BASCHAB, Judge.
On September 1, 1995, the appellant, Corey Schirod Smith, was convicted of the capital offense of capital murder for the killing of Kimberly Ann Brooks. The murder was made capital because he committed it during the course of a kidnapping. See § 13A-5-40 (a)(1), Ala.Code 1975. The jury unanimously recommended that he be sentenced to death. On September 14, 1995, the trial court followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced him to death. We affirmed his conviction on direct appeal, see Smith v. State, 797 So.2d 503 (Ala.Crim.App.2000); the Alabama Supreme Court denied his petition for a writ of certiorari, see Ex parte Smith, 797 So.2d 549 (Ala.2001); and the United States Supreme Court denied his petition for a writ of certiorari, see Smith v. Alabama, 534 U.S. 962, 122 S.Ct. 371, 151 L.Ed.2d 282 (2001). This court issued a certificate of judgment on May 11, 2001.
On June 7, 2002, the appellant filed a Rule 32 petition, challenging his conviction. On September 19, 2002, he filed a First Amended Petition.1 After the State responded, the circuit court conducted an evidentiary hearing and denied the petition. This appeal followed.
On direct appeal, this court summarized the facts of the case as follows:
"The State's evidence tended to show the following. On February 24, 1995, Tallapoosa police discovered the charred body of Kimberly Brooks rolled in a carpet; the carpet was lying beside a dirt road in Bibb Town. The coroner testified that Brooks had been shot in the head and the stomach and that there was soot in her lungs and trachea; he testified that she died of the `shots to the head [and] the chest and possible asphyxiation and burning.'
"Smith handwrote the following confession for the police:
"`Kim came to the house around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday morning with Labreasha Main. We was talking about getting married later on. My brother Reginald came and Main left. After awhile, Reginald left.
"`When my mamma got off work, me and Kim got into an argument about another girl calling me. We went outside. I pulled my gun on her. Sanjay [Brooks] and Shontai [Smith] pulled up. I forced her into the van. I told Sanjay to go to Bibb Town, which he did. And, when we got there, Kim and I got out, continuing arguing.
"`I told her I love her, and if I couldn't have her, no one could. She told me she loved me but things weren't the same. I kissed her on the forehead and pushed her off me and shot her in the chest. And then she fell to the ground, and I shot her again toward her head.
"`Shontai got out and helped me drag her into the bushes. We left. Sanjay dropped us off into the soft sands. When he returned, we got James Shealey['s] car and got some gas and went back where I left her. When we got there, she was standing up, and she got in the car and sat besides me. I was scared.
"`Sanjay rode from Bibb Town to Reeltown looking for a place to set her on fire and bury her. I asked her what would she say if I took her to the hospital. She say, "I'm going to say Corey shot me." We returned back to Bibb Town, and Sanjay drop us off—dropped us off. He told us to go ahead and finish her and he'll be back.
"`We put a trash bag over her face until she died. I poured the gas on her, and Shontai lit the lighter. Sanjay never returned.
"`We left there and walked back to my house. Shontai spent the night. The next [day] he left and I never saw him again.'
"Smith's codefendants, Sanjay Brooks and Shontai Smith, Smith's cousins, pleaded guilty to murder and to kidnapping and received life sentences in exchange for their trial testimony against Smith. Brooks was sentenced to concurrent life sentences on each count and Shontai Smith was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. Both codefendants testified at trial and corroborated Smith's statement. Shontai Smith further testified, concerning setting Brooks's body on fire, that after he and Smith poured gasoline on Brooks and ignited her, the fire got out of control; to stop it they threw sand on Brooks's body. The two then placed her body in a piece of carpet that had been left in the dump area and rolled her body in the carpet.
"Two other witnesses testified that on the day of the murder Smith told them that he had killed Kimberly. One witness, Larry Butler, testified that Smith told him that he had killed Kimberly and
that he needed gasoline to dispose of her body."
Smith, 797 So.2d at 509-10.
The appellant argues that the circuit court abused its discretion in striking his Second Amended Petition. Regarding amendments to Rule 32 petitions, Rule 32.7(b), Ala. R.Crim. P., provides: "Amendments to pleadings may be permitted at any stage of the proceedings prior to the entry of judgment." Also, Rule 32.7(d), Ala. R.Crim. P., provides, in pertinent part: "Leave to amend shall be freely granted."
In Ex parte Rhone, 900 So.2d 455, 459 (Ala.2004), the Alabama Supreme Court held:
"The right to amend is limited by the trial court's discretion to refuse an amendment based upon factors such as undue delay or undue prejudice to the opposing party. That limitation is, in this Court's opinion, sufficient to protect the rights of the parties, while allowing the trial court sufficient control over the management of its docket."
Subsequently, in Ex parte Jenkins, [Ms. 1031313, April 8, 2005] ___ So.2d ___, ___ (Ala.2005), the Alabama Supreme Court explained:
"As we held in Ex parte Rhone, . . . a petitioner does not have the unfettered right to file endless amendments to a Rule 32 petition. The right to amend is limited by the trial court's discretion to refuse to allow an amendment if the trial court finds that the petitioner has unduly delayed filing the amendment or that an amendment unduly prejudices the State. Such an exercise of the trial court's discretion would certainly be appropriate, for example, if, on the eve of an evidentiary hearing, a Rule 32 petitioner filed an amendment that included new claims of which the State had no prior notice and as to which it was not prepared to defend.
"We emphasize that the concepts of `undue delay' and `undue prejudice' as discussed in this opinion and in Ex parte Rhone apply to the trial court's management of its docket and to the petitioner's attention to his or her case. Those concepts cannot be applied to restrict the petitioner's right to file an amendment clearly provided for in Rule 32.7 simply because it states a new claim that was not included in the original petition."
Finally, in Ex parte Woods, 957 So.2d 533, 534-37 (Ala.2006), the Alabama Supreme Court applied its holdings in Rhone and Jenkins as follows:
"On July 26, 2002, Woods filed a petition for postconviction relief, pursuant to Rule 32, Ala. R.Crim. P. On September 27, 2002, the State responded. On November 16, 2002, Woods filed an amended petition. On December 19, 2002, the circuit court conducted a status conference to narrow the issues presented by Woods's petition and to identify any claims that should be precluded. At the close of the conference, the circuit court ordered both parties to submit proposed orders by January 31, 2003. On January 24, 2003, instead of filing a proposed order as directed by the circuit court, Woods filed a second amended petition. On January 28, 2003, the State objected to Woods's second amendment, arguing:
"`This second amended petition is 81 pages longer than Woods's first amended petition. In addition, the section numbers, page numbers and paragraph numbers in Woods's second amended petition are completely different than those in his first amended petition. Requiring the State to change its proposed order to correspond to Woods's second amended petition
at this late date would work a tremendous hardship on the State's counsel.'
"On January 30, 2003, the circuit court struck Woods's second amended petition. On February 7, 2003, the State filed its proposed order, which summarily dismissed all of Woods's claims. On February 11, 2003, Woods moved the court to reconsider its order striking his second amended petition. On February 20, 2003, Woods filed his proposed order. On July 2, 2003, a little less than a year after Woods filed his Rule 32 petition, the circuit court, adopting the State's order in its entirety, summarily dismissed the petition.
"Woods appealed the summary dismissal of his petition to the Court of Criminal Appeals. In his brief to the Court of Criminal Appeals, Woods contended that the circuit court exceeded the scope of its discretion in striking his second amended petition. On August 27, 2004, the Court of Criminal Appeals, applying the reasoning and holding in Coral v. State, 900 So.2d 1274 (Ala.Crim. App.2004), which cites McWilliams v. State, 897 So.2d 437 (Ala.Crim.App. 2004), and Rhone v. State, 900 So.2d 443 (Ala.Crim.App.2004), held that the circuit court did not exceed its discretion in striking Woods's second amended petition. Recognizing that the second amended petition was not based on surprise, newly discovered evidence, or changed circumstance, the Court of Criminal Appeals held that the circuit court did not err in striking Woods's second amended petition, and it affirmed the circuit court's dismissal of Woods's Rule 32 petition. Woods v. State, 957 So.2d 492 (Ala.Crim.App.2004).
"Woods filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in this Court on December 3, 2004. On June 22, 2006, this Court issued the writ to determine, among other matters, whether the circuit court exceeded the scope of its discretion by striking Woods's second amended petition.
". . . .
"In its brief to this Court, the State admits that when this Court's holding in Ex parte Rhone and its...
