Opinion ID: 1572323
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 16

Heading: Constitutionality of Lowe's Death Sentence under Roper v. Simmons

Text: Lowe claims that his death sentence is unconstitutional because the State used prior convictions which arose from crimes committed by Lowe before he was eighteen years of age to establish an aggravating factor, and that the use of the juvenile convictions is in violation of the Eighth Amendment and Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551, 125 S.Ct. 1183, 161 L.Ed.2d 1 (2005). In Roper, the United States Supreme Court held that [t]he Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments forbid imposition of the death penalty on offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed. Id. at 578, 125 S.Ct. 1183. Lowe attempts to expand this prohibition to preclude the State from using as an aggravating factor a conviction for a crime committed by a defendant before he turned eighteen. However, Roper does not stand for this proposition, as this Court has held. See England v. State, 940 So.2d 389 (Fla.2006); Campbell v. State, 571 So.2d 415, 418 (Fla.1990) (finding that prior juvenile convictions can be considered to support the prior violent felony aggravator). Accordingly, habeas relief is denied on this claim.