Anderson v. State
| Decision Date | 09 July 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. SC08-644.,No. SC07-648.,SC07-648.,SC08-644. |
| Parties | Fred ANDERSON, Jr., Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. Fred Anderson, Jr., Petitioner, v. Walter A. McNeil, etc., Respondent. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Bill Jennings, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, Maria D. Chamberlin, Marie-Louise Samuels Parmer, and Nathaniel E. Pucker, Assistant CCR Counsel, Middle Region, Tampa, FL, for Appellant/Petitioner.
Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, and Kenneth S. Nunnelley, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, FL, for Appellee/Respondent.
Fred Anderson, Jr., appeals an order of the circuit court denying his motion to vacate his conviction of first-degree murder and sentence of death filed under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851. He also petitions this Court for a writ of habeas corpus.1 For the reasons explained below, we affirm the circuit court's order denying Anderson's motion for postconviction relief, and we deny Anderson's petition for writ of habeas corpus.
Anderson was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1999 murder of Heather Young. During a bank robbery, Anderson shot Young several times and inflicted multiple fatal wounds. Anderson shot a second victim, Marisha Scott, leaving her paralyzed. Anderson was also convicted of grand theft of a firearm, robbery with a firearm, and the attempted first-degree murder of Marisha Scott. We affirmed Anderson's conviction and sentence on direct appeal, and we set forth detailed facts in that opinion. See Anderson v. State, 863 So.2d 169 (Fla.2003).
Following an evidentiary hearing, the circuit court denied Anderson's motion for postconviction relief. Anderson now challenges the circuit court's postconviction order and raises various claims. He also seeks habeas relief. We begin our opinion by examining the relevant facts of this case. We then turn to the claims raised in Anderson's 3.851 motion. Finally, we address Anderson's habeas claims.
On March 15, 1999, Anderson appeared in court for a violation of community control. Anderson, who was on community control for committing grand theft, was ordered to pay more than $4000 in restitution, but had paid less than $100 at the time that he returned to court. On March 15, the court ordered Anderson to serve one year at a restitution center beginning on March 19, 1999.
On March 18, Anderson visited a friend at the United Southern Bank (USB) in Mount Dora. Also on that day, he stole a single-action revolver from a neighbor's storage building. The hammer on this revolver had to be pulled back and cocked each time before firing.
On the morning of March 19, Anderson returned to the same bank, where he pretended to be a student writing a paper on banking and finance. While there, he spoke with the bank manager and observed the security VCR located in the manager's office. Anderson intended to rob this bank and deposit the money at a second bank in order to pay his outstanding restitution. After visiting the second bank, Anderson called his community control officer to inform her that he had the full amount of restitution.
On March 20, Anderson took a second revolver from his mother's house and headed to the USB with doughnuts and juice, ostensibly to thank the employees for their help the day before. Victims Young and Scott were the only employees working at the time. After leaving the bank briefly, he returned with both revolvers, forced Young and Scott into the bank vault, and ordered them to fill a trash bag with money. Then, after asking the women who wanted to die first, Anderson began firing both revolvers, killing Heather Young and paralyzing Marisha Scott. Anderson fired a total of ten shots, nine of which hit the victims.
The first police officer to arrive on the scene saw Anderson ripping the security equipment from the wall and holding a trash can containing one of the revolvers and more than $70,000 in cash. Another officer at the scene heard Anderson say that he "did it."
Forensic evidence showed that Anderson's hands tested positive for gunshot residue, and his clothes were stained with blood that matched Scott's DNA. Moreover, each of seven bullets retrieved from the scene or from Young's body was linked to or conclusively matched with one of the revolvers. Pathology testimony revealed that decedent Young received seven gunshot wounds, all but one of which could have been fatal by itself. Both Young and Scott suffered blunt force trauma to their heads in addition to gunshot wounds.
Anderson testified on his own behalf at trial. Acknowledging that he had financial problems, Anderson admitted to taking both revolvers, robbing the bank, and shooting Young and Scott.
The jury convicted Anderson of the first-degree murder of Heather Young, the attempted first-degree murder of Marisha Scott, grand theft of a firearm, and robbery with a firearm. At the conclusion of the penalty phase, the jury unanimously recommended the death penalty. The trial court sentenced Anderson to death after finding four aggravating factors and ten nonstatutory mitigating factors. The four aggravating factors were: (1) the murder was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification (CCP); (2) the defendant was previously convicted of another capital felony or of a felony involving the use of threat or violence to the person (prior violent felony)2; (3) the murder was committed by a person previously convicted of a felony and under sentence of imprisonment or placed on community control or on felony probation; and (4) the murder was committed for pecuniary gain. See Anderson v. State, 863 So.2d 169, 175 n. 5 (Fla.2003). This Court affirmed Anderson's conviction and sentence on direct appeal. See id. at 189.
Seeking postconviction relief pursuant to rule 3.851, Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, Anderson filed a motion to vacate judgment of conviction and sentence that raised numerous claims. The circuit court held a Huff3 hearing to determine whether the claims Anderson raised in his motion required an evidentiary hearing. Following the Huff hearing, the court granted an evidentiary hearing where the court considered each of Anderson's claims. Both Anderson and the State presented witnesses at the evidentiary hearing, after which the court entered an order denying relief. Anderson now appeals the circuit court's denial of postconviction relief; he also raises additional claims in his petition for writ of habeas corpus. We will address Anderson's appeal first, then Anderson's habeas petition.
Anderson raises multiple issues in his appeal of the circuit court's denial of postconviction relief. Anderson contends that (1) trial counsel was ineffective for failing to uncover evidence that Anderson was sexually abused as a child; (2) trial counsel was ineffective for failing to ensure an adequate and thorough mental health evaluation that would have uncovered additional mitigating evidence; (3) trial counsel was ineffective for failing to seek the jury instruction regarding merging aggravating factors; (4) trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to or seek to limit the admission of the victims' photographs or both; (5) trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to witness testimony regarding the victims' condition; (6) trial counsel was ineffective for failing to properly object to the admission of blood spatter evidence; (7) trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to prosecutorial statements regarding the balancing of aggravating and mitigating factors; (8) trial counsel was ineffective for failing to properly object to and preserve certain comments by the prosecutor during closing argument; (9) Anderson was denied due process when he was shackled at trial; (10) the trial court erred in denying Anderson's motion to interview jurors; (11) Anderson was deprived of a competent mental health evaluation; and (12) the combination of procedural and substantive errors deprived Anderson of a fundamentally fair trial.
Anderson asserts various claims of ineffective assistance of counsel and argues that the circuit court should have granted postconviction relief. Following the United States Supreme Court's decision in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), this Court has held that for ineffective assistance of counsel claims to be successful, two requirements must be satisfied:
First, the claimant must identify particular acts or omissions of the lawyer that are shown to be outside the broad range of reasonably competent performance under prevailing professional standards. Second, the clear, substantial deficiency shown must further be demonstrated to have so affected the fairness and reliability of the proceeding that confidence in the outcome is undermined. A court considering a claim of ineffectiveness of counsel need not make a specific ruling on the performance component of the test when it is clear that the prejudice component is not satisfied.
Maxwell v. Wainwright, 490 So.2d 927, 932 (Fla.1986) (citations omitted).
Because both prongs of the Strickland test present mixed questions of law and fact, this Court employs a mixed standard of review, deferring to the circuit court's factual findings that are supported by competent, substantial evidence, but reviewing the circuit court's legal conclusions de novo. See Sochor v. State, 883 So.2d 766, 771-72 (Fla.2004).
There is a strong presumption that trial counsel's performance was not ineffective. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 690, 104 S.Ct. 2052. "A fair assessment of attorney performance requires that every effort be made to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances of counsel's challenged conduct, and to...
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