Hall v. State

• Decision Date: 20 December 2012
• Docket Number: No. SC10-1335,SC10-1335
• Parties: FREDDIE LEE HALL, Appellant, v. STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

FREDDIE LEE HALL, Appellant, v. STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee.

No. SC10-1335

Supreme Court of Jfloriba

December 20, 2012

PER CURIAM.

This case is before the Court on appeal of an order denying a motion to vacate a sentence of death under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.203. Because the order concerns postconviction relief from a sentence of death, this Court has jurisdiction of the appeal under article V, section 3(b)(1), Florida Constitution. For the reasons expressed herein, we affirm the order denying relief.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Freddie Lee Hall was tried and convicted in Putnam County for the 1978 murder of Karol Hurst. Hall v. State (Hall I), 403 So. 2d 1321, 1323 (Fla. 1981).We upheld Hall's conviction and sentence on direct appeal. Id. at 1325.

On September 9, 1982, the governor signed Hall's first death warrant, effective for the week of October 1 through 8, 1982. Hall v. State (Hall II), 420 So. 2d 872, 873 (Fla. 1982). Hall filed a motion to vacate, a petition for writ of habeas corpus, and an application for a stay of execution, all of which were denied. Id. Hall then sought habeas corpus relief in the federal court, which was denied without an evidentiary hearing. Hall v. Wainwright (Hall III), 733 F.2d 766, 769 (11th Cir. 1984), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1107 (1985). Hall appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which reversed in part and remanded for a hearing. Id. at 777 (finding that Hall was entitled to a hearing on the issues of his absence from the courtroom and whether he deliberately bypassed his ineffective assistance of counsel claim).

On remand, the district court again denied relief, finding that Hall's absences from trial occurred during non-critical stages and were therefore harmless, and that he deliberately bypassed the ineffective assistance of counsel claim. Hall v. Wainwright (Hall IV), 805 F.2d 945, 946 (11th Cir. 1986), cert. denied, Hall v. Dugger, 484 U.S. 905 (1987). The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the denial. Id. at 948. Hall then petitioned this Court for habeas corpus relief based on the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Hitchcock v. Dugger, 481 U.S. 393 (1987) (holding that all mitigating factors, not just statutory mitigation, should beconsidered by the judge and jury). This Court held that any error in the sentencing was harmless. Hall v. Dugger (Hall V), 531 So. 2d 76, 77 (Fla. 1988).

The governor then signed a second death warrant on September 20, 1988. Hall v. State (Hall VI), 541 So. 2d 1125, 1126 (Fla. 1989). Hall filed his second 3.850 motion, alleging error under Hitchcock v. Dugger, 481 U.S. 393 (1987). The trial court found that this Court's ruling on the issue in Hall V was a procedural bar to Hall raising the claim again. Hall VI, 541 So. 2d at 1126. We disagreed, stating that the "case involves significant additional non-record facts" that had not been considered on habeas review. Id. Ultimately, we determined that a Hitchcock error occurred, and that such error could not be considered harmless. Id. at 1128. We then vacated Hall's death sentence and remanded for a new sentencing proceeding. Id.

During the resentencing, the trial court found Hall mentally retarded as a mitigating factor and gave it "unquantifiable" weight. The court again condemned Hall to death, and we affirmed. Hall v. State (Hall VII), 614 So. 2d 473, 479 (Fla. 1993). Hall sought postconviction relief, which was denied. Hall v. State (Hall VIII), 742 So. 2d 225, 230 (Fla. 1999). We affirmed the denial. Id. at 230. In finding that the trial court properly denied Hall's claim that the court erred in finding him competent to proceed at the resentencing, we stated "While there is no doubt that [Hall] has serious mental difficulties, is probably somewhat retarded,and certainly has learning difficulties and a speech impediment, the Court finds that [Hall] was competent at the resentencing hearings." Id. at 229.

After Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), was decided, Hall filed a motion to declare section 921.137, Florida Statutes (2004),¹ unconstitutional. While the motion was pending, we adopted Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.203 as a mechanism to file Atkins claims. Hall timely filed such a claim on November 30, 2004. No action was taken on the motion until, on March 27, 2008, Hall filed a motion to prohibit relitigation of the mental retardation issue, which was denied. The court then held an evidentiary hearing on Hall's successive motion to vacate his sentence.

At the evidentiary hearing held on December 7 and 8, 2009, Hall presented testimony from Dr. Valerie McClain, who testified that she did not obtain Hall's IQ; Lugene Ellis, Hall's half-brother, who testified about his recollection of Hall as a child; James Hall, Hall's brother, who testified regarding Hall's problems with reading, writing, and caring for himself; Dr. Harry Krop, who testified that Hall's IQ using the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Revises was 73 and that a prior result on the same test given by Marilyn Feldman resulted in a score of 80; and Dr.Gregory Prichard, who testified that Hall scored a 71 on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Third Edition (WAIS-III). Hall sought to introduce a report compiled by then-deceased Dr. Bill Mosman through Dr. Prichard, but the court denied it and only allowed Hall to proffer the report for the record. After reviewing the evidence presented, the court determined that Hall could not meet the first prong of the mental retardation standard to establish his mental retardation—an IQ below 70. The court denied relief in an order issued May 26, 2010, and entered an amended order on June 16, 2010.

Hall appeals the court's denial, raising four claims: (1) the trial court's finding that Hall is not mentally retarded is not supported by competent, substantial evidence; (2) the trial court erred in granting the State's motion in limine that limited the evidence Hall could present on his mental retardation claim; (3) the trial court erred by striking Dr. Mosman's report; and (4) the trial court should have imposed a life sentence based on the doctrine of collateral estoppel. Because we find that there is competent, substantial evidence to support the court's finding that Hall is not mentally retarded, we affirm.

DISCUSSION

Hall asserts that he is mentally retarded pursuant to Atkins. Further, Hall alleges that his IQ should be read as a range of scores from 67 to 75 and that this Court's adoption of a firm cutoff of 70 or below to qualify as mentally retardedmisapplies the Supreme Court's ruling in Atkins and fails to reflect an understanding of IQ testing. Hall contends that the appropriate standard would (a) include the standard error measurement (SEM), and (b) provide for a score band or range of scores. We recently declined to adopt this "range of scores" argument. See Franqui v. State, 59 So. 3d 82 (Fla. 2011). We again decline to adopt this line of reasoning. As we stated in Franqui:

Nixon asserted, as does Franqui, that the Supreme Court in Atkins noted a consensus in the scientific community that a full scale IQ falling within a range of 70 to 75 meets the first prong of the test for mental retardation; therefore, Nixon contended, states must recognize the higher cut-off IQ score of 75. Nixon, 2 So. 3d at 142. We disagreed, reasoning that Atkins recognized a difference of opinion among various sources as to who should be classified as mentally retarded, and consequently left to the states the task of developing appropriate ways to enforce the constitutional restriction on imposition of the death sentence on mentally retarded persons. Nixon, 2 So. 3d at 142.

Id. at 94 (citing Nixon v. State, 2 So. 3d 147 (Fla. 2009)).

Section 921.137, Florida Statutes (2012), prohibits the trial court from sentencing to death a mentally retarded defendant who is convicted of a capital felony. Section 921.137 provides the governing legal standard for such claims, and rule 3.203 outlines the procedural requirements. Both the statute and rule define the elements of a mental retardation claim as discussed in Atkins: (1) significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning, (2) existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior, and (3) manifested during the period from conception to ageeighteen. See Atkins, 536 U.S. at 318; § 921.137(1), Fla. Stat. (2012); Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.203(b). Subsection (1) of the statute defines mental retardation as:

significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the period from conception to age 18. The term "significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning," for the purpose of this section, means performance that is two or more standard deviations from the mean score on a standardized intelligence test specified in the rules of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities. The term "adaptive behavior," for the purpose of this definition, means the effectiveness or degree with which an individual meets the standards of personal independence and social responsibility expected of his or her age, cultural group, and community. The Agency for Persons with Disabilities shall adopt rules to specify the standardized intelligence tests as provided in this subsection.

§ 921.137(1), Fla. Stat. (2012). This statute was adopted prior to the Supreme Court's ruling in Atkins. See Ch. 2001-202, § 1, Laws of Fla.

In Cherry v. State, 959 So. 2d 702 (2007), we determined the proper interpretation of section 921.137. Cherry argued that an IQ measurement is more appropriately expressed as a range of scores rather than a concrete number because of the SEM. We held:

Both section 921.137 and rule 3.203 provide that significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning means "performance that is two or more standard deviations from the mean score on a standardized intelligence test." One standard deviation on the WAIS-III, the IQ test administered in the

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