Opinion ID: 1822656
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: denial of a full and fair hearing

Text: In his first issue on appeal, Lightbourne alleges that he was denied a full and fair hearing for several reasons, including the time limits imposed by this Court and the trial court as well as his inability to present certain evidence after the DOC revised the protocol in August 2007. He also complains about his counsel not being able to observe a walk through lethal injection training session conducted in the actual death chamber. We conclude that none of these issues individually or collectively denied Lightbourne a full and fair hearing or prevented this Court from obtaining a complete picture of the issues raised by Lightbourne regarding his lethal injection claim and any alleged deficiencies. The bottom line, despite numerous complaints raised by Lightbourne, is that Lightbourne was given ample opportunity over four months, with thirteen days of hearings and voluminous documentary evidence, to present his own witnesses and to cross-examine the witnesses presented by the State concerning both the Diaz execution and the revised lethal injection procedures. While this Court's interest is in the quality rather than the quantity of the testimony presented, the evidentiary hearing was quite extensive. Even after the lethal injection procedures were revised, Lightbourne was given the further opportunity to visit the death chamber and to present additional testimony, including the affidavit of his expert who had already testified and which affidavit was accepted as if he had testified in person. We further conclude that the trial court spent considerable time addressing the issue of public records and that no abuse of discretion occurred in any of its rulings. See Rodriguez v. State, 919 So.2d 1252, 1272-74 (Fla.2005); Provenzano v. Moore, 744 So.2d 413, 415 (Fla.1999). In conclusion, we reject Lightbourne's claim, based on the specific assertions in his brief, that he was denied a full and fair hearing in the proceedings below as a result of the manner in which the trial court conducted the evidentiary hearing and its rulings on evidentiary matters. Cf. Sims v. State, 754 So.2d 657, 665-66 (Fla.2000) (rejecting similar claim).