Troy v. State Of Fla.
| Decision Date | 06 January 2011 |
| Docket Number | No. SC09-526,SC09-526 |
| Parties | JOHN TROY, Appellant, v. STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
John Troy appeals an order of the circuit court summarily denying his first postconviction motion to vacate his conviction of first-degree murder and sentence of death filed under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons explained below, we affirm the circuit court's order denying Troy's motion for postconviction relief.
Troy, who was thirty-one years old at the time of the crimes, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2001 first-degree murder of Bonnie Carroll in Sarasota, Florida. Troy was also convicted of armed burglary, armed robbery, andattempted sexual battery with a weapon of Carroll, and armed burglary, aggravated battery, armed kidnapping, and armed robbery of Traci Burchette. We affirmed Troy's convictions and sentences on direct appeal. See Troy v. State, 948 So. 2d 635 (Fla. 2006). Following a Huff1 hearing, the circuit court summarily denied Troy's motion for postconviction relief. Troy now challenges the circuit court's postconviction order and raises various claims. We begin our opinion by examining the relevant facts of this case. We then turn to the claims raised in Troy's 3.851 motion for postconviction relief.
The facts of this case, as set forth in Troy's direct appeal, are summarized here. At approximately 5:30 p.m. on September 12, 2001, Debbie Ortiz found the nude, dead body of her twenty-year-old daughter, Bonnie Carroll, at Carroll's home in the Timberchase Apartments in Sarasota. Associate medical examiner Dr. Michael Hunter determined that Carroll was murdered around midnight on September 12. Dr. Hunter observed blunt force impact injuries around Carroll's face, a cloth tied around her neck, large incised wounds to the neck, and stab wounds to the front of her body. He discovered a piece of cloth inside Carroll's mouth during the autopsy, and determined that she was alive when the cloth was inserted. He also discovered petechial hemorrhages in her eyes which possibly, albeit not conclusively, indicated strangulation. Although no semen was identified, Dr. Hunter testified to injuries and other factors consistent with someone attempting to sexually batter Carroll before she was killed. Further evidence revealed that a knife blade was broken off within Carroll's body. The corresponding bladeless knife handle, which contained the blood of the victim and of Troy, was recovered from Carroll's bathroom counter. A steak knife that was recovered at the scene also contained Carroll's blood. It was determined that Carroll sustained fifty-four injuries to her body.
Troy, who also resided at Timberchase Apartments, had been released from prison about five weeks before Carroll's murder. He had served a sentence for armed robbery and was placed on probation for two years. His conditional release required that he submit to regularly scheduled drug testing. Troy admitted to his probation officer that he would fail his first scheduled drug test and consequently rescheduled the test for September 11, 2001. Troy tested positive for cocaine that day and was informed by his probation officer that he would soon be reincarcerated for violating his probation.
Troy went home after failing his drug test, argued with his girlfriend, Marilyn Brooks, and left to visit Melanie Kozak. His girlfriend testified that he left their apartment with a kitchen knife and did not return. Between September 11 and September 12, 2001, Troy visited Kozak three times before Carroll's murderand one time afterward, and the two ingested cocaine together during each visit. Troy was also involved in an incident with a neighbor on the evening of Carroll's murder. When police arrived at Troy's apartment to investigate that incident, Troy was not home.
Carroll's death occurred some time between Troy's incident with his neighbor and a 2 a.m. visit with Kozak. Following Carroll's death, Troy again ingested cocaine at Kozak's home, then drove around in Carroll's vehicle and stopped to visit Traci Burchette, a psychiatric nurse and friend of his mother. Troy picked up a two-by-four board that was lying in Burchette's backyard and knocked on her front door at about 6:30 a.m. When she came to the door, Troy told her that his vehicle had broken down and he needed to use the telephone. At some point after she invited him in, Troy attacked Burchette with the two-by-four board. She lost fingernails on both hands and suffered a skull fracture and broken knuckles. Troy bound and gagged Burchette, took her ATM card and the keys to her vehicle, and left in her vehicle.
Troy attempted to use Burchette's ATM card at a bank in Arcadia and then headed south on Interstate 75 toward Naples. In the meantime, Burchette managed to call the police and when they arrived, she provided them with a description of Troy and her vehicle. Troy and a female passenger were stopped by local police in Naples midafternoon on September 12. Police located the two-by-four board used in Burchette's attack along the highway near Fort Myers.
Troy was wearing tennis shoes, blue jeans, a T-shirt, and a baseball cap when he was arrested. The following DNA evidence linking Troy to the crimes was stipulated: the shoes contained Carroll's blood; the jeans contained the blood of Carroll and Burchette; and the T-shirt tested positive for Burchette's blood. Additionally, a mixture of Troy's DNA was found on material removed from Carroll's fingernails. One piece of broken glass found lying on Carroll's bra in her bedroom contained her blood. Another piece of broken glass found near Carroll's body tested positive for Troy's blood. A match of Troy's fingerprint was identified on a glass found on Carroll's kitchen counter.
The jury found Troy guilty of first-degree murder and all the other charges, and the case proceeded to the penalty phase where the State and defense presented testimony. Following the penalty phase, the jury rendered its advisory sentence. The judge followed the jury's eleven-to-one recommendation and sentenced Troy to death based on four aggravating factors, 2 two statutory mitigating factors, andfifteen nonstatutory mitigating factors.3 Troy appealed, raising seven claims, and this Court affirmed. Troy, 948 So. 2d 635.
Pursuant to rule 3.851 of the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, Troy filed his initial postconviction motion, which raised numerous claims. He sought an evidentiary hearing on several claims, and the circuit court held a Huff hearing to determine whether the claims raised in his motion required an evidentiary hearing. The court issued an order denying all of Troy's postconviction claims without a hearing, and this appeal followed. Troy now argues that the circuit court erred in denying relief on each of the claims raised in his postconviction motion.
Troy raises twelve issues in his appeal of the circuit court's denial of postconviction relief. He contends that (1) trial counsel was ineffective for failing to prepare a penalty phase mitigation witness; (2) trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate, question and remove a juror from the jury panel; (3) trial counsel was ineffective for failing to properly argue the applicability of the statutory age mitigator; (4) Florida's lethal injection protocols are unconstitutional; (5) section 945.10, Florida Statutes (2008), is unconstitutional; (6) section 27.702, Florida Statutes (2008), is unconstitutional; (7) rule 4-3.5(d)(4) of the Rules Regulating the Florida Bar is unconstitutional; (8) Florida's jury instructions violate Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U.S. 320 (1985); (9) Troy's execution will be cruel and unusual because he may be incompetent at the time of his execution; (10) Florida's death penalty statute as applied to him is unconstitutional; (11) Florida's death sentence statute is unconstitutional for failing to prevent the arbitrary and capricious imposition of the death penalty; and (12) the cumulative effect of errors deprived Troy of a fair trial. He contends that an evidentiary hearing was warranted on the first five claims. We turn now to address each of these claims. As explained below, we conclude that Troy is entitled to relief only to the extent that chapter 27, Florida Statutes (2010), permits Capital Collateral Regional Counsel to represent capital defendants in mode-of-execution claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2006).
Troy claims that the postconviction court erred in summarily denying his various claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. We begin this discussion with the applicable standard of review.
Pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851, a circuit court must hold an evidentiary hearing on an initial motion for postconviction relief whenever the movant makes a facially sufficient claim that requires a factual determination. See Hurst v. State, 18 So. 3d 975, 997 (Fla. 2009) (citing Gonzalez v. State, 990 So. 2d 1017, 1024 (Fla. 2008)). To the extent there is any question as to whether the movant has made a facially sufficient claim requiring a factual determination, the court must presume that an evidentiary hearing is required. Id. (citing Booker v. State, 969 So. 2d 186, 195 (Fla. 2007)).
"The decision of whether to grant an evidentiary hearing on a rule 3.851 motion is ultimately based on the written materials before the court, and the ruling of the postconviction trial court on that issue is tantamount to a pure question of law subject to de novo review." Davis v. State, 26 So. 3d 519, 526 (Fla. 2009), cert. denied, 130 S. Ct. 3509 (2010). Therefore, when reviewing the summary denial of claims raised in an initial postconviction motion below, this Court acceptsthe movant's factual allegations as true to the extent that they are not...
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