Opinion ID: 1651278
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Constitutionality of Florida's Lethal Injection Protocol

Text: Stewart contends that his appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to challenge on direct appeal Florida's use of lethal injection and its lethal injection protocol. 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. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689, 104 S.Ct. 2052. The State is correct that when Stewart's direct appeal was filed in 2001, reasonable appellate counsel could not be expected to anticipate the litigation and revised protocol that followed the 2006 Angel Diaz execution. This Court rejected a similar habeas claim in Chavez v. State, 12 So.3d 199 (Fla.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 130 S.Ct. 501, 175 L.Ed.2d 356 (2009). We explained that [a]t the time of the direct appeal in this case, there was simply no basis upon which to present a mode-of-execution challenge to Florida's original lethal-injection protocol. The protocol was new, unimplemented, and widely regarded as a humane, civilized alternative to death by electrocution. Id. at 213. Stewart's claim is also without merit because this Court has repeatedly held that Florida's current lethal injection protocol is constitutional under Baze v. Rees, 553 U.S. 35, 128 S.Ct. 1520, 170 L.Ed.2d 420 (2008). See, e.g., Ventura v. State, 2 So.3d 194, 200 (Fla.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 2839, 174 L.Ed.2d 562 (2009). Appellate counsel cannot be deemed ineffective for failing to raise a meritless argument. Smithers v. State, 18 So.3d 460, 473 (Fla.2009) (quoting Evans v. State, 975 So.2d 1035, 1043 (Fla. 2007)).