Opinion ID: 1133692
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The Additional Statutory Mitigation

Text: Looney asserts that Cummings was ineffective because he failed to properly present the statutory age mitigator because Cummings did not emphasize that the mitigator is intended to encompass a defendant's emotional and mental age as well as chronological age. Dr. Mosman testified at the evidentiary hearing that although he could not give a specific number to Looney's mental age, he was of the opinion that Looney's mental and emotional age was somewhere in the early- to mid-teen years. In its order denying Looney's postconviction motion, the trial court stated: With respect to the asserted nonpresented statutory mitigation of the defendant's emotional and social age deficits that he felt were not presented in the appropriate manner, apart from his chronological age, Dr. Mosman testified vaguely and without any specific delineation of any emotional or social deficits of the defendant. On cross examination, although he acknowledged that his IQ testing of the defendant reflected a full scale IQ of 120, in the upper ten percent, Dr. Mosman was reticent to give any specific mental, emotional or social age for the defendant preferring a band of mid adolescence. Looney additionally asserts that Cummings was ineffective because he failed to present evidence of the statutory mitigator of extreme emotional disturbance. Dr. Mosman testified that there was data that could have been presented on the extreme emotional disturbance mitigator which was part of the context of these particular crimes. He proceeded to discuss the traumatic abuse that Looney suffered at the hands of his natural grandfather as a baby and the subsequent revelation to him of that incident at age sixteen, the rigidity of Looney's adoptive home, and the depression and other emotional factors that were in play at the time of the crime. In the order denying Looney's motion for postconviction relief, the trial Court stated with regard to this subject matter: There is no evidence in the record to support that any emotional or cognitive disturbance mental health mitigator asserted by Dr. Mosman, as either statutory or nonstatutory, contributed to the defendant's actions in committing his crimes. With respect to both lines of testimony, the trial court stated: [Dr. Mosman's] asserted additional statutory mitigators are without basis in the record and clearly conflict with the evidence of defendant's conduct and behavior presented during trial. He was not familiar with the significant facts and circumstances or the evidence presented during the guilt phase and his parsing and teasing of the mitigation was strained and conjectural. Dr. Mosman's testimony likely would have been entitled to insignificant weight had it been presented in the penalty phase. This Court has established that it will not substitute its judgment for that of a trial court on the credibility of witnesses if the trial court's judgment is supported by competent, substantial evidence. Arbelaez, 898 So.2d at 32 (quoting Sochor, 883 So.2d at 781). The trial court's order describes that the cross-examination of Dr. Mosman revealed that he had not talked to trial counsel concerning the presentation of defendant's mitigation. . . . He also admitted that he had not read the guilt phase trial transcripts, but had read only the penalty phase. . . . Dr. Mosman had no knowledge of the details of the criminal events or the episode or the interactions between the criminal participants involved in the crimes. These circumstances support the trial court's determination that Dr. Mosman's testimony would have been given insignificant weight even if it had been presented at trial. Further, there is no indication in the record that defense counsel Cummings was ever alerted to the fact that either Looney's mental age or his extreme emotional disturbance were potential mitigating factors in the instant matter. The mental health expert at the time of trial never mentioned these subjects to trial counsel. This Court has stated that [c]ounsel cannot be deemed ineffective . . . simply because he relied on what may have been less than complete pretrial psychiatric evaluations. State v. Sireci, 502 So.2d 1221, 1223 (Fla.1987). Therefore, even if Dr. Mosman's finding as to Looney's mental age and emotional disturbance were undeniable truths, Cummings still would not have been ineffective for relying on Dr. Partyka's assessment which did not include such findings. Cummings relied on the evaluation by the mental health expert at the time of trial, which did not include findings of either of the alleged additional statutory mitigators. Additionally, the trial Court found Dr. Mosman's testimony unconvincing and concluded that there was not evidence in the record to support these mitigators. Based on the foregoing, we find that defense attorney Cummings was not ineffective for failing to present this alleged additional statutory mitigation and that Dr. Mosman's unconvincing testimony does not undermine our confidence in the proceedings below.