Opinion ID: 2543852
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Dysfunctional Family Background

Text: Ault next argues that the trial court erred in consolidating twelve proposed nonstatutory mitigating circumstances into the single category of dysfunctional family background, and also in assigning this mitigation little weight. See supra note 3. The trial court's analysis of this mitigation is an acknowledgement that Ault suffered hardships in his upbringing and a statement that the twelve factors constitute a single nonstatutory mitigating circumstance. This Court has permitted trial courts to group into categories proposed mitigating factors that are related in content. For example, in Kearse v. State, 770 So.2d 1119, 1133 (Fla.2000), we found that a trial court had not abused its discretion by grouping thirty-four proposed mitigators into a single category encompassing the defendant's difficult childhood and his psychological and emotional condition because of it. See also Anderson v. State, 863 So.2d 169, 176 n. 6 (Fla.2003) (observing that the trial court consolidated related mitigating circumstances); Reaves v. State, 639 So.2d 1, 6 (Fla.1994) (finding that the trial court reasonably consolidated several proposed mitigating factors into three categories). Here, each of the twelve proposed factors related to abuse and neglect inflicted by Ault's family during his upbringing. Although it is true that, as Ault argues, these factors could have been grouped into a greater number of categories, we find that the trial court did not err in considering them together. Further, there is no indication that the trial court abused its discretion in assigning little weight to the consolidated mitigator. See Lebron, 982 So.2d at 660.