Opinion ID: 407646
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure to Present Character Witnesses

Text: 56 Appellant argues that his attorney should have called character witnesses to testify on his behalf at the sentencing hearing. The magistrate agreed that the attorney erred by not presenting humanizing information ( )( ) to counteract the dramatic impact of (Dr. Crumbley's) testimony. We do not dispute that the jury's impression of appellant, based on the evidence introduced by the prosecution at the guilt and penalty stages of his trial, was possibly unbalanced. We further agree that a cogent presentation of character evidence could have influenced the jury to recommend a life sentence. 29 We do not agree, however, with the magistrate's conclusion that the attorney's failure to introduce such nonstatutory mitigating evidence rendered his assistance ineffective. Even accepting arguendo appellant's allegation that character witnesses willing to testify in his favor were available at the time of his trial, we cannot say that the attorney's performance, evaluated from the perspective of counsel, taking into account the circumstances ... known to him at the time, Washington v. Watkins, 655 F.2d at 1356, was not reasonably effective. 57 At the time of appellant's trial in 1974, the law concerning capital sentencing was in a state of reformation. The Supreme Court's holding in Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978), that the sentencer in a capital case must be free to consider all relevant mitigating evidence had not yet been decided; nor was that result clearly foreshadowed by Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (1972)-the only contemporary death penalty case decided by the United States Supreme Court prior to appellant's trial. Moreover, Florida's capital sentencing statute was barely a year old at the time of appellant's trial, and the only Florida Supreme Court case addressing its constitutionality supported an interpretation of the statute as limiting the mitigating evidence that could be considered to that falling within the seven statutory factors. 30 In view of these facts, the defense attorney's belief that he could not, under the Florida statute, introduce evidence of mitigating factors not listed in Fla.Stat. § 921.141(6) was entirely reasonable. His decision not to call witnesses at the penalty stage to testify about appellant's general character and background was therefore justifiable and fully within the sixth amendment standard of reasonably effective assistance. 58