Melvin Trotter v. State Of Florida
Supreme Court of Florida
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No. SC03-735
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MELVIN TROTTER,
Appellant,
vs.
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Appellee.
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No. SC03-1967
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MELVIN TROTTER,
Petitioner,
vs.
JAMES R. MCDONOUGH, etc.,
Respondent.
[May 25, 2006]
PER CURIAM.
Melvin Trotter appeals an order of the circuit court denying his motion for postconviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 and an order concluding that he is not mentally retarded. He also petitions the Court for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), (9), Fla. Const. As explained below, we affirm the circuit court's denial of Trotter's postconviction motion and the order on mental retardation, and we deny Trotter's habeas petition.
I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
In 1986, Trotter, in the course of robbing a store, murdered the seventy-year-old shop owner. She died from the seven stab wounds he inflicted, one of which disemboweled her. Trotter v. State, 576 So. 2d 691, 692 (Fla. 1990). Upon his conviction for robbery and first-degree murder, the court imposed a death sentence. On appeal, we affirmed Trotter's convictions but vacated the sentence and remanded for a new penalty phase because the trial court erred in treating his violation of community control as an aggravating factor. Id. at 694.[1]
Following the new penalty phase, eleven jurors recommended death, and the court imposed that sentence after finding four aggravating factors and two statutory, and several nonstatutory, mitigating factors. Trotter v. State, 690 So. 2d 1234, 1236 (Fla. 1996), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 876 (1997).[2] On appeal, Trotter raised ten issues, including a contention that the trial court again erred in using his community control status as an aggravator. Id. at 1237.[3] We affirmed the sentence, finding that subsequent statutory changes permitting use of such status as an aggravator constituted a â€
