot." Demo told Arick he made Shere dig the grave because he was upset by what Shere had done to Snyder.
Greulich testified as a court witness about a statement she made to detec tives in January 1988. In her statement she told detectives that she overheard Shere's end of the telephone conversation with Demo in the early hours of December 25. Shere reportedly said to Demo "I can't believe Drew would turn state's evidence against me." When Shere returned home on the morning of December 25, Greulich told detectives, she saw blood on Shere's jeans and on the back seat of Shere's car. Greulich testified that Shere told her he alone killed Snyder, but he said that only to protect her, because "[i]f I knew Brewster was out there, Brewster would have hurt me."
Shere's friend, Ray Pruden, testified that one night after Christmas Shere told him he shot Snyder to death while out rabbit hunting. He said he shot him ten or fifteen times, then buried the body. Shere did not say that Demo was involved, Pruden testified.
Medical testimony established that Snyder was shot to death with ten gunshots. Three shots were fired into his head, one shot was fired through the chest, and other shots were fired into the back, the buttocks, the right thigh, and the right forearm. Death could have been caused by gunshot wounds to the head or chest. The medical examiner testified that any of the shots could have caused pain had Snyder been conscious, but there was no evidence that Snyder was conscious.
Seven projectiles were removed from the body during the autopsy. Ballistics evidence showed that shots fired into Snyder's head came from the pistol, one bullet recovered from Snyder's leg was fired from the rifle, and others could not be clearly identified. Other forensic evidence established that shots had been fired in Shere's car, that human blood was found on Shere's boots, and that a hair from Snyder was found on Shere's jacket.
The jury found Shere guilty and recommended the sentence of death by a vote of seven to five.
Shere, 579 So.2d at 88-89 (footnotes omitted).
HABEAS CLAIMS
In this petition, Shere argues appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to raise the following issues on appeal: (1) whether the State's improper remarks and biblical references during the penalty phase rendered Shere's death sentence unreliable and in violation of his constitutional rights; (2) whether Shere's death sentence was disproportionate, especially. when considered in conjunction with the life sentence received by the codefendant, Demo; and (3) whether the trial court failed to find the statutory mitigator of no significant prior criminal history. Shere also asserts that his constitutional right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment will be violated if he is executed as he is incompetent and hence ineligible for execution.
ANALYSIS
Initially, we have thoroughly reviewed three of Shere's claims and find them to be without merit. As to Shere's first claim, we find no ineffectiveness of appellate counsel in the failure to claim error in the prosecution's use of religious references during the penalty phase. The record reflects not only the defense's failure to object in many instances, but also that the defense itself interjected the issue of religious belief into the proceedings. While we have cautioned against such practice, we find no deficiency by appellate counsel here in light of the record. In his third claim, Shere argues that the trial court improperly failed to find the mitigating circumstance of "no significant prior criminal history." The record reflects, however, that the trial court properly found that Shere's own admission of prior criminal behavior negated a finding of this mitigating circumstance. As to Shere's claim that he may be incompetent at the time of execution, Shere admits this issue is not ripe for state court proceedings, but is raised solely to prevent a bar for potential federal habeas relief.
We also find Shere's second claim to be without merit but warranting discussion. Shere claims that although his code-fendant, Demo, was tried separately and sentenced to life imprisonment before the trial court sentenced Shere, appellate counsel failed to raise Demo's lesser sentence and the proportionality of Shere's death sentence on direct appeal. Shere claims that although the trial court was aware of Demo's life sentence, the trial court did not consider it in mitigation of Shere's sentence, and Shere's jury was never informed of Demo's life sentence. Shere further contends that under this Court's case law, Shere was entitled to have his sentence reduced to life because Demo was the instigator of the murder and was at least equally, if not more, culpable in the killing. Shere asserts that counsel's failure to raise this issue on direct appeal constitutes ineffective assistance of appellate counsel.
This Court has established specific criteria for considering claims of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel:
The criteria for proving ineffective assistance of appellate counsel parallel the Strickland standard for ineffective trial counsel: Petitioner must show 1) specific errors or omissions which show that appellate counsel's performance deviated from the norm or fell outside the range of professionally acceptable performance and 2) the deficiency of that performance compromised the appellate process to such a degree as to undermine confidence in the fairness and correctness of the appellate result. Johnson v. Wainwright, 463 So.2d 207 (Fla.1985).
Wilson v. Wainwright, 474 So.2d 1162, 1163 (Fla.1985). We apply that standard here and conclude, as more fully explained below, that appellate counsel was not ineffective for failing to raise this issue on direct appeal because Demo's culpability for the murder had been determined to be less than Shere's culpability for the murder.
This Court has an independent obligation to review each case where a sentence of death is imposed to determine whether death is the appropriate punishment. See Morton v. State, 789 So.2d 324, 335 (Fla.2001). As we have stated, "The death penalty is reserved for 'the most aggravated and unmitigated of most serious crimes.'" Clark v. State, 609 So.2d 513, 516 (Fla.1992) (quoting State v. Dixon, 283 So.2d 1, 7 (Fla.1973)). In deciding whether death is a proportionate penalty, the Court must consider the totality of the circumstances of the case and compare the case with other capital cases. See Urbin v. State, 714 So.2d 411, 417 (Fla.1998). However, in cases where more than one defendant was involved in the commission of the crime, this Court performs an additional analysis of relative culpability. Underlying our relative culpability analysis is the principle that equally culpable co-defendants should be treated alike in capital sentencing and receive equal punishment. See Ray v. State, 755 So.2d 604, 611 (Fla.2000). See also Jennings v. State, 718 So.2d 144, 153 (Fla.1998) ("While the death penalty is disproportionate where a less culpable defendant receives death and a more culpable defendant receives life, disparate treatment of codefendants is permissible in. situations where a particular defendant is more culpable.") (citation omitted).
In this case, however, we cannot conduct a true relative culpability analysis because the codefendant was convicted of second-degree murder. We cannot make a true comparison of a first-degree murder conviction and a second-degree murder conviction. See Steinhorst v. Singletary, 638 So.2d 33 (Fla.1994) (because Hughes, the codefendant, was convicted of second-degree murder, his sentence of life imprisonment was not relevant to a claim of disparate sentencing). A conviction of first-degree murder requires a finding by either a jury or the judge that the defendant committed a murder with premeditation or during the course of a felony enumerated in section 782.04(1)(a)2, Florida Statutes (1987). When a defendant is convicted of second-degree murder, either a jury or the judge has determined that the defendant committed a murder by doing an act that was imminently dangerous to another and evincing a depraved mind regardless of human life, without any premeditated design, or that the murder was committed during the course of a felony by a person who was not engaged in the perpetration of that felony. See § 782.04(2)-(3), Fla. Stat. (1987). In other words, a conviction of second-degree murder means the defendant did not form the necessary intent to commit first-degree murder and did not commit the murder during the perpetration or attempt to perpetrate drug trafficking, arson, sexual battery, robbery, burglary, kidnapping, escape, aggravated child abuse, aggravated abuse of the elderly or disabled, aircraft piracy, carjacking, home invasion robbery, aggravated stalking, murder of another human, or unlawful throvnng, placing or discharging of a destructive device or bomb. Because Shere's codefendant was convicted 'of second-degree murder, his relative culpability for this murder has already been determined to be less than Shere's culpability.
This situation is not unlike the one we addressed in Larzelere v. State, 676 So.2d 394 (Fla.1996). In Larzelere, we found a sentence of death proportional where the codefendant was acquitted. In so finding, we noted "that Jason's acquittal is irrelevant to this proportionality review because, as a matter of law, he was exonerated of any culpability." Id. at 407. Similarly, in this case a separate jury has determined Shere's codefendant to be less culpable, evidenced by his conviction for second-degree murder.
On the other hand, equally culpable connotes the same degree of blame or fault. In order to have that same degree of blame or fault the codefendants must, at a minimum, be convicted of the same degree of the crime; third-degree murder does not connote the same degree of blame or fault as second-degree murder, which does not connote the same degree of blame or fault as first-degree murder. It is the crime for which the defendant is convicted that determines his or her culpability, and in this case that decision has been made by the trier of fact.
Under section 921.141, Florida Statutes (1987), a defendant is eligible for a sentence of death only if he or she is convicted of a capital felony. This Court has defined a capital felony to be one where the maximum possible punishment is death. See Rusaw v. State, 451 So.2d 469 (Fla.1984). The only such crime in the State of Florida is first-degree murder, premeditated or felony. See State v. Boatwright, 559 So.2d 210 (Fla.1990); Rowe v. State, 417 So.2d 981 (Fla.1982). Only in situations where the defendant's blameworthiness for the murder reaches the first-degree level do we proceed to the next step in determining if the circumstances warrant the punishment of death.
Therefore, once a codefendant's culpability has been determined by a jury verdict or a judge's finding of guilt we should abide by that decision, and only when the codefendant has been found guilty of the same degree of murder should the relative culpability aspect of proportionality come into play. Moreover, the codefendant should not only be convicted of the same crime but should also be otherwise eligible to receive a death sentence, i.e., be of the requisite age and not mentally retarded.
We have decided numerous cases where we have addressed the proportionality of defendants' death sentences based on the argument that an equally culpable code-fendant received a lesser sentence. However, in only ten of those cases did the proportionality analysis involve codefend-ants who received immunity or codefend-ants whose lesser sentences were based on convictions for second-degree murder or third-degree murder. See Howell v. State, 707 So.2d 674 (Fla.1998) (codefend-ant pled to second-degree murder and received a sentence of forty years); Cardona v. State, 641 So.2d 861 (Fla.1994) (code-fendant pled guilty to second-degree murder and testified against the defendant); Mordenti v. State, 630 So.2d 1080 (Fla.1994) (codefendant received immunity for her testimony); Cook v. State, 581 So.2d 141 (Fla.1991) (codefendants pled guilty to second-degree murder and received sentences of twenty-three and twenty-four years); Hayes v. State, 581 So.2d 121 (Fla.1991) (codefendant pled guilty to second-degree murder and testified against the defendant); Downs v. State, 572 So.2d 895 (Fla.1990) (codefendant testified against the defendant under a grant of immunity); Brown v. State, 473 So.2d 1260 (Fla.1985) (codefendant pled to second-degree murder); White v. State, 415 So.2d 719 (Fla.1982) (codefendant convicted of third-degree murder); Tafero v. State, 403 So.2d 355 (Fla.1981) (codefendant received a life sentence after pleading to second-degree murder); Salvatore v. State, 366 So.2d 745 (Fla.1978) (codefendant received a ten year sentence after pleading to second-degree murder). In none of these cases did we find the sentence of death disproportional because the codefendant received a lesser sentence or no punishment at all.
Even if appellate counsel should have made an argument concerning the code-fendant's sentence and relative culpability, appellate counsel cannot be ineffective because the codefendant's culpability for this murder has been determined to be less than Shere's, and thus there is no prejudice in failing to raise the issue. For the reasons expressed, we deny the petition for writ of habeas corpus.
It is so ordered.
SHAW, WELLS, LEWIS, and QUINCE, JJ., and HARDING, Senior ' Justice, concur.
ANSTEAD, C.J., concurs in part and dissents in part with an opinion, in which PARIENTE, J., concurs.
. Spencer v. State, 615 So.2d 688 (Fla.1993).
. While the sentencing court noted that Demo received a life sentence in its evaluation of the statutory mitigator concerning duress or domination, it did not appear to evaluate the relative culpability of the two defendants or otherwise take Demo's sentence into account in determining Shere's sentence.
. Demo was tried separately and sentenced to life imprisonment after Shere had been tried and convicted, but before Shere was sentenced.
. Black's Law Dictionary explains the concept of culpability as follows:
"The concept of culpability is used as a reference point to assess the defendant's guilt and punishment even though, in the two contexts, culpability denotes different aspects of the.defendant and the murder. At the guilt phase, culpability is most often used to refer to the state of mind that the defendant must possess. Also at the guilt phase, culpability may reflect a broader judgment about the defendant: when he is culpable for his conduct, it means that he is blameworthy and deserves punishment. At the punishment phase, the concept of culpability stands as the benchmark for when the death penalty is an appropriate punishment." Phyllis L. Crocker, Concepts of Culpability and Deathworthiness, 66 Fordham L.Rev. 21, 35-36 (1997).
Black's Law Dictionary 385 (7th ed.1999).
. In Buford v. State, 403 So.2d 943 (Fla.1981), this Court held that sexual battery of a child under twelve by a person over eighteen is not punishable by death and is, therefore, not a capital crime.
. Even in situations where codefendants are both convicted of first-degree murder, there may be legal obstacles to imposition of the same sentence. For example, in Henyard v. State, 689 So.2d 239 (Fla.1996), we found the defendant's sentence of death proportional even though the codefendant, Alfonza Smalls, could not receive a death sentence because of his age of fourteen:
In this context, then, Smalls' less severe sentence is irrelevant to Henyard's proportionality review because, pursuant to Allen v. State, 636 So.2d 494 (Fla.1994), the aggravation and mitigation in their cases are per se incomparable. Under the law, death was never a valid punishment option for Smalls, and Henyard's death sentences are not disproportionate to the sentence received by his codefendant. Cf. Larzelere v. State, 676 So.2d 394 (Fla.1996) (holding that codefendant's acquittal was irrelevant to proportionality review of defendant's death sentence because codefendant was exonerated from culpability as a matter of law).
Henyard v. State, 689 So.2d at 254-55.
. We have identified more than seventy cases which fall into this category.
. In Coleman v. State, 610 So.2d 1283 (Fla.1992), we found proportional a sentence of death where the defendant was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder but the codefendant received a life sentence after his conviction for one count of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder.
. In Garcia v. State, 492 So.2d 360 (Fla. 1986), this Court upheld a prosecutor's discretion in plea bargaining with a less culpable codefend-ant and indicated such action does not violate proportionality principles. See also Diaz v. State, 513 So.2d 1045 (Fla. 1987); Brown v. State, 473 So.2d 1260 (Fla.1985).