Opinion ID: 1697443
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Nixon/Cronic in Closing Arguments at Sentencing

Text: Gamble next argues that the penalty phase concessions made by counsel that contradict guilt phase arguments are entitled to the per se ineffectiveness of counsel analysis of Nixon and Cronic. The trial court held that Nixon does not apply to concessions made in the penalty phase trial since guilt is no longer at issue. The court concluded that it would have been preposterous for the defense attorney to argue in the penalty phase that pecuniary gain was not proven when only one day before, a unanimous jury had found that the evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had committed armed robbery of the victim. Recently, we held that defense counsel is not ineffective for conceding an aggravating circumstance in a penalty phase trial when the facts of the aggravating circumstance were proven in the guilt phase trial. See Schwab v. State, 814 So.2d 402 (Fla.2002). In Schwab, the defendant argued that trial counsel was ineffective for stipulating to the aggravator of a murder during a commission of an enumerated felony. However, the defendant had just been convicted of sexual battery of a child and kidnapping. We held that, [g]iven these concurrent felony convictions, counsel was not ineffective for acknowledging this fact. Schwab, 814 So.2d at 413; see also Patton v. State, 784 So.2d 380, 390 (Fla.2000) (finding facts counsel conceded were supported by the overwhelming evidence and, even if counsel had denied these facts, there was no reasonable possibility jury would have rendered different verdict). As in Schwab, the jury in this case had just found Gamble guilty of crimes that served as the factual basis for the concessions made by counsel in the penalty phase trial. Gamble was found guilty of conspiracy to commit armed robbery, armed robbery, and murder in the first degree. The trial court was correct that it would have been preposterous for penalty-phase defense counsel to argue that no facts in the record established pecuniary gain when the jury found, beyond a reasonable doubt, that they did. Nixon addresses a situation where an attorney concedes facts in opening statement that have not yet been adequately tested in an adversarial proceeding. Once the case reaches the penalty phase, certain facts have been tested in an adversarial proceeding and have been established beyond a reasonable doubt. Acknowledging those facts falls within the acceptable range of reasonable professional assistance. Because this is not a case where defense counsel conceded an aggravator that required proof of additional facts not established in the guilt-phase trial, Nixon has no application. Thus, we affirm the denial of post-conviction relief on this claim.