State v. Coney, No. SC01-1185
Citation | 845 So.2d 120 |
Decision Date | 06 March 2003 |
Docket Number | No. SC02-900., No. SC01-1185 |
Parties | STATE of Florida, Appellant, Cross-Appellee, v. Jimmie Lee CONEY, Appellee, Cross-Appellant. Jimmie Lee Coney, Petitioner, v. James V. Crosby, Jr., Respondent. |
Court | United States State Supreme Court of Florida |
Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General and Lisa A. Rodriguez, Miami, FL and Scott A. Browne, Tampa, FL, Assistant Attorneys General, for Appellant, Cross-Appellee/Petitioner.
William M. Hennis, III, Assistant Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, Fort Lauderdale, FL, for Appellee, Cross-Appellant/Respondent.
The State of Florida appeals an order of the circuit court vacating the sentence of death imposed on Jimmie Lee Coney and granting a new penalty phase proceeding before a jury pursuant to his first motion filed under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 following an evidentiary hearing. Coney cross-appeals. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. We affirm. Coney also petitions this Court for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(9), Fla. Const. We deny the petition.
The facts of the underlying crime are set forth fully in this Court's opinion on direct appeal, which provides in part:
Coney v. State, 653 So.2d 1009, 1010-11 (Fla.1995).
The jury recommended death by a seven-to-five vote, and the judge imposed a sentence of death based on five aggravating circumstances1 and no mitigating circumstances. Coney raised ten issues on appeal.2 This Court struck one aggravating circumstance3 and affirmed. On March 24, 1997, Coney filed in circuit court an initial "shell" rule 3.850 motion and on August 5, 1999, an amended motion, raising twenty-two issues.4 The circuit court on December 13-15, 2000, conducted an evidentiary hearing on two claims of ineffectiveness of trial counsel (and on a conflict of interest claim to the extent it had an impact on the ineffectiveness claims) and granted partial relief, vacating the death sentence and ordering a new penalty phase proceeding before a jury. The State appeals, raising a single issue,5 and Coney cross-appeals, raising seven issues.6 Coney also has filed in this Court a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, raising three issues.7
As noted above, the State appeals the circuit court order vacating Coney's death sentence and granting a new penalty phase proceeding before a jury. Coney cross-appeals the circuit court's order to the extent the court rejects his remaining rule 3.850 claims.
The following disparate facts are relevant to this claim. During the penalty phase of the trial, defense counsel presented several witnesses, including relatives and friends of Coney, who testified in general terms concerning his childhood and upbringing. No mental health mitigation was presented. Trial counsel testified at the evidentiary hearing below. Due to a fee dispute, the court-appointed defense psychiatrist, Dr. Castiello, never examined Coney prior to trial or later; he never testified at trial and did not testify at the evidentiary hearing. Two other defense mental health experts, Drs. Mutter and David, examined Coney shortly before the penalty phase of the trial and submitted brief reports. Neither was called to testify at trial; both testified at the evidentiary hearing below.
Two additional defense mental health experts, Drs. Hyde and Eisenstein, examined Coney prior to the evidentiary hearing, testified at the evidentiary hearing, and adduced extensive evidence of mitigating circumstances. Their testimony was rebutted by the State's mental health expert, Dr. Ansley, who also examined Coney prior to the evidentiary hearing and testified at the hearing. The circuit court weighed the conflicting testimony of the various witnesses and ruled that trial counsel's performance was both deficient and prejudicial as to the penalty phase but not the guilt phase. The State appeals.
The United States Supreme Court in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), set forth the following two-pronged standard of proof for a trial court to apply when evaluating a claim of ineffectiveness of trial counsel:
First, the defendant must show that counsel's performance was deficient. This requires showing that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the "counsel" guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment. Second, the defendant must show that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense. This requires showing that counsel's errors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial, a trial whose result is reliable. Unless a defendant makes both showings, it cannot be said that the conviction or death sentence resulted from a breakdown in the adversary process that renders the result unreliable.
Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052. The Court in Strickland addressed further both the first8 and second9 prongs of the above test and noted that both prongs are mixed questions of law and fact.10
This Court in Stephens v. State, 748 So.2d 1028 (Fla.1999), set forth the abiding standard of review for an appellate court to apply when reviewing a trial court's ruling on an ineffectiveness claim. We later summarized that standard as follows:
The standard of review for a trial court's ruling on an ineffectiveness claim also is two-pronged: The appellate court must defer to the trial court's findings on factual issues but must review the court's ultimate conclusions on the [performance] and prejudice prongs de novo.
Bruno v. State, 807 So.2d 55, 61-62 (Fla. 2001).
In the present case, after hearing the conflicting testimony, the circuit court concluded that counsel's performance was deficient under the first prong of Strickland based on the following reasoning:
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