JAMES MILTON DAILEY, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
The court affirmed the death sentence, finding no merit in the defendant's claims regarding jury instructions, weighing of mitigating circumstances, or judge disqualification.
[1] A defendant is procedurally barred from complaining of an erroneous jury instruction if the defendant never objected to the instruction as worded or offered alternative i…
[2] A death recommendation is not presumptively invalid where one aggravating circumstance is struck on appeal and other independent aggravating circumstances remain supporte…
Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe defendant was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. After prior appeals, the case was remanded for resentencing. On remand, the…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Death Penalty Sentencing cases and more on FLexlaw
PER CURIAM.
We have on appeal the sentence of the trial court imposing the death penalty upon James Dailey. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 8(b)(1), Fla. Const. We affirm.
The facts are set out fully in Dailey v. State, 594 So. 2d 254 (Fla.1991). Dailey and another man drove fourteen year-old Shelly Boggio to a deserted beach near St. Peters-burg where Dailey tortured her with a knife, attempted to sexually assault her, and then stabbed, strangled and drowned her. Dailey was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death based on five aggravating and no mitigating circumstances.1 This Court struck two of the aggravating circumstances 2 and, after noting that the trial court had failed to weigh mitigating circumstances, remanded for resentencing before the judge. On remand, the trial judge resentenced Dai-ley to death after finding three aggravating3 and numerous mitigating circumstances.4 Dailey raises three issues on appeal.5
Dailey’s first claim asserts that the jury recommendation of death was invalid and he was entitled to an entire new penalty phase trial before a new jury for two reasons: First, the original jury was given vague instructions on three aggravating circumstances (HAC, avoid arrest, and CCP); and second, the jury was instructed on two aggravating circumstances (avoid arrest and CCP) that were unsupported by the evidence and later struck by this Court.
As to the first part of his claim, Dailey failed to raise vagueness of the instructions in his initial appeal before this Court. When this Court issued its opinion on appeal, the jury recommendation of death was unchallenged and intact, and we instructed the trial court to hold a new sentencing proceeding before the judge. The trial court cannot now be faulted for following our directions. See Riley v. State, 413 So. 2d 1173 (Fla.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 981, 103 S.Ct. 317, 74 L.Ed.2d 294 (1982).
Further, although Dailey unsuccessfully moved to dismiss the indictment based on vagueness of the statutory aggravating circumstances, he never objected to the jury instructions themselves on vagueness grounds or offered alternative instructions.6 This claim is thus barred under Beltran-Lopez v. State, 626 So. 2d 163 (Fla.1993), cert. denied, — U.S. —, 114 S.Ct. 2122, 128 L.Ed.2d 678 (1994):
We now find that Beltran-Lopez did join in a motion in limine seeking to exclude “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel” from consideration before both the jury and the judge on the ground that the aggravating factor was unconstitutionally vague. However, it is clear that he never attacked the instruction itself, either by submitting a limiting instruction or making an objection to the instruction as worded. Therefore, he is procedurally barred from complaining of the erroneous instruction.
Id. at 164.
As to the second subpart of Dailey’s initial claim, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Sochor v. Florida, 504 U.S. 527, 112 S.Ct. 2114, 119 L.Ed.2d 326 (1992), that a death recommendation was not presumptively invalid where one aggravating circumstance was struck on appeal and three other aggravating circumstances were approved:
[I]f the jury was allowed to rely on any of two or more independent grounds, one of which is infirm, we should [not] presume that the resulting general verdict rested on the infirm ground and must be set aside.... [A] jury is ... indeed likely to disregard an option simply unsupported by evidence.
Sockor, 504 U.S. at 537-38, 112 S.Ct. at 2122. In the present case, although two aggravating circumstances were struck on appeal, three strong aggravating circumstances remained. We will not presume that the jury relied on the infirm aggravating circumstances in recommending death under the circumstances of this case. See, e.g., Oats v. State, 472 So. 2d 1143 (Fla.), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 865, 106 S.Ct. 188, 88 L.Ed.2d 157 (1985) (no error where court declined to empanel penalty phase jury on remand where three of six aggravating circumstances were struck on appeal). We find no error. Dailey next claims that the trial court failed to find and weigh mitigating circumstances. We note, however, that the trial court’s sentencing order addresses mitigating circumstances at length and explains which factors were rejected as unsupported by the evidence. The order further describes the degree of weight allocated to those factors established in the record. We find no error. And finally, Dailey’s claim that the trial judge erred in failing to disqualify himself on remand because he had imposed death the first time around has already been rejected by this Court. See, e.g., Engle v. Dugger, 576 So. 2d 696 (Fla.1991). We find no error. Based on the foregoing, we affirm the death sentence.
It is so ordered.
GRIMES, C.J., and OVERTON, SHAW, HARDING, WELLS and ANSTEAD, JJ., concur. KOGAN, J., concurs in result only.
. The court found the following aggravating circumstances: The defendant had been previously convicted of a violent felony; the murder was committed during a sexual battery; the murder was committed to avoid arrest; the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel (HAC); and the murder was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner (CCP).
. This Court struck the aggravating circumstances of commission to avoid arrest and CCP. . The court found the following circumstances in aggravation: the defendant had been convicted of another violent felony; the murder was committed during a sexual battery; and HAC.
. The court found the following nonstatutory circumstances in mitigation: Dailey served in the Air Force and saw duty in Viet Nam on three occasions; he was good to his family and helpful around the home; he cared enough for his daughter to allow her to be adopted by his Air Force buddy; he saved two young people from drowning when he was in high school; and he and the victim had been partying and visited some bars together on the night of the murder. . Dailey alleges that the trial court erred in addressing the following issues: 1) in denying Dai-ley’s motion for an entire new penalty phase; 2) in failing to find and weigh mitigating circumstances; 3) in denying his motion to disqualify the judge.
. Dailey objected to the HAC instruction without further comment, and he objected to the avoid arrest and CCP instructions because there was insufficient evidence.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Dailey v. State, 247 So. 3d 390 (Fla. 2018)…is Court reversed Dailey's death sentence and "remand[ed] for resentencing before the trial judge." Id. at 259. On remand, the trial court again sentenced Dailey to death, and Dailey's sentence of [*391] death became final in 1996. Dailey v. State , 659 So. 2d 246, 247 (Fla. 1995), cert. denied , 516 U.S. 1095, 116 S.Ct. 819, 133 L.Ed.2d 763 (1996).1 Thus, Hurst does not apply retroactively to Dailey's sentence of death. See Hitchcock , 226 So. 3d at 217. Accordingly, we affirm the denial of Dailey's motion.…1 / 2
-
Dailey v. State, 965 So. 2d 38 (Fla. 2007)…manded the case for resentencing after concluding the trial court had failed to weigh mitigating circumstances. Dailey v. State, 594 So. 2d 254 (Fla.1991).2 At resen-tencing, Dailey was again sentenced to death. This Court affirmed. Dailey v. State, 659 So. 2d 246 (Fla.1995).3 Dailey then filed in the trial court a rule 3.850 motion for postconviction relief, raising fifteen claims.4 After conducting a hearing [*43] pursuant to Huff v. State, 622 So. 2d 982 (Fla.1993), the trial court granted an evi-dentiary…
-
Dailey v. State, 329 So. 3d 1280 (Fla. 2021)…trial judge had failed to give weight to mitigating circumstances, and that two aggravators were unsupported. Dailey, 594 So. 2d at 255, 258-59 . On remand, the trial court once again sentenced Dailey to death, and we affirmed. -3- Dailey v. State, 659 So. 2d 246, 247, 248 (Fla. 1995). Dailey’s conviction and sentence became final in 1996, when the United States Supreme Court denied his petition for a writ of certiorari. Dailey v. Florida, 516 U.S. 1095 (1996). Thereafter, we affirmed the denial of Dailey’…
Previewing 3 of 6 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Sochor v. Florida, 504 U.S. 527 (U.S. 1992)
- Del Monte Corp. v. Blau, 474 U.S. 865 (U.S. 1985)
- Johnson v. Texas, 474 U.S. 865 (U.S. 1985)
- Engle v. Dugger, 576 So. 2d 696 (Fla. 1991)
- Dailey v. State, 594 So. 2d 254 (Fla. 1991)
- Elledge v. Florida, 459 U.S. 981 (U.S. 1982)
- W. Elec. Co., Inc. v. Hill, 459 U.S. 981 (U.S. 1982)
- Wardell Riley v. State, 413 So. 2d 1173 (Fla. 1982)
- Sonny Boy Oats, Jr. v. State, 472 So. 2d 1143 (Fla. 1985)
- Mauricio Beltran-Lopez v. State, 626 So. 2d 163 (Fla. 1993)