Opinion ID: 2815834
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Whether the Sentence of Death is Proportional

Text: Although Doty’s appointed counsel does not raise this issue on appeal, this Court has an independent obligation to review the proportionality of a sentence of death regardless of whether it is raised by a party. See England v. State, 940 So. 2d 389, 407 (Fla. 2006); Fla. R. App. P. 9.142(a)(5). In its review, this Court undertakes a “comprehensive analysis in order to determine whether the crime falls within the category of both the most aggravated and the least mitigated of murders, thereby assuring uniformity in the application of the sentence.” Silvia v. State, 60 So. 3d 959, 973 (Fla. 2011) (quoting Anderson v. State, 841 So. 2d 390, 407-08 (Fla. 2003)). In performing this review, this Court considers the totality of the circumstances and compares the case with other similar capital cases. See Duest v. State, 855 So. 2d 33, 47 (Fla. 2003). This Court does not simply compare the number of aggravating and mitigating circumstances, but rather performs a qualitative review of the underlying basis for each aggravator and mitigator. See Silvia, 60 So. 3d at 973. In this case, the jury recommended that Doty be sentenced to death by a vote of ten to two. The trial court found three aggravating circumstances: (1) Doty had a prior violent felony conviction (assigned very great weight); (2) the capital felony was committed by a person under sentence of imprisonment (assigned great weight); and (3) the capital felony was CCP (assigned great weight). - 26 - The trial court weighed this aggravation against seven nonstatutory mitigating factors: (1) Doty cooperated with authorities and reported the incident (given some weight); (2) Doty was emotionally neglected and abandoned as a child and exposed to physical abuse (given moderate weight); (3) the prison environment is a different environment from life outside of prison and Doty perceived the victim as a threat in that environment (given very little weight); (4) Doty had a diagnostic and mental health history for emotional disorder (given some weight); (5) Doty perceives violent behavior as acceptable (given little weight); (6) the juvenile justice system failed Doty (given moderate weight); and (7) Doty exhibited good conduct throughout the court proceedings (given some weight). The trial court rejected HAC as an aggravator and rejected Doty’s proposed mitigation that he had positive attributes that reflected a potential for him to be a contributing member to a prison setting. In addition, the trial court carefully analyzed each statutory mitigator provided in section 921.141, Florida Statutes (2013), and rejected all of the enumerated mitigators because Doty did not submit any evidence to support them. The trial court then found that the aggravators outweighed the mitigation and sentenced Doty to death. Comparing the death sentence in this case to other capital cases, we recognize that this case is exceedingly similar to the facts and circumstances of Gill v. State, 14 So. 3d 946 (Fla. 2009), a case in which the defendant was - 27 - convicted of murder after he strangled his cellmate. Similar to this case, Gill had planned to kill an inmate for a substantial time before he killed his cellmate, and then, after the murder, cooperated with authorities and admitted to the murder. Id. at 950-53. Gill killed his cellmate for the purpose of obtaining the death penalty and had previously warned numerous people that he had no intention of spending the rest of his life in prison and would kill again in order achieve this goal. That case involves the same three aggravators that were found in this case: (1) Gill was under a life sentence for a prior murder at the time he murdered his cellmate; (2) Gill had previously been convicted of another capital felony, i.e., the prior murder; and (3) the killing was CCP. Id. at 964. Further, Gill presented significant mitigation, including an uncontested mental illness he had since childhood. Id. at 965-67. This Court found that the sentence of death was proportional. Id. at 96566; see also Kilgore v. State, 688 So. 2d 895 (Fla. 1996) (holding that the sentence of death was proportional after the defendant stabbed a fellow inmate to death, where the trial court found two aggravators—the defendant was under a sentence of imprisonment at the time of the murder and was previously convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of violence—and weighed those aggravators against two statutory mitigating factors and three nonstatutory mitigating factors). Accordingly, we hold that the sentence of death is proportional to other cases in which the sentence of death was upheld. - 28 -