Opinion ID: 1942807
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure to Investigate and Present Evidence of Mental Mitigation

Text: Harvey claims his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to ensure that he received a competent mental health examination. Ineffective assistance of counsel claims are mixed questions of law and fact. This Court therefore conducts an independent review of the trial court's legal conclusions, while giving deference to the trial court's factual findings. State. v. Riechmann, 777 So.2d 342, 350 (Fla.2000); see also Cherry v. State, 781 So.2d 1040 (Fla.2000). The trial court's factual findings will be upheld when they are supported by competent, substantial evidence in the record. See Stephens v. State, 748 So.2d 1028, 1035 (Fla.1999). Harvey alleges that trial counsel failed to fully investigate his background for mental health mitigation. The trial court found, however, that trial counsel retained psychologist Dr. Fred Petrilla, met and ate dinner with Harvey's parents and siblings on two occasions, and obtained Harvey's school records. The trial court also found that Dr. Petrilla interviewed Harvey's family and coworkers and that Dr. Petrilla was given background material concerning Harvey. These findings are supported by the record. At the evidentiary hearing, trial counsel testified that he was concerned with Harvey's mental health and hired Dr. Petrilla for the purpose of conducting a mental health evaluation. Counsel indicated that he provided Dr. Petrilla with case materials and medical records. Counsel testified that neither Harvey nor Harvey's family gave him any indication of possible mental health mitigators, although they did inform counsel that Harvey had been in a serious car accident when he was sixteen years old. Trial counsel said it was determined that Harvey had never been institutionalized. Dr. Petrilla testified at the evidentiary hearing that he performed a personality assessment and several other tests on Harvey. He also said he tested Harvey to determine his IQ. Dr. Petrilla further testified that he and trial counsel discussed the results of these tests. As a result of this testing, Dr. Petrilla recommended that Harvey be given antidepressant medications and receive psychotherapy with assertiveness training. He tested Harvey for organic brain damage, but he did not diagnose Harvey as having brain damage. Dr. Petrilla's testimony at the penalty phase of the trial was consistent with his investigation. He testified that Harvey was depressed, had low-self esteem, had a mental age of eighteen years and a physical age of twenty-three, did not have brain damage, and was impulsive. Harvey argues that trial counsel was deficient because he did not retain a psychiatrist as Dr. Petrilla had recommended. As the trial court found, trial counsel and Dr. Petrilla conferred, and Dr. Petrilla recommended Dr. Carmen Ebalo as an examining psychiatrist for Harvey. Harvey argues that because his own psychologist recommended that he be evaluated by a psychiatrist, trial counsel was deficient in failing to retain one. Although Dr. Petrilla suggested it, trial counsel testified at the evidentiary hearing that he did not employ a psychiatrist because he felt the jury might see calling more than one mental health expert as trying too hard to make an excuse for bad behavior, especially given the fact that Harvey had never been treated for mental illness. Based on the evidence available to trial counsel, including his interviews with Harvey's parents, trial counsel's decision was consistent with his sound trial strategy to present Harvey as a good person with a positive family upbringing. The evidence presented at the postconviction hearing painted Harvey in a different light and would have been inconsistent with the trial strategy that was employed. While in hindsight counsel could have pursued a different penalty phase strategy, the strategy counsel employed was not unreasonable and did not fall outside the broad range of competent performance under prevailing professional norms. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 688, 104 S.Ct. 2052. In considering a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, we must fairly assess trial counsel's performance at the time of trial based on the information he had. A fair assessment of attorney performance requires that every effort be made to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances of counsel's challenged conduct, and to evaluate the conduct from counsel's perspective at the time. Id. at 689. In order to obtain a reversal of his death sentence on the ground of ineffective assistance of counsel, Harvey must show (1) that the identified acts or omissions of counsel were deficient or outside the wide range of professionally competent assistance, and (2) that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense such that, without the errors, there is a reasonable probability that the balance of aggravating and mitigating circumstances would have been different. See Banks v. State, 842 So.2d 788, 790 (Fla.2003); Rose v. State, 675 So.2d 567, 571 (Fla.1996). Harvey has not demonstrated that trial counsel was deficient in his investigation of possible mental health mitigation. This Court has found counsel's performance to be deficient where counsel never attempted to meaningfully investigate mitigation although substantial mitigation could have been presented. Rose, 675 So.2d at 572; see also Hildwin v. Dugger, 654 So.2d 107, 109 (Fla.1995) (finding that a woefully inadequate investigation failed to reveal a large amount of mitigating evidence such as prior psychiatric hospitalizations and statutory mental health mitigators); State v. Lara, 581 So.2d 1288, 1289 (Fla.1991) (finding counsel virtually ignored preparation for penalty phase). This is not the case here. Consistent with the trial court's factual findings, trial counsel conducted a reasonable investigation into Harvey's mental health background and incorporated his findings into a penalty phase strategy. Trial counsel explained his strategy at the evidentiary hearing. He chose to present Harvey as a good person. Trial counsel wanted the jury to see that these murders were inconsistent with Harvey's character and were committed without premeditation in the midst of a robbery gone wrong. Trial counsel testified that he thought about this strategy and decided to implement it after the motion to suppress Harvey's statement was denied. Trial counsel testified that he thought it was important to carry a consistent theme throughout both phases of the trial and believed this was Harvey's best chance for a life sentence. In cases where counsel did conduct a reasonable investigation of mental health mitigation and then made a strategic decision not to present this information, this Court has affirmed the trial court's finding that counsel's performance was not deficient. See Asay v. State, 769 So.2d 974, 985 (Fla.2000). We agree with the trial court and find that trial counsel's strategy was not unreasonable under the circumstances and did not fall outside the range of professional competent assistance.