Opinion ID: 1744995
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Background Mitigation

Text: Jones also asserts that trial counsel was ineffective in failing to present additional witnesses to corroborate his sister's testimony about his traumatic childhood. During the penalty phase, Jones and his sister, Betty Stewart, testified at length about his difficult childhood. After trial counsel personally interviewed Jones's family, he selected Stewart to testify to the exclusion of other family members. Trial counsel decided on Stewart because, in addition to helping raise Jones while their mother was incarcerated, she was a 16-year veteran of the Miami-Dade County Police Department and was articulate, measured, and very knowledgeable about Jones's upbringing. In trial counsel's opinion, Stewart was the best person to explain ... the family dynamics as they were when [Jones] was growing up. Trial counsel's strategic decision to call Stewart to testify about Jones's childhood was made after considering alternative witnesses. Therefore, Jones has not demonstrated that the trial court erred in finding counsel's performance was reasonable under the norms of professional conduct. See Occhicone v. State, 768 So.2d 1037, 1048 (Fla.2000) ([S]trategic decisions do not constitute ineffective assistance of counsel if alternative courses have been considered and rejected and counsel's decision was reasonable under the norms of professional conduct.) Even if we were to find counsel's performance deficient, Jones cannot demonstrate prejudice. At the evidentiary hearing, Jones presented several witnesses, including family members and his youth football coach, to support his claim that counsel was ineffective in failing to present sufficient background mitigation. The testimony, however, was cumulative to that presented at the penalty phase. We have repeatedly held that counsel is not ineffective for failing to present cumulative evidence. See, e.g., Darling v. State, 966 So.2d 366, 377-78 (Fla.2007); Whitfield v. State, 923 So.2d 375, 386 (Fla.2005). Furthermore, based on testimony presented at trial, the trial court found, as a nonstatutory mitigating circumstance, that Jones suffered from childhood trauma and a difficult childhood. The additional testimony would only have added to this mitigation. In light of the aggravation in this case, Jones's sentence would not have been different had the court given more weight to the nonstatutory mitigator.