Opinion ID: 1133692
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Failure to Present Mitigation Convincingly

Text: Looney asserts that Cummings was ineffective for failing to present the available mitigation in an effective manner. He argues that Cummings did not specifically mention any statutory mitigator in his opening or closing statements to the jury at the penalty phase. Looney also stresses that the State enumerated six aggravating factors during its opening statement at the penalty phase that it intended to present to the jury. Looney alleges that Cummings should have enumerated each mitigator individually and secured a jury instruction on each of them in that manner so as to have presented a picture of more mitigators than the aggravators advanced by the State. In the order denying postconviction relief, the trial court addressed the issue of enumerating the mitigators and concluded: Even if the mitigation evidence presented had been enumerated as argued on postconviction relief, it has been repeatedly held by appellant [sic] majorities that a laundry list of enumeration of mitigation aspects or factors relating to a defendant's character, record and background is not required to supplant the standard Section 941.141(6)(h) approved jury instruction form. As has been indicated such a specific enumeration may create real risk of misleading a jury into not considering some mitigation aspect with respect to a defendant's background, character, or record that it has heard because it has not been included in any enumeration. The mitigation presented would not have been provided any more impact or weight for its consideration if it had been teased or parsed into tiny bits and given multiple enumeration for multiplicative matching purposes against the State's aggravators. The jury was not left with the impression that the mitigation they could consider was limited nor that mitigation not specifically designated as statutory could not impact or be weighed against the State's statutory aggravators. Contrary to defendant's assertions that his case went to the jury with no statutory mitigators and only a grouping of nonstatutory mitigation, his case went to the jury with two statutory mitigators and a host of further nonstatutory mitigation. Furthermore, counsel made it clear and ably argued that any mitigator could outweigh all of the aggravators argued by the State. With respect to Looney's general argument regarding the method in which trial counsel presented mitigation, the methods Cummings selected would be considered trial strategy. This Court has established that strategic decisions do not constitute ineffective assistance of counsel if alternative courses have been considered and rejected and counsel's decision was reasonable under the norms of professional conduct. Howell v. State, 877 So.2d 697, 703 (Fla.2004) (quoting Occhicone v. State, 768 So.2d 1037, 1048 (Fla.2000)). Cummings testified at the evidentiary hearing that he attempted to convey Looney's sad background through the witness testimony available to him. Explaining his decision to present Looney's background in this manner, Cummings testified that he presented the mitigation as he did [t]o try to paint the picture the best we could of what Jason had been through with the individuals that were willing to cooperate. After weighing all the postconviction testimony, the trial court did not find Cummings' performance ineffective and we agree.