Trotter v. Secretary, Dept. of Corrections

• Decision Date: 23 July 2008
• Docket Number: No. 07-15755.,07-15755.
• Citation: 535 F.3d 1286
• Parties: Melvin TROTTER, Petitioner-Appellant, v. SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Attorney General, State of Florida, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

535 F.3d 1286

Melvin TROTTER, Petitioner-Appellant, v. SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Attorney General, State of Florida, Respondents-Appellees.

No. 07-15755.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

July 23, 2008.

Carol Contreras Rodriquez (Court-Appointed), Capital Collateral Reg. Counsel, Tampa, FL, for Trotter.

Scott Andrew Browne, Robert J. Landry, Tampa, FL, for Respondents-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Before BIRCH, BLACK and PRYOR, Circuit Judges.

PRYOR, Circuit Judge:

Melvin Trotter appeals the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus and argues that two statutes enacted after he committed a capital offense but before he was resentenced to death violate the Ex Post Facto Clause of Article I, Section 10, of the United States Constitution. During the sentencing phase of Trotter's original trial, the court and jury found as one of several aggravating circumstances that Trotter was serving a "sentence of imprisonment" because he was serving a sentence of community control when he committed the murder. On appeal, the Supreme Court of Florida held that community control is not "imprisonment" and remanded for resentencing. Before Trotter was resentenced, the Florida Legislature amended the statute of aggravating factors to include serving a sentence of community control. Florida also enacted a statute that permitted the introduction of victim-impact evidence at sentencing. The jury at Trotter's resentencing heard evidence under both of these new statutes, and the court again imposed a sentence of death. On appeal of his second sentence, the Supreme Court of Florida overruled its earlier decision that community control is not "imprisonment," concluded that Trotter's original trial had been error-free, and rejected Trotter's argument about the Ex Post Facto Clause. The court also rejected Trotter's challenge of the victim-impact evidence. Because that decision did not unreasonably apply clearly established federal law, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

On June 16, 1986, Melvin Trotter entered a grocery store in Palmetto, Florida, owned by seventy-year-old Virgie Langford, grabbed Ms. Langford by the neck, and stabbed her seven times with a sixteen-inch-long butcher knife that Trotter had obtained at her store. Although Trotter had cut her eight-inches deep and disemboweled her, Ms. Langford remained alive while Trotter robbed her of money and food stamps. Ms. Langford died later at a hospital after a customer discovered her while she lay bleeding on the floor of her store. Trotter used the money that he stole from Ms. Langford to purchase crack cocaine.

After a trial, a jury found Trotter guilty of robbery with a deadly weapon and first-degree murder and recommended a sentence of death by a nine-to-three vote. A Florida statute contained an exhaustive list of aggravating circumstances, Fla. Stat. § 921.141(5) (1985), and the trial court found four of them applied to Trotter: (1) "[t]he crime was committed while under sentence of imprisonment"; (2) "the defendant had previously been convicted of a felony involving use or threat of violence"; (3) "the crime was committed while engaged in the commission of a robbery"; and (4) "the crime was especially wicked, evil, atrocious, and cruel." Trotter v. State, 576 So.2d 691, 692 & n. 2 (Fla.1990) ("Trotter I"). The trial court also found four mitigating circumstances: (1) the "[d]efendant was under the influence of extreme mental and emotional disturbance"; (2) "the capacity of the defendant was substantially impaired"; (3) "the defendant has a below average I.Q. and a history of family and developmental problems"; and (4) "remorse." Id. at 692 & n. 3. The trial court found that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances and sentenced Trotter to death. Id. at 692.

The trial court found that Trotter was a "person under sentence of imprisonment," Fla. Stat. § 921.141(5)(a) (1985), because, when the murder occurred, Trotter was serving a sentence of "community control" for a prior conviction of robbery and burglary. See Trotter v. State, 932 So.2d 1045, 1053 (Fla.2006) ("Trotter III"). Community control is "a form of intensive, supervised custody in the community, ... in which the freedom of an offender is restricted within the community, home, or noninstitutional residential placement and specific sanctions are imposed and enforced." Fla. Stat. § 948.001. The Supreme Court of Florida has characterized community control as "a harsh and more severe alternative to ordinary probation." State v. Mestas, 507 So.2d 587, 588 (Fla. 1987) (Barkett, J.). Trotter successfully argued on appeal that the trial court erred by interpreting "imprisonment" to include a sentence of community control. Trotter I, 576 So.2d at 694. The Supreme Court of Florida "held that community control was not an aggravating circumstance authorized by statute." Trotter v. State, 690 So.2d 1234, 1236 (Fla.1996) ("Trotter II"). The court "remanded for resentencing before a jury." Id.

The decision of the Supreme Court of Florida was controversial. Justice McDonald, joined by Justice Grimes, dissented in part because they "believe[d] it entirely appropriate for the trial judge to find as an aggravating factor that Trotter was under sentence of imprisonment when he committed this crime." Trotter I, 576 So.2d at 695 (McDonald, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (footnote omitted). The dissent explained that "[c]ommunity control is a harsher sentence than probation" and that, under Florida law, community control is a form of "supervised custody." Id. at 695. The dissent also explained that Trotter's counsel had admitted before the trial court that the state had proved that Trotter was incarcerated when the murder occurred and did not object to the jury instruction on service of a sentence of imprisonment. Id. at 695 & n. 11.

After the Supreme Court of Florida remanded Trotter's case but before Trotter was resentenced, the legislature enacted two statutes. The first statute amended the list of aggravating circumstances. The amendment provided that it is an aggravating circumstance that "[t]he capital felony was committed by a person under sentence of imprisonment or placed on community control." Fla. Stat. § 921.141(5)(a) (1991) (emphasis added); see Trotter II, 690 So.2d at 1237. The second statute provided that, after introducing evidence of an aggravating circumstance, "the prosecution may introduce, and subsequently argue, victim impact evidence." Fla. Stat. § 921.141(7).

At Trotter's resentencing, an advisory jury recommended a sentence of death by a vote of eleven to one. The state introduced testimony from members of the victim's family about the victim's survivors, the victim's personal qualities, and the level of respect that the victim enjoyed in the community. During closing argument, the prosecutor described the victim as a warm and loving person. "[T]he trial court followed the jury's eleven-to-one vote and again imposed the death penalty after finding four aggravating circumstances, two statutory mitigating circumstances, and several nonstatutory mitigating circumstances." Trotter II, 690 So.2d at 1236 (footnotes omitted). As one aggravating circumstance, the trial court found that "Trotter was on community control at the time of the murders." Id. at 1236 n. 5.

The Supreme Court of Florida rejected Trotter's two arguments that his second sentence of death violated the Ex Post Facto Clause. Id. at 1237. Trotter argued that Florida violated the Ex Post Facto Clause "because his crime and initial sentencing took place before the [amendment including community control as an aggravating circumstance] was enacted." Id. The Supreme Court of Florida stated, "We disagree and find no violation, just as we have found no violation in every other case where an aggravating circumstance was applied retroactively — even on resentencing." Id. "Use of community control as an aggravating circumstance" according to the court, "constitutes a refinement in the `sentence of imprisonment' factor, not a substantive change in Florida's death penalty law." Id. Trotter also argued that the use of his service on community control as an aggravating circumstance violated "the `law of the case' doctrine because [the Supreme Court of Florida had] already decided [that] issue in his favor," but the Supreme Court of Florida disagreed. Id. The court explained that "[a]n intervening act of the legislature refining a portion of Florida's death penalty statute may be sufficiently exceptional to warrant modification of the law of the case." Id. The court then declared, "We recede from our ruling in [Trotter I] on the use of community control as an aggravating circumstance and note that this renders Trotter's original trial error-free." Id. The perspective of the dissenters in Trotter's original appeal finally prevailed. The Supreme Court of Florida also summarily rejected Trotter's argument about the use of victim-impact evidence as "without merit." Id. The court affirmed Trotter's death sentence. Id. The Supreme Court of the United States later denied Trotter's petition for a writ of certiorari. Trotter v. Florida, 522 U.S. 876, 118 S.Ct. 197, 139 L.Ed.2d 134 (1997).

Trotter moved for postconviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. Trotter III, 932 So.2d at 1047. He raised several challenges to the effectiveness of his counsel, the method of execution, and the jury instructions given at the sentencing hearing. Id. at 1048 n. 4. The trial court denied Trotter's motion, and the Supreme Court of Florida affirmed.

Trotter filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the federal district court. He argued that both the use of his service on community control as an aggravating circumstance and the admission of victim-impact evidence violated the Ex Post Facto Clause. The district...