Opinion ID: 2543852
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: Pedophilia

Text: Ault also proposed as a nonstatutory mitigating circumstance that he suffers from pedophilia and was denied treatment by the Mentally Disordered Sex Offender program while incarcerated because of lack of funding. Rejecting this factor in its sentencing order, the trial court stated only that pedophilia, and the treatment or lack of treatment thereof, is not a mitigator for murder. Again, the trial court failed to discuss evidence supporting its ruling. Dr. Kramer and Dr. Carter each testified that they diagnosed Ault with pedophilia. Dr. Ross also testified that Ault's brain impairments were consistent with those found in individuals diagnosed with pedophilia. While the degree to which pedophilia is mitigating as to murder itself is questionable, it has been listed as nonstatutory mitigation in at least one capital case. See Crain v. State, 894 So.2d 59, 67 n. 9 (Fla.2004) (stating that where the defendant was sentenced to death for the murder of a seven-year-old girl, the trial court gave some weight to the fact that the defendant was an uncured pedophile). Further, the diagnosis appears to meet the definition of a mitigating circumstance. We have explained that [e]vidence is mitigating if, in fairness or in the totality of the defendant's life or character, it may be considered as extenuating or reducing the degree of moral culpability for the crime committed. Merck v. State, 763 So.2d 295, 298 (Fla.2000) (citing Wickham v. State, 593 So.2d 191, 194 (Fla.1991)); see also Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 604, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978) (noting that a mitigating circumstance can be any aspect of a defendant's character or record and any of the circumstances of the offense that reasonably may serve as a basis for imposing a sentence less than death). Here, Dr. Kramer testified that pedophilia was a compulsion, an intense arousal and drive to have sexual activity with age-inappropriate partners. Similarly, Dr. Carter stated that pedophilia is a mental illness. In this case, Ault's pedophilia arguably reduced the degree of moral culpability for his crime because, if not for Ault's compulsion/mental illness, the actions preceding the murdersAult's abduction of the victimswould not have occurred; although, again, the weight assigned to this circumstance would have been within the discretion of the trial judge. [5] Based on a review of the record, we find that pedophilia was demonstrated by the greater weight of the evidence, was not refuted by competent, substantial evidence, and was mitigating in nature. See Coday, 946 So.2d at 1003. Further, the trial court failed to set out any of the evidence supporting its decision. See Harris, 843 So.2d at 869. Accordingly, we find that the trial court's summary rejection of pedophilia as a mitigating circumstance was error.