Opinion ID: 1920879
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: issues

Text: Snelgrove raises nine points on appeal: (1) that the circuit court erred in denying his public defender's motion to withdraw based on a conflict of interest; (2) that the circuit court failed to conduct a Richardson [8] inquiry into an alleged discovery violation by the State, and, relatedly, that the State violated Brady [9] by withholding the information; (3) that the prosecuting attorneys made improper and inflammatory remarks that rendered the trial fundamentally unfair; (4) that the circuit court erred in denying his motion to briefly recess the penalty phase at the close of the jury-charge conference, prior to closing arguments, due to the mental and physical exhaustion of his counsel; (5) that his two death sentences are invalid because the jury rendered only a single, undifferentiated recommendation of death; (6) that his death sentences are unconstitutional because Florida's capital-sentencing scheme puts a higher burden of persuasion on the defendant to prove that a life sentence is appropriate than it puts on the State to prove that a death sentence is appropriate; (7) that his death sentences are unconstitutional and invalid because the circuit court considered improper aggravating factors, failed to consider or properly weigh highly relevant mitigating factors, and improperly found that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors; (8) that his death sentences are unconstitutional and invalid because the jury was tainted by highly inflammatory and improper victim-impact evidence; and (9) that his death sentences are unconstitutional because Florida's capital-sentencing scheme violates the Sixth Amendment as interpreted in Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002). As explained below, we hold that Snelgrove's claims relating to the guilt phase of his trial are without merit. We therefore affirm his convictions. [10] However, the sentences cannot be affirmed. We hold that the two death sentences are invalid because the jury returned only a single, undifferentiated advisory sentence. Therefore, we reverse Snelgrove's two death sentences and remand the case to the circuit court for a new penalty-phase proceeding at which the jury must render individualized sentencing recommendations for each capital murder conviction. In light of this disposition, we do not address the other claims related to the penalty phase.