Opinion ID: 1934919
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: constitutional validity of florida's death penalty scheme

Text: Owen next challenges the constitutional validity of Florida's death penalty scheme. We recently addressed Owen's contention that the Florida death penalty scheme is unconstitutional in Bottoson v. Moore, 833 So.2d 693 (Fla.), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 1070, 123 S.Ct. 662, 154 L.Ed.2d 564 (2002), and King v. Moore, 831 So.2d 143 (Fla.), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 1067, 123 S.Ct. 657, 154 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002), and denied relief. Owen is likewise not entitled to relief on this claim. Further, Owen's specific argument that his death sentence was unconstitutionally imposed because Florida's capital sentencing scheme fails to require that aggravating circumstances be enumerated and charged in the indictment and by further failing to require specific, unanimous jury findings of aggravating circumstances is unquestionably without merit. Recently, in Doorbal v. State, 837 So.2d 940 (Fla.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 123 S.Ct. 2647, 156 L.Ed.2d 663 (2003), we held, Because [the prior violent felonies] were charged by indictment, and a jury unanimously found Doorbal guilty of them, the prior violent felony aggravator alone clearly satisfies the mandates of the United States and Florida Constitutions, and therefore imposition of the death penalty was constitutional. Id. at 963. As in Doorbal, the death penalty was constitutionally imposed upon Owen in light of the fact that the trial court properly applied the prior violent felony aggravating factor. Notably, the trial court highlighted the fact that Owen conceded that the prior violent felony aggravator was applicable in his case. Owen's final argument is that the murder in the course of a felony aggravating factor is unconstitutional. We have repeatedly rejected this contention. See Johnson v. Moore, 837 So.2d 343, 348 (Fla. 2002); Blanco v. State, 706 So.2d 7, 11 (Fla.1997). In Blanco, we wrote: Eligibility for this aggravating circumstance is not automatic: [t]he list of enumerated felonies in the provision defining felony murder is larger than the list of enumerated felonies in the provision defining the aggravating circumstance of commission during the course of an enumerated felony. A person can commit felony murder via trafficking, carjacking, aggravated stalking, or unlawful distribution, and yet be ineligible for this particular aggravating circumstance. This scheme thus narrows the class of death-eligible defendants. 706 So.2d at 11 (footnotes omitted).