Opinion ID: 1621175
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Claims V, VI, and VII

Text: Holland alleges that the trial court improperly grouped claims V, VI, and VII together. We disagree. The trial court was correct in grouping these claims because they are all Ring [8] claims, or variants thereof. They allege that Holland's death sentence violated the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution because (1) a judge, rather than a jury, determined the aggravating factors, and (2) the aggravating factors were not pled in the indictment. Furthermore, we affirm the trial court's finding that these claims were without merit. One of the aggravators is a prior violent felony conviction. The felonies on which this aggravator was based are included in the indictment, and the jury unanimously found Holland guilty of them. This Court has repeatedly upheld the constitutionality of Florida's capital sentencing when the prior violent felony aggravator was present. See Duest v. State, 855 So.2d 33, 49 (Fla.2003) (We have previously rejected claims under Apprendi and Ring in cases involving the aggravating factor of a previous conviction of a felony involving violence.), cert. denied, 541 U.S. 993, 124 S.Ct. 2023, 158 L.Ed.2d 500 (2004). Moreover, we have recognized that Ring does not apply retroactively. Johnson v. State, 904 So.2d 400, 422 (Fla.2005).