Sexton v. State
| Decision Date | 18 September 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. SC07-286.,SC07-286. |
| Citation | 997 So.2d 1073 |
| Parties | Eddie Lee SEXTON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Bill Jennings, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, Robert T. Strain and David Robert Gemmer, Assistant CCR Counsel, Middle Region, Tampa, Florida, for Appellant.
Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, and Stephen D. Ake, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, Florida, for Appellee.
Eddie Lee Sexton appeals an order denying his amended motion to vacate a judgment of conviction of first-degree murder and a sentence of death under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851. This Court has jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the trial court's denial of postconviction relief.
Sexton, who was fifty-two at the time of the murder, was convicted of the 1993 first-degree murder of Joel Good, his son-in-law, and was sentenced to death. His initial conviction was reversed on direct appeal because of admission of unduly prejudicial evidence of Sexton's collateral bad acts. Sexton v. State, 697 So.2d 833, 837-38 (Fla.1997). The case proceeded to a new trial and new sentencing proceeding which resulted in a conviction for first-degree murder and a death sentence. Both his conviction and death sentence were affirmed on direct appeal. See Sexton v. State, 775 So.2d 923, 929, 937 (Fla. 2000).1 The pertinent facts of the case regarding the murder are set forth in this Court's decision affirming Sexton's direct appeal following his retrial:
Sexton was initially tried and convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1994 for the killing of Joel Good, the husband of Sexton's daughter, Estella Mae Good ("Pixie"). Joel was murdered by Sexton's mentally challenged twenty-two-year-old son, Willie Sexton, who strangled him to death under Sexton's direction. On appeal, this Court reversed the judgment and sentence and ordered a new trial....
... The State's theory of prosecution was that Sexton so totally dominated, controlled and directed every facet of Willie's life that Willie killed Joel at Sexton's direction. On retrial, the State introduced the following evidence.
Sexton fled to Florida in 1993 with his family and the victim to avoid arrest and prevent the Ohio Department of Human Services ("DHS") from removing his children from the home. Sexton was the father of thirteen children, not counting the three children he allegedly fathered with his two daughters. After leaving Ohio, Sexton and his family moved to Oklahoma, Indiana, and eventually to Hillsborough River State Park in Florida....
While residing in Hillsborough River State Park, Sexton's infant grandchild, Skipper Lee Good, the son of Pixie and Joel, died under suspicious circumstances .... One night, the baby would not stop crying. Sexton ordered Pixie to quiet the baby or else he would do it for her. Pixie put her hand over the baby's mouth until the child stopped crying. The next morning the baby was dead. Sexton instructed Willie and Joel to bury the baby in the woods inside the Hillsborough River State Park....
According to Pixie, Joel was very upset over the loss of his child and wanted to bring the child back to Ohio for a proper burial. Shortly before the death of his infant son, Joel had learned Sexton was the father of Pixie's two daughters. After Joel confronted Sexton with this information, Sexton and Joel got into a fight. Because Joel knew about the baby's death and the fact that Sexton fathered two children with his daughter, Pixie, Sexton would not allow Joel and Pixie to return to Ohio. Sexton feared Joel would provide authorities with information pertaining to the Sexton family's current whereabouts, the death of the baby, and ongoing child abuse.
. . . .
At some point, the Sextons moved to Little Manatee State Park, the place where Joel was killed. Willie testified to the following course of events surrounding the murder. As Joel continued to express his interest in returning to Ohio, Sexton began telling his son, "Willie, I got a job for you to do," and that he wanted Willie to "put Joel to sleep." On the day of Joel's murder, Sexton told his wife that "today is the day that Willie is going" to kill Joel. Thereafter, Sexton, his wife, and a few of the younger Sexton children left the campsite for a picnic.... Both Pixie and Willie testified that Sexton returned from the picnic and joined Willie and Joel in the woods. According to Willie, Sexton told him to take the garrote out of his pocket and place it around Joel's neck. After placing the garrote around Joel's neck, Sexton told Willie to turn it "fast and hard." Willie told Joel that he was "just trying to put you to sleep." ...
. . . .
Another one of Sexton's children, Charles Sexton, who did not testify at the first trial, also testified that ... he witnessed the murder and that Sexton actually committed the final act that led to Joel's death....
. . . .
The State presented evidence that Willie had killed Joel because he was ordered to do so by Sexton and because he was afraid of his father....
... According to Willie, Sexton began having anal intercourse with him at age nine. This activity continued during the Sextons' stay in Florida. Sexton physically beat Willie with his fists, a belt, a baseball bat, and an electric belt....
In contrast to the first trial, at the conclusion of the State's case, Sexton presented no defense during the guilt phase of the trial. The jury convicted Sexton.[2]
Id. at 925-29 (footnotes omitted).
In sentencing Sexton to death after a jury recommendation of eight-to-four, the trial court found three aggravating circumstances: (1) that Sexton was previously convicted of a prior violent felony (robbery); (2) that the murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest; and (3) that the murder was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of legal or moral justification ("CCP"). Id. at 929.
As to mitigation, counsel presented two psychologists to testify about Sexton's brain dysfunction, which was discovered after a PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scan was administered. Id. at 936-37. Based primarily on the evidence of Sexton's brain damage in the second penalty phase, the trial court found one statutory mitigator, namely, that Sexton was under extreme mental or emotional disturbance at the time the murder was committed, and gave this mitigator great weight. Id. at 929.
Further, the jury heard substantial evidence of Sexton's childhood and background, including that Sexton's father died when he was only ten, that his mother was disabled by a stroke during his childhood, that Sexton had a low IQ, and that he later developed multiple sclerosis and other serious medical problems. Based on this testimony, the trial court found several nonstatutory mitigators, which were assigned some weight.3 After considering the aggravators and the mitigators and concluding that the aggravators outweighed the mitigators, the trial court imposed a death sentence. See id.
Sexton filed his initial and amended postconviction motions under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851 raising nine claims.4 The trial court held an evidentiary hearing on the claim that counsel was ineffective in investigating and presenting mitigation in the penalty phase of the trial. The postconviction court denied relief after the evidentiary hearing, finding that penalty phase counsel performed a reasonable investigation into Sexton's childhood and background to discover potential mitigation. The trial court concluded:
Counsel's investigation is not deemed deficient simply because family members are now—12 years after the murder and 8-10 years after the penalty phases—providing potential mitigation information. Additionally, the Court finds counsel was aware of other potential mitigation, such as Defendant's military service, mental health issues and physical conditions such as multiple sclerosis, but made the strategic decision to focus on Defendant's brain damage instead; that was an informed decision based on a reasonable investigation of the available mitigating evidence.
The court summarily denied the remainder of Sexton's claims that related to the guilt phase and to constitutional claims. Sexton now appeals the order denying postconviction relief, raising six issues for review.5
In his first issue on appeal, Sexton argues that the trial court erred in denying his claim that counsel was ineffective in the penalty phase for failing to adequately investigate and present mitigation evidence regarding Sexton's childhood and background, including his deprived upbringing, physical abuse by a sibling, lack of parental supervision, multiple sclerosis, and other medical problems. Sexton also alleges that his counsel failed to provide this additional mitigation to the mental health experts and was ineffective in the presentation of the mental health mitigation through two psychologists, primarily focusing on the results of a PET scan that disclosed brain dysfunction.
In order to prevail on his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel in investigating and presenting background mitigation, Sexton must satisfy the deficiency and prejudice prongs as set forth by the United States Supreme Court in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). "Strickland does not require counsel to investigate every conceivable line of mitigating evidence no matter how unlikely the effort would be to assist the defendant at sentencing." Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510, 533, 123 S.Ct. 2527, 156 L.Ed.2d 471 (2003). "Rather, in deciding whether trial counsel exercised reasonable professional judgment with regard to the investigation and presentation of mitigation evidence,...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Chavez v. State
...cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 1305, ___ L.Ed.2d ___ (2009); Power v. State, 992 So.2d 218, 220-21 (Fla.2008); Sexton v. State, 997 So.2d 1073, 1089 (Fla.2008); Schwab v. State, 995 So.2d 922, 933 (Fla.2008), petition for cert. filed, No. 08-5020 (U.S. June 30, 2008); Woodel v. State......
-
Hunter v. State, SC06-1963.
...Eighth Amendment challenge to Florida's lethal injection protocol, the Court has recently rejected such claims. See Sexton v. State, 997 So.2d 1073, (Fla. 2008); Griffin v. State, 992 So.2d 819 (Fla. 2008); Woodel v. State, 985 So.2d 524 (Fla.2008); Lebron v. State, 982 So.2d 649 (Fla.2008)......
-
Nelson v. Sec'y, Dept. of Corr.
...We agree with the postconviction court that this decision was reasonable and deny this claim. We confronted this issue in Sexton v. State, 997 So. 2d 1073 (Fla. 2008), where we considered whether trial counsel was deficient for choosing not to present testimony from Dr. Maher that the defen......
-
Hurst v. State
...harmful information about the defendant and would have been inconsistent with other mitigation. Id. at 283; see also Sexton v. State, 997 So.2d 1073, 1084 (Fla.2008) (holding that counsel was not ineffective in failing to present mental mitigation that would have opened the door to testimon......
-
Life, Death, and Neuroimaging: the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Defense's Use of Neuroimages in Capital Cases - Lessons from the Front - John H. Blume and Emily C. Paavola
...2005); Taylor v. State, 3 So. 3d 986 (S. Ct. Fla. 2009). 66. See, e.g., Clayton v. Roper, 515 F.3d 784 (8th Cir. 2008); Sexton v. State, 997 So. 2d 1073 (S. Ct. Fla. 2008). 67. See, e.g., Philmore v. McNeil, 575 F.3d 1251 (11th Cir. 2009); Brant v. State, 21 So. 3d 1276 (S. Ct. Fla. 2009). ......