Opinion ID: 1759912
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Mitigation related to Douglas's abusive childhood assigned little weight

Text: Lastly, Douglas asserts that the trial court erred in assigning little weight to the mitigating circumstances related to Douglas's abusive childhood because the abuse was remote in time. [11] Abuse suffered by a defendant as a child is mitigating in nature. Walker v. State, 707 So.2d 300, 318 (Fla.1997); see also Nibert v. State, 574 So.2d 1059, 1062 (Fla.1990). However, the weight given to this mitigating circumstance is within the trial court's discretion. See Morton v. State, 789 So.2d 324, 332 (Fla.2001); see also Blanco, 706 So.2d at 10 (stating that the weight given to a mitigating circumstance is within the trial court's discretion) (citing Campbell, 571 So.2d at 420). In Morton, we concluded that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in assigning little weight to the defendant's abusive childhood where the trial court found: (1) the abuse stopped when [the defendant] was eight years old when his mother divorced her abusive husband and remarried, thereby providing a substitute stable father figure; (2) there had been no showing that these experiences diminished [the defendant's] ability to know right from wrong or ... know the seriousness and grave consequences of his acts; and (3) the defendant's sister, who had also been abused, including sexually abused by the same alcoholic father, proceeded to live a normal and productive life. 789 So.2d at 332 (internal quotation marks omitted). The evidence presented in this case is similar to Morton. Douglas's father left home when Douglas was nine or ten years old and Douglas's mother subsequently had long-term relationships with two men, one of whom is now Douglas's stepfather, who were kind to Douglas and were not at all abusive towards him. In addition, many witnesses testified that Douglas had a close-knit, supportive family, a circumstance the trial court also considered in mitigation. Accordingly, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in giving little weight to the mitigating factors relating to Douglas's abusive childhood.