Opinion ID: 4534204
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Proportionality of Smiley’s Death Sentence

Text: It has been this Court’s practice in death sentence direct appeals to conduct a proportionality review to ensure that the defendant’s crime falls within the most aggravated and least mitigated of murders. This review is qualitative, not quantitative—we do not simply tally the number of aggravating factors and mitigating circumstances. We accept the weight that the trial court has given to those factors and circumstances. And we consider the totality of the circumstances and compare the case with other capital cases. - 42 - Elsewhere in this opinion we have detailed the trial court’s findings on aggravation and mitigation. Suffice it to say that the trial court gave great weight to Smiley’s prior capital felony conviction for the Riley murder and to Smiley’s contemporaneous convictions for the felonies Smiley committed against Mark Wilkerson. Moreover, though the trial court credited the fact that Smiley had suffered a severe brain trauma as a result of his ruptured aneurysms, the court gave little weight to Smiley’s proposed mitigators for extreme emotional disturbance and inability to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. Smiley’s nonstatutory mitigating circumstances, which the trial court assigned moderate weight, were far from compelling. All in all, Smiley’s felony murder conviction was highly aggravated—particularly because of his prior conviction for the Riley murder—and only lightly mitigated. Recently, in Newberry v. State, 288 So. 3d 1040 (Fla. 2019), we upheld a death sentence imposed on a defendant who committed a robbery/murder and whose aggravators and mitigators were qualitatively similar to Smiley’s. Our decision in Newberry cited multiple similar cases in which we upheld the imposition of a death sentence. See id. at 1049-50. Death is a proportionate punishment in Smiley’s case. In light of the foregoing, we affirm Smiley’s conviction for first-degree felony murder and his sentence of death. - 43 - It is so ordered. CANADY, C.J., and POLSTON, LAWSON, and MUÑIZ, JJ., concur. LABARGA, J., concurs in result. NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING MOTION AND, IF FILED, DETERMINED. An Appeal from the Circuit Court in and for Polk County, Jalal A. Harb, Judge - Case No. 532015CF004903A000XX Andrea M. Norgard of Norgard, Norgard & Chastang, Bartow, Florida, for Appellant Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, and Marilyn Muir Beccue, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, Florida, for Appellee - 44 -