Hall v. State
Annotate this CaseDefendant was convicted of the first-degree murder of Officer Donna Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald's body was found in the paint room at Tomoka Correctional Institute (TCI). After Defendant, an inmate at TCI, was apprehended by TCI personnel, Defendant repeated, "I freaked out. I snapped. I killed her." The trial court imposed the sentence of death. The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's conviction and sentence, holding (1) the trial court properly denied Defendant's motion to suppress his confessions; (2) the trial court did not err in admitting opinion testimony of the medical examiner regarding the sequence of wounds and position of the victim; (3) the trial court's finding of a certain aggravator was in error, but the error was harmless; (5) the death sentence was appropriate; and (6) Florida's death sentencing scheme is not unconstitutional under Ring v. Arizona.
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