Florida Supreme Court affirms Leo Boatman's death sentence

In today's regular release of opinions, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed Leo Boatman's death sentence on direct appeal.

This morning, as part of its regular release of opinions, the Florida Supreme Court issued its opinion in Boatman v. State.

Leo Boatman was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for crimes that occurred in July 2019 when he was an inmate at Florida State Prison. During the penalty phase, Boatman waived and dismissed the jury.

This was his direct appeal. Boatman raised 15 issues on appeal, including that the trial court improperly determined he was competent to stand trial. In a per curiam opinion, the Court denied each claim and affirmed Boatman’s conviction and sentence.

Justice Labarga concurred in result, noting his disagreement with the Court “abandon[ing] its decades-long practice of comparative proportionality review in the direct appeals of sentence of death.”

The full opinion can be downloaded here.