Opinion ID: 2544894
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Challenging the Jury Instructions on Direct Appeal

Text: Dessaure first claims that his appellate counsel was ineffective for not challenging the jury instruction on first-degree felony murder when the indictment charged first-degree premeditated murder. However, this Court has long held that this type of instruction is proper. See Williams v. State, 967 So.2d 735 (Fla. 2007). In Williams, this Court explained: It is well established that an indictment which charges premeditated murder permits the State to prosecute under both the premeditated and felony murder theories. Parker v. State, 904 So.2d 370, 382-83 (Fla.2005). We have further held that [t]he State need not charge felony murder in an indictment in order to prosecute a defendant under alternative theories of premeditated and felony murder when the indictment charges premeditated murder. Kearse v. State, 662 So.2d 677, 682 (Fla.1995). Similarly, this Court has repeatedly rejected claims that it is error for a trial court to allow the State to pursue a felony murder theory when the indictment gave no notice of the theory. Gudinas [v. State], 693 So.2d [953, 964 (Fla.1997)]. Williams, 967 So.2d at 758-59. Appellate counsel cannot be deemed ineffective for failing to raise a claim which `would in all probability' have been without merit or would have been procedurally barred on direct appeal. Mansfield v. State, 911 So.2d 1160, 1178 (Fla.2005) (quoting Williamson v. Dugger, 651 So.2d 84, 86 (Fla. 1994)). Consequently, appellate counsel cannot be considered ineffective here. Dessaure also asserts that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to assert that the trial court erred by instructing the jury on sexual battery when it was not charged in the indictment and when there was insufficient evidence to support it. But this Court has also rejected the claim that the indictment must provide notice of the underlying felonies used to prove felony murder. See id. at 1178-79. Because the State has no obligation to charge felony murder in the indictment, it similarly has no obligation to give notice of the underlying felonies that it will rely upon to prove felony murder. Id. at 1179 (quoting Kearse v. State, 662 So.2d 677, 682 (Fla.1995)). And despite Dessaure's assertion to the contrary, there was ample evidence here to support that a sexual battery occurredthe victim was found naked and face down on the floor; Dessaure's semen was found on a towel near the victim's body and on her bed linens; and a witness testified that Dessaure told him he struck the victim and began having sex with her. Therefore, this claim is meritless, and counsel cannot be ineffective for not raising it on appeal.