Opinion ID: 1611733
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: proportionality of bell's death sentence

Text: Although not argued by Bell as a separate point on appeal, this Court has an independent duty to review the proportionality of Bell's death sentence as compared to other cases where the Court has affirmed death sentences. See Jennings v. State, 718 So.2d 144, 154 (Fla.1998). In Urbin v. State, 714 So.2d 411, 416-17 (Fla. 1998), we summarized the scope and obligation of our death penalty review: In performing a proportionality review, a reviewing court must never lose sight of the fact that the death penalty has long been reserved for only the most aggravated and least mitigated of first-degree murders. State v. Dixon, 283 So.2d 1, 7 (Fla.1973). See also Jones v. State, 705 So.2d 1364, 1366 (Fla.1998) (reasoning that [t]he people of Florida have designated the death penalty as an appropriate sanction for certain crimes, and in order to ensure its continued viability under our state and federal constitutions `the Legislature has chosen to reserve its application to only the most aggravated and unmitigated of [the] most serious crimes.') (footnote omitted). Proportionality review requires a discrete analysis of the facts, Terry v. State, 668 So.2d 954, 965 (Fla. 1996), entailing a qualitative review by this Court of the underlying basis for each aggravator and mitigator rather than a quantitative analysis. We underscored this imperative in Tillman v. State, 591 So.2d 167 (Fla.1991): We have described the proportionality review conducted by this Court as follows: Because death is a unique punishment, it is necessary in each case to engage in a thoughtful, deliberate proportionality review to consider the totality of circumstances in a case, and to compare it with other capital cases. It is not a comparison between the number of aggravating and mitigating circumstances. Porter v. State, 564 So.2d 1060, 1064 (Fla.1990). The requirement that death be administered proportionately has a variety of sources in Florida law, including the Florida Constitution's express prohibition against unusual punishments. Art. I, § 17, Fla. Const. It clearly is unusual to impose death based on facts similar to those in cases in which death previously was deemed improper. Id. Moreover, proportionality review in death cases rests at least in part on the recognition that death is a uniquely irrevocable penalty, requiring a more intensive level of judicial scrutiny or process than would lesser penalties. Art. I, § 9, Fla. Const.; Porter. ... Thus, proportionality review is a unique and highly serious function of this Court, the purpose of which is to foster uniformity in death-penalty law. Id. at 169 (alterations in original) (citations and footnote omitted). As we have repeatedly explained, [a] proportionality review involves consideration of the totality of the circumstances of a case and comparison of that case with other death penalty cases. Snipes v. State, 733 So.2d 1000, 1007 (Fla.1999) (emphasis added). As in Snipes, another case involving the death penalty imposed on a seventeen-year-old, when we compare the totality of the circumstances of this case to other similar cases, we conclude that a sentence of death is inappropriate. We acknowledge the multiple aggravators in this case; however, we note that we have stricken the avoid arrest aggravator. Further, although we acknowledge that CCP and HAC have been established because of the length of time that the actual murder took to accomplish, we conclude that the mitigation in this case is substantialmindful in particular that Bell was seventeen years of age at the time of the crime, which is as close as one can be in Florida to the age at which the death penalty is constitutionally barred. In addition, we also note the mitigating circumstance found by the trial judge of the disparate treatment of the codefendants. Indeed, in conjunction with the great weight given to the age mitigator, we find it significant that all of the defendants involved were teenagers attempting to confront a decidedly adult situation. Of particular note is the life sentence given to Bell's girlfriend Maestas. Maestas appears to have been not only the instigator behind the series of events that culminated in the murder but also appears to be equally culpable for the murder itself. Indeed, it was Maestas, who was living on her own after being kicked out of her parents' home, who initially called Bell to complain of Richards' improper sexual advances. That phone call by Maestas resulted in Bell actually seeing the bruises on Maestas's back made by Richards. The next night it was Maestas who paged Bell to come to the apartment to help them after Richards asked both Maestas and her friend Lincks to sleep in his bed. Bell then confronted Richards about his behavior. Although it was Bell who placed the victim in a choke hold, it was Maestas who first hit Richards with the baseball bat. It is apparent that Maestas was involved from the beginning to the end, including having purchased the chain, rope, and lock with Bell and participating with Bell throughout the crime. Moreover, this version of the events comes solely from Maestas and Lincks, who would have obvious reasons to discount their culpability. Yet we do not base our conclusion regarding proportionality solely on the disparate treatment of the codefendants. In evaluating the totality of circumstances we begin with the age mitigator. With regard to the age mitigator, as we have explained above, the trial court abused its discretion in affording Bell's age of seventeen only little weight. Without a finding of unusual maturity, this statutory mitigator should have been given great weight. In addition, we point to the following additional mitigators found by the trial court: disparate treatment of codefendants Lincks and Maestas; Bell was a good student; Bell was a model prisoner while awaiting trial; Bell had a good family support system; Bell was active in church; Bell was gainfully employed for various periods of time, and had the potential to finish high school and further his education; and Bell had a very supportive extended church family. In any event, while our proportionality review involves a comparison with other similar cases where the death penalty has been imposed, Bell's age and the unique circumstances of Bell's background make a comparison with our cases more difficult. The only other cases where the death penalty has been upheld for seventeen-year-olds are Bonifay v. State, 680 So.2d 413, 414 (Fla.1996), and LeCroy v. State, 533 So.2d 750, 758 (Fla.1988). We do not find the totality of the circumstances of this case similar to either of those cases. In Bonifay, the seventeen-year-old defendant was convicted of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and grand theft. The trial court found three aggravating circumstances: (1) the capital felony was committed while Bonifay was engaged in a robbery; (2) the capital felony was committed for pecuniary gain; and (3) the capital felony was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification. See 680 So.2d at 415 n. 1. The trial court found the following statutory mitigators: (1) Bonifay had no significant history of prior criminal activity (very little weight), and (2) Bonifay's age of seventeen at the time of the crime (some weight). See id. at 415 n. 2. In addition, the court found several nonstatutory mitigating circumstances including: (1) Bonifay experienced a less-than-ideal family background (some weight); (2) Bonifay exhibited good behavior while incarcerated (little weight); (3) Bonifay had a potential for rehabilitation (some weight); and (4) Bonifay was remorseful about the death of the victim (some weight). See id. However, as we explained in Snipes, the defendant in Bonifay had admitted involvement in several prior crimes, one of which was a prior burglary in which someone was stabbed several months prior to the murder. Further, not only was the defendant in Bonifay hired to commit the murder; when the murder actually occurred, Bonifay callously killed the wrong person. 733 So.2d at 1008. Likewise, in LeCroy, 533 So.2d at 755, the seventeen-year-old defendant was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of robbery with a firearm. He appealed a sentence of death on one count of first-degree murder. The judge found three aggravating factors: (1) previous conviction of another capital felony or of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person; (2) capital felony committed while the appellant was engaged in the commission of robbery with a firearm; and (3) capital felony committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest. See id. at 755. In mitigation, the judge found that (1) the appellant had no significant history of prior criminal activity; and (2) the appellant was seventeen years of age at the time of the murder. See id. In this case, we have a seventeen-year-old who committed a heinous and atrocious crime; however, that is where the similarity with either Bonifay or LeCroy ends. Neither Bonifay nor LeCroy involved the disparate treatment of the codefendants as a mitigator. Also absent from Bonifay and LeCroy is the evidence of substantial mitigation in the form of the positive attributes Bell exhibited up until this particular murder. We consider the evidence that Bell was an usher at his church, vice president of the youth district association, a high school senior whose plan after graduation was to enter the Air Force, and that he attended school regularly and maintained several jobs, which contributed to the family's income to be in his favor rather than work against him. Common sense dictates that Bell's positive attributes should make it less likely that we would uphold the imposition of the death penalty on this seventeen-year-old. Therefore, we conclude that the mitigation in this case is more compelling than in either LeCroy or Bonifay. If anything we find this case more similar to Snipes, 733 So.2d at 1007-08, where we vacated the death sentence of a seventeen-year-old, and to Cooper v. State, 739 So.2d 82 (Fla.1999), where we reduced the death sentence of an eighteen-year-old to life. See id. at 85 (vacating death sentence where three aggravators were weighed against substantial mitigation including brain damage and youth). In this case, we conclude that the statutory mitigator that Bell was seventeen years of age is an extremely significant factor that, together with the other mitigation, renders the death penalty disproportionate. Because we conclude that Bell's sentence of death should be reduced to life, we deem it unnecessary in this case to address the constitutionality of the death penalty as applied to offenders under the age of eighteen (issue 3) and the constitutionality of Florida's death penalty scheme (issue 5). Accordingly, we affirm Bell's convictions but reduce Bell's sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. It is so ordered. ANSTEAD, C.J., and PARIENTE and QUINCE, JJ., concur. PARIENTE, J., concurs with an opinion, in which ANSTEAD, C.J., concurs. SHAW, J., concurs in result only.