Ritchie v. State
Decision Date | 09 June 2022 |
Docket Number | SC20-1422 |
Parties | GRANVILLE RITCHIE, Appellant, v. STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee. |
Court | Florida Supreme Court |
NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING MOTION AND, IF FILED, DETERMINED.
An Appeal from the Circuit Court in and for Hillsborough County Deborah Michelle Sisco, Judge Case No. 292014CF011992000AHC
Howard L. "Rex" Dimmig, II, Public Defender, Rachel Paige Roebuck and Steven L. Bolotin, Assistant Public Defenders Tenth Judicial Circuit, Bartow, Florida, for Appellant
Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, and Rick A Buchwalter, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, Florida, for Appellee
Granville Ritchie appeals his convictions and sentences, including his judgment of conviction of first-degree murder and his sentence of death. We have jurisdiction, see art. V § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const., and for the reasons below affirm Ritchie's convictions and sentences.
Ritchie sexually battered and strangled to death the nine-year-old child victim in this case, F.W., who had been left in Ritchie's care by a friend of the child's family. Ritchie then dumped the victim's body in the water off of the Courtney Campbell Causeway and fabricated a story about her disappearance. The victim's body was found washed up against the shoreline the day after she had been left alone with Ritchie, and Ritchie was later arrested and indicted on three counts of alleged crimes against the victim: (1) first-degree murder; (2) sexual battery of a victim less than twelve years of age by a defendant over the age of eighteen; and (3) aggravated child abuse. Ritchie's jury found him guilty as charged on all three counts. As to first-degree murder, the jury found that the killing was both premeditated murder and felony murder.
Although Ritchie does not concede guilt, he concedes in his initial brief that the evidence presented at trial is legally sufficient to support all three of his convictions. The trial court summarized that evidence in its sentencing order as follows:
Following the guilt-phase verdict, Ritchie's case proceeded to a penalty phase on the first-degree murder conviction. After hearing evidence and argument from the State and Ritchie, the jury unanimously found that the State had established beyond a reasonable doubt the following three aggravating factors: (1) the victim of the capital felony was a person less than twelve years of age, (2) the capital felony was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of a sexual battery, and (3) the capital felony was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel (HAC). The jury further unanimously found that the aggravating factors proven by the State beyond a reasonable doubt are sufficient to warrant a possible sentence of death. One or more individual jurors found that one or more mitigating factors were established by the greater weight of the evidence. The jury then unanimously found that the aggravating factors proven by the State beyond a reasonable doubt outweigh the established mitigating circumstances. Finally, the jury unanimously recommended the death penalty.
After holding a Spencer[1] hearing at which neither party presented additional witnesses or evidence, the trial court followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Ritchie to death.[2] In its sentencing order, the trial court found that the State had proven beyond a reasonable doubt all three of the aggravating factors found by the jury. The trial court assigned great weight to each aggravator and further found the aggravating factors sufficient to warrant the imposition of a death sentence. Regarding mitigation, the trial court rejected several of Ritchie's proposed statutory and nonstatutory mitigating circumstances, but found and assigned moderate weight to the statutory mitigating circumstance that Ritchie had no significant history of prior criminal activity. The trial court also found and assigned the noted weight to the following nonstatutory mitigating circumstances: (1) defendant suffered mental and physical abuse by his father and defendant's father was often absent because of four different families (moderate weight); (2) defendant was raised in a poverty-stricken and violent neighborhood in Kingston, Jamaica (little weight); (3) defendant was the oldest of eighteen siblings and helped raised them (little weight); (4) defendant was gainfully employed at various jobs (little weight); and (5) defendant was kind and generous to others and possesses other positive redeeming qualities (little weight). In imposing the death sentence, the trial court found that the aggravating factors "heavily outweigh" the mitigating circumstances.
Ritchie now appeals.
In this direct appeal, Ritchie challenges his sentence of death.[3]He argues that he is entitled to a new penalty phase because (1) the cumulative impact of improper comments by the prosecutor during the penalty phase closing argument deprived him of a fair penalty phase; (2) Florida law regarding the...
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