Opinion ID: 1831265
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Prejudicial Testimony and Prosecutorial Misconduct

Text: Cummings-El contends that his appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to raise on direct appeal the claims that the trial court committed fundamental error by allowing the introduction of prejudicial testimony and by allowing improper prosecutorial comments during the penalty phase. When evaluating an ineffective assistance of appellate counsel claim raised in a writ of habeas corpus, this Court must determine first, whether the alleged omissions are of such magnitude as to constitute a serious error or substantial deficiency falling measurably outside the range of professionally acceptable performance and, second, whether the deficiency in performance compromised the appellate process to such a degree as to undermine confidence in the correctness of the result. Pope v. Wainwright, 496 So.2d 798, 800 (Fla.1986). The defendant must allege a specific, serious omission or overt act upon which the claim of ineffective assistance can be based. Freeman v. State, 761 So.2d 1055, 1069 (Fla.2000). In the absence of fundamental error, an appellate attorney has no obligation to raise an issue that was not preserved for review. Rutherford v. Moore, 774 So.2d 637, 646 (Fla.2000). Fundamental error is error that reaches down into the validity of the trial itself to the extent that the verdict of guilty could not have been obtained without the assistance of the alleged error. Kilgore v. State, 688 So.2d 895, 898 (Fla.1996). We find that Cummings-El's appellate counsel was not ineffective for failing to raise the unpreserved claims regarding witness testimony and prosecutorial comments because no fundamental error occurred. Cummings-El's first subclaim involves the penalty-phase testimony of Michael and Daisy Adams. Cummings-El contends that this testimony was cumulative and unduly prejudicial. The record reveals, however, that the witnesses' testimony at these stages was wholly unrelated. During the guilt phase, these witnesses testified with respect to the incidents surrounding the victim's death and the victim's identification of Cummings-El as the perpetrator. During the penalty phase, these witnesses testified regarding the victim's consciousness and awareness of her impending death. The witnesses' testimony at the guilt and penalty phases was therefore not cumulative or unduly prejudicial but was directly relevant to the facts at issue in each separate phase. In his second subclaim, Cummings-El contends that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to assert that the trial court committed fundamental error by allowing the prosecutor to (1) comment on nonstatutory aggravation; (2) suggest that there were matters outside the record that the trial court could consider in determining the ultimate sentence; (3) bolster the weight of the State's evidence by arguing that the trial court had already sanctioned the existence of the felony murder aggravator; (4) argue future dangerousness; and (5) work to inflame the passions of the jury by inviting it to imagine the victim's pain and suffering as it acted out the victim's last moments of life. We find that the record does not support Cummings-El's assertions with regard to these claims. The record instead reveals that the prosecutor's statements did not give rise to any of the errors listed above. Cummings-El has therefore failed to establish fundamental error with regard to these claims.