Opinion ID: 1709393
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Apprendi and Ring Violation with Death Penalty Statute

Text: Gore asserts that his sentence of death must be vacated because according to Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002), Florida's capital sentencing scheme violates his Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial and his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process under the United States Constitution. The claim is without merit. This Court addressed the contention that Florida's capital sentencing scheme violates the United States Constitution under Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), and Ring, in Bottoson v. Moore, 833 So.2d 693 (Fla. 2002), and King v. Moore, 831 So.2d 143 (Fla.2002), and denied relief. See also Jones, 845 So.2d at 74. We conclude that Gore is likewise not entitled to relief on this claim. Furthermore, one of the aggravating circumstances found by the trial court in this matter was Gore's prior conviction of a violent felony, a factor which under Apprendi and Ring need not be found by the jury. Jones v. State, 855 So.2d 611, 619 (Fla.2003); see also Doorbal v. State, 837 So.2d 940, 963 (Fla.2003) (rejecting the Ring claim where one of the aggravating circumstances found by the trial judge was the defendant's prior conviction for a violent felony), cert. denied, 539 U.S. 962, 123 S.Ct. 2647, 156 L.Ed.2d 663 (2003). Finally, this Court has previously held that Ring and Apprendi cannot receive retroactive application. See Johnson v. State, 904 So.2d 400, 412 (Fla.2005) (holding that Ring does not apply retroactively in Florida in postconviction proceedings to cases that were final on direct review at the time of the Ring decision); Hughes v. State, 901 So.2d 837, 840 (Fla. 2005) (holding that Apprendi does not apply retroactively in Florida in postconviction proceedings to cases that were final on direct review at the time of the Apprendi decision). Here, the claim is procedurally barred as Gore's direct appeal to this Court occurred prior to the decisions in both Ring and Apprendi. Accordingly, we reject this claim.