Florida Supreme Court affirms Everett Miller's sentences of death
In today’s regular release of opinions, the Florida Supreme Court issued its decision in Everett Miller’s direct appeal, affirming Miller's convictions and sentences of death.
In today’s regular release of opinions, the Florida Supreme Court issued its decision in Everett Miller’s direct appeal.
Miller was convicted and sentenced to death for killing Kissimmee Police Officers Matthew Baxter and Richard “Sam” Howard in 2017. Under Florida’s prior capital sentencing statute, the jury unanimously recommended death on both counts after finding unanimously that the State proved all four aggravating factors beyond a reasonable doubt:
the victim was a law enforcement officer engaged in the performance of his official duties;
the defendant was previously convicted of another capital felony or of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to another person (based on the contemporaneous murders of Officer Baxter and Sergeant Howard);
the capital felony was a homicide and was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification (CCP); and
the capital felony was committed to disrupt or hinder the lawful exercise of any governmental function or the enforcement of the laws.
After a Spencer hearing, the trial court ultimately merged these three aggravators into three, combining #1 and #4 above.
As to mitigation, the trial court “found that one ‘statutory’ mitigator had been proven, namely no significant history of prior criminal activity,” which the trial court assigned moderate weight.” The trial court also found seven categories of nonstatutory mitigation, which were assigned “varying weight.”
On direct appeal, Miller raised seven claims, only one of which related to the guilt phase—that the “trial judge erroneously excluded what Miller describes as ‘heat of passion evidence through the use of mental health experts.’”
The Court denied all claims and affirmed Miller’s convictions and sentences of death.
Justice Labarga concurred in result, reiterating his disagreement with the Court’s 2020 decision to “abandon[] [its] decades-long practice of comparitive proportionality review” on direct appeal.
The full decision can be downloaded here.