Hudson v. State

708 So. 2d 256, 1998 WL 41598
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedFebruary 5, 1998
Docket85693
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 708 So. 2d 256 (Hudson v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hudson v. State, 708 So. 2d 256, 1998 WL 41598 (Fla. 1998).

Opinion

708 So.2d 256 (1998)

Timothy Curtis HUDSON, Appellant/Cross-Appellee,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee/Cross-Appellant.

No. 85693.

Supreme Court of Florida.

February 5, 1998.
Rehearing Denied April 1, 1998.

*257 Kenneth David Driggs and M. Elizabeth Wells, Atlanta, GA, for Appellant/Cross-Appellee.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Robert J. Landry, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee/Cross-Appellant.

PER CURIAM.

We have on appeal an order of the trial court imposing a death sentence upon Timothy Curtis Hudson on resentencing. We have jurisdiction pursuant to article V, section 3(b)(1) of the Florida Constitution. We remand for further consideration of the sentence by the trial court and preparation of a new sentencing order in which the trial court is to provide detailed written findings as to aggravating and mitigating evidence presented. We also have for review the State's cross appeal, in which the State raises three issues concerning the resentencing.[1] We find no error related to the State's claims.

Hudson was convicted of first-degree murder, armed burglary, and theft of an automobile and sentenced to death for the 1986 murder of Mollie Ewings. At the end of Hudson's first penalty proceeding, the trial court followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Hudson to death.[2] On direct appeal, this court affirmed the conviction and sentence. Hudson v. State, 538 So.2d 829 (Fla.1989) (Hudson I.) In postconviction, the circuit court found that Hudson's penalty-phase counsel had provided ineffective representation in that he had failed to adequately investigate and present extensive mitigation evidence. We affirmed. Hudson v. State, 614 So.2d 482 (Fla.1993) (Hudson II.) A new penalty phase was conducted before a jury, which recommended death. The trial court imposed a second death sentence,[3] and Hudson appealed to this Court.

In Hudson II, the last time this case was before this Court, we upheld the trial court's determination that a new sentencing proceeding was necessary and specifically based our decision on the trial court's postconviction *258 order on defendant's motion to vacate, in which the trial court stated:

The issue now presented is whether there is a reasonable probability that, absent the deficiencies of counsel, the sentencer, which includes the Florida Supreme Court, would have concluded after an evaluation of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, that death was not warranted in this case. The Court concludes that there is such a reasonable probability predicated in part on the opinion of the Florida Supreme Court which affirmed the Defendant's sentence of death by the narriwest of margins—4 to 3. Hudson v. State, 538 So.2d 829 (1989).
At the defendant's trial, the mental health expert who examined the Defendant testified on cross examination that he had no evidence or information based on his research or review of reports that the Defendant either was or was not under the influence of cocaine at the time he committed this murder. At the evidentiary hearing he testified that based on that lack of evidence he was not in a position to intelligently convey to the jury what effect cocaine may have had on the Defendant at the time of the offense but that he now had significant information to be able to do so.
More significant is his testimony that had he possessed the information which was available through certain witnesses prior to the first trial, his testimony as to the mental health condition of the Defendant at the time of the offense would have been "substantially" more forceful, convincing, persuasive, understandable, and comprehensible with regard to how the Defendant would react while under the influence of cocaine as opposed to the speculative opinion he gave at trial. As he noted, this evidence convinced him that the Defendant "was a lot more severely disturbed than I realized at the time of this offense."
Had penalty phase counsel presented the available evidence relating to the Defendant's addiction to cocaine and its effect on his mental state and had penalty phase counsel given this information to the mental health expert thus allowing the expert to render a substantially more comprehensive and persuasive opinion, there is a reasonable probability that the sentencing judge would have given more weight to the two mitigating circumstances relating to the mental health of the Defendant which he considered. Had this been the case the sentencing judge, in undertaking his weighing process, may have found that these mitigating factors outweighed the two aggravating circumstances and may have sentenced the Defendant to life imprisonment thereby rejecting the jury's recommendation of death.
But, even assuming the sentencing judge would have still imposed the death penalty in the face of the omitted evidence, the Court finds there is a reasonable probability that the Florida Supreme Court's ultimate decision to affirm the death sentence would have been different. As is noted in that Court's opinion, it undertook a comprehensive proportionality review to determine whether the death penalty was appropriate in the Defendant's case. In ultimately rejecting the Defendant's position, the Court found one case to be "arguably a close call"—Fitzpatrick v. State, 527 So.2d 809 (1988). However, the Court found that "Hudson's mitigating evidence is not as compelling as that presented by Fitzpatrick." Hudson, pg. 832 (emphasis supplied)

(Footnote and record citations omitted.)

Hudson's first issue in this present appeal is naturally whether, on the basis of the resentencing evidence, the sentence of death is proportionate. Unfortunately, the trial court's order on this resentencing is so lacking in detail that we cannot decide the proportionality issue. In its sentencing order, the trial court states in pertinent part:

II. STATUTORY MITIGATING FACTORS
A. The capital felony was committed while the defendant was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance. Dr. Michael Maher, a psychiatrist, testified, without contradiction, that the defendant, at the time of the murder, was suffering from an extreme mental or emotional disturbance because *259 of cocaine addiction and ingestion, a personality disorder and a deprived background. The court was not convinced by this testimony that the defendant's condition in this regard was either substantial or extraordinary and the court assigns little weight to this mitigating circumstance.
B. The capacity of the defendant to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements was substantially impaired. Dr. Maher's testimony supports a finding by the court that this mitigating circumstance indeed existed at the time of the murder.
III. NON-STATUTORY MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES
There was testimony concerning defendant's earlier years and family background and, though unfortunate, the court finds that this testimony did not establish anything substantial or extraordinary. It was established by the evidence, however, that the defendant cooperated with the police in locating the body of the victim and the court finds this to be a single non-statutory mitigating circumstance.

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Bluebook (online)
708 So. 2d 256, 1998 WL 41598, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hudson-v-state-fla-1998.