Opinion ID: 528434
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Verdict of Guilty (Claim 9)

Text: 67 Bertolotti argues that the verdict of guilty may have been based on an impermissible ground and thus must be reversed. This claim is styled both as a claim on the merits, and as a claim asserting ineffective assistance of appellate counsel. See Evitts v. Lucey, 469 U.S. 387, 396, 105 S.Ct. 830, 836, 83 L.Ed.2d 821 (1985) (defendant entitled to effective assistance of counsel on as-of-right appeal). Because appellate counsel failed to raise this claim on Bertolotti's direct appeal, the Florida Supreme Court imposed a procedural bar. Bertolotti v. Dugger, 514 So.2d at 1096. The Florida court reached the merits of the ineffectiveness claim, holding that appellate counsel was not incompetent for failing to raise the claim on direct appeal, because trial counsel had failed to preserve the claim at trial; essentially, appellate counsel was not ineffective because trial counsel's error barred the claim. Id. at 1097. 68 This is not the case of a meritorious claim hung in a procedural tangle. Bertolotti argues that insufficient evidence was adduced to convict him of sexual battery and burglary, and that therefore, a verdict of felony murder must be void because it may have been predicated upon either of those two felonies. Bertolotti's basis for this claim is the following statement in the trial court's sentencing order: 69 The capital felony was committed while the Defendant was engaged, ... in the commission of a robbery. The Defendant in his voluntary statement admitted that he robbed the victim of approximately thirty dollars at knifepoint. There is strong evidence that the capital crime was committed while the Defendant was also engaged in a burglary and rape, but those factors were not proven beyond every reasonable doubt. Aggravating factor found as to robbery only. 70 (Emphasis in original). The trial judge did not, by this finding, hold that the state produced insufficient evidence to convict Bertolotti of the substantive crimes of burglary or sexual abuse. Rather, the trial judge decided that he would not take the crimes into consideration as aggravating factors justifying imposition of the death penalty. As the judge stated, strong evidence did support the state's allegation that Bertolotti committed burglary and sexual abuse: the state offered testimony that the victim was afraid of strangers and would not likely have invited a stranger into the home; the victim's body was discovered partially nude, and exhibited signs of sexual intercourse. Although a lawyer might argue that the trial judge's use of the term reasonable doubt signified that the state had not produced sufficient evidence to convict the defendant, when the term is considered in context it is clear that the judge did not intend to make an insufficiency finding applicable to the guilt phase of the trial. Bertolotti's claim on the merits is quite tenuous; counsel clearly cannot be held ineffective for deciding not to advance the claim on appeal.