Martin v. State

• Decision Date: 16 January 2020
• Docket Number: No. SC18-1696,No. SC18-214,SC18-214,SC18-1696
• Citation: 311 So.3d 778
• Parties: Arthur James MARTIN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. Arthur James Martin, Petitioner, v. Mark S. Inch, etc., Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

311 So.3d 778

Arthur James MARTIN, Appellant,

v.STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Arthur James Martin, Petitioner,

v.Mark S. Inch, etc., Respondent.

No. SC18-214

No. SC18-1696

Supreme Court of Florida.

January 16, 2020

Robert S. Friedman, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, Dawn B. Macready and Elizabeth Spiaggi, Assistant Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, Northern Region, Tallahassee, Florida, for Appellant/Petitioner

Ashley Moody, Attorney General, and Lisa A. Hopkins, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, for Appellee/Respondent

PER CURIAM.

Arthur James Martin appeals an order of the circuit court denying in part his third amended motion to vacate his conviction of first-degree murder and sentence of death filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851. He further petitions this Court for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), (9), Fla. Const.¹ For the reasons expressed below, we affirm the order of the postconviction court and deny the habeas petition.

FACTS AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Martin was convicted of the 2009 first-degree murder of Javon Daniels. Martin v. State , 151 So. 3d 1184, 1187 (Fla. 2014). The jury recommended the death penalty by a vote of nine to three. Id. at 1189. The trial court followed that recommendation and sentenced Martin to death. Id. at 1190. In the opinion on direct appeal, the Court detailed the facts surrounding the crime:

Two days before the murder, Martin's friend and codefendant Franklin Batie (Batie) was involved in a shooting where he was grazed on the back of the head and neck. On October 28, 2009, the day of the murder, Batie drove Martin to the Weber 5B Apartments in Jacksonville so that Martin could visit someone. Batie drove his car, a white Ford, to the apartment complex, and he remained in the car while Martin got out of the car and engaged in conversation. In the back seat of the Ford was Batie's loaded .45 caliber handgun. The gun was equipped with a thirty-round magazine.

While Batie remained in the car and waited for Martin, he noticed a white [Toyota] sport utility vehicle (SUV) and thought that he recognized the driver of the SUV as the person who shot him days earlier. Batie retrieved his gun from the backseat and mentioned to Martin that he possibly recognized the driver as having tried to shoot him. Martin then took Batie's gun and went to the driver's side of the SUV and began firing multiple shots at the driver, nineteen-year-old Daniels. When Daniels tried to escape through the passenger side of the SUV, Martin walked around the front of the SUV to the passenger side and continued firing. Eyewitness Sebastian Lucas testified that upon reaching the passenger side, Martin "shot him [Daniels] back down in the car." When Martin finished shooting, he walked back to the Ford, and Batie drove Martin home. Daniels died at the scene. Batie drove home to Starke, Florida, where he disposed of his Ford and began driving another vehicle. The murder weapon was never located.

Following the murder, detectives interviewed multiple eyewitnesses who viewed photospreads of possible suspects and identified Martin as the shooter. Some of the witnesses did not know Martin by his given name but by his nicknames, "Beer Belly" or "Shorty Fat." Martin was arrested several days after the murder, and a grand jury later indicted him for first-degree murder. Three days after Martin's arrest, Batie was arrested in Starke. Batie later entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder. After the conclusion of Martin's trial, Batie was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for his role in the murder.

... Multiple eyewitnesses, including codefendant Batie, testified and identified Martin as the person who shot Daniels. One of the eyewitnesses, Tasheana Hart, testified that in the days following the murder, Martin asked her "not to tell" what she saw on the day of the murder and offered her money in exchange for her silence.

The medical examiner, Dr. Valerie Rao, testified that Daniels sustained a total of twelve gunshot wounds

. Daniels was shot in his left hand, left arm, right arm, left side, right side, right thigh, and chest. Four of the gunshot wounds produced fatal injuries to Daniels' lungs, heart, liver, and stomach. ... The gunshot wounds to each of Daniels' arms broke the humerus in each arm, and the gunshot wound to his left hand broke two of the bones in his hand. These broken bones incapacitated Daniels and left him incapable of completing his attempted escape from the SUV.

Id. at 1187-88.

In imposing a sentence of death, the trial court found the existence of three aggravating factors: (1) the murder was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification (CCP); (2) the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel (HAC); and (3) prior violent felony (based upon a prior conviction for second-degree murder). Id. at 1188, 1190. Each aggravating factor was given great weight. Id. at 1190. The trial court found one statutory mitigating circumstance: Martin's age (forty years old at the time of the murder), which was given slight weight "based on minimal evidence of Martin's significant emotional immaturity." Id. With respect to the nonstatutory mitigating circumstances proposed by Martin, the trial court found as follows:

(1) Martin is functionally illiterate (slight weight); (2) Martin has a learning disability (slight weight); (3) Martin has low cognitive functioning (some weight); (4) Martin suffered a lifetime of poor health, including asthma

, diabetes, and sleep apnea (slight weight); (5) Martin was a loving and caring son (slight weight); (6) Martin was a hard worker (slight weight); (7) Martin was generous (slight weight); (8) Martin was reverent (slight weight); (9) Martin was a loving and caring brother (slight weight); (10) Martin's love of work was often thwarted by his poor physical health (very slight weight); (11) Martin's childhood was plagued by the excessive alcohol consumption and fighting of his parents

(some weight); (12) Martin was respectful to the judge and other officers of the court (very slight weight); (13) sentencing Martin to death is disproportionate and disparate given Batie's sentence to life imprisonment (rejected as not proven); and (14) the jury recommendation was not unanimous (proven, but no weight assigned).

Id. at 1190 n.4. The trial court also found and gave slight weight to two nonstatutory mitigating circumstances that were not proposed by Martin: (1) Martin had "temper issues"; and (2) when Martin was a child, he was attacked by other children. Id. at 1190 n.5.

On direct appeal, Martin raised four issues: (1) whether the trial court made improper findings of fact and gave insufficient consideration in mitigation to Martin's intellectual functioning; (2) whether the trial court failed to consider, find, and weigh as a mitigating circumstance that Martin had a history of drug and alcohol abuse; (3) whether the trial court erred in finding the CCP and HAC aggravating factors; and (4) whether Florida's death penalty sentencing scheme was unconstitutional under Ring v. Arizona , 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002). 151 So. 3d at 1190. We rejected each claim, concluded there was sufficient evidence to sustain the conviction, and determined the death sentence was proportionate. Id. at 1190-99. Accordingly, we affirmed Martin's conviction and sentence. Id. at 1199.²

Martin filed his initial rule 3.851 motion for postconviction relief on February 18, 2016, but it was stricken. His first amended motion was also stricken. On March 31, 2016, Martin filed his second amended motion for postconviction relief, raising nine claims: (1) Martin is intellectually disabled and, therefore, his execution would violate the United States and Florida Constitutions; (2) trial counsel was ineffective during jury selection by (a) failing to conduct a meaningful death qualification of the jury, (b) failing to educate the jury on the penalty-phase process, (c) failing to inquire about racial bias, and (d) diminishing the jury's role in sentencing in violation of Caldwell v. Mississippi , 472 U.S. 320, 105 S.Ct. 2633, 86 L.Ed.2d 231 (1985), and failing to object to comments that minimized the role of the jury; (3) trial counsel was ineffective during the guilt phase by failing to (a) conduct an adequate investigation, (b) adequately argue pretrial motions in limine, (c) effectively cross-examine guilt-phase witnesses, (d) present the testimony of two eyewitnesses, (e) litigate and challenge the photographic identifications, (f) hire a forensic consultant or ballistics expert, and (g) adequately challenge the evidence during closing statements and present a viable defense; (4) prosecutorial misconduct during the guilt phase; (5) trial counsel was ineffective during the penalty phase by failing to (a) conduct an adequate mitigation investigation, (b) adequately prepare the defense expert who evaluated Martin for intellectual disability, and (c) challenge aggravating factors and present mitigating circumstances; (6) Martin was denied his right to a qualified mental health expert pursuant to Ake v. Oklahoma , 470 U.S. 68, 105 S.Ct. 1087, 84 L.Ed.2d 53 (1985) ; (7) cumulative error; (8) Florida's lethal injection protocol is cruel and unusual punishment; and (9) Martin's death sentence violates Hurst v. Florida , 577 U.S. 92, 136 S. Ct. 616, 193 L.Ed.2d 504 (2016), and Caldwell .

The postconviction court scheduled an evidentiary hearing on claims (1), (2)(b), (3)(a), (3)(c)-(g), (5)(a), 5(b), and all but one subpart of (5)(c)—the failure to challenge the prior violent felony aggravating factor. Thereafter, the court allowed Martin to file a third amended motion for postconviction relief to add a tenth claim alleging Brady and Giglio violations.³ During a status conference, the court noted that Martin is entitled to a new penalty phase pursuant to Hurst v....