Opinion ID: 1643910
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Florida's Capital Sentencing Statute and Penalty-Phase Jury Instructions

Text: Wheeler next claims that Florida's capital sentencing statute and jury instructions are unconstitutional because they establish a presumption that death is the appropriate penalty and shift the burden of persuasion to the defendant. Similar claims have consistently been rejected by this Court. See Lebron v. State, 982 So.2d 649, 666 (Fla.2008) (penalty-phase instructions do not improperly shift burden of proof to the defendant); Barnhill v. State, 971 So.2d 106, 117 (Fla.2007) (Florida's death penalty statute and jury instructions do not unconstitutionally shift the burden of proof); Rogers v. State, 957 So.2d 538, 555 (Fla.2007) (recognizing that the standard penalty-phase jury instructions do not impermissibly shift the burden to the defense to prove that death is not the appropriate sentence); Reynolds v. State, 934 So.2d 1128, 1151 (Fla.2006) (rejecting claim that capital sentencing statute and instruction unconstitutionally place a higher burden on the defendant to establish that life is the appropriate penalty than is placed on the State to establish that death is appropriate). Because this Court has previously rejected the same challenges to the death penalty statute and jury instructions, Wheeler's claim for relief on this issue is also denied.