Terry Marvin Ellerbee, Jr. v. State of Florida

Summary

The court affirmed Ellerbee's convictions and death sentence after rejecting his challenges to trial counsel, the aggravating circumstances, proportionality, evidentiary rulings, mitigation findings, the search of Red Camp, and Florida's capital-sentencing scheme. It held that ineffective-assistance claims were not cognizable on direct appeal, competent substantial evidence supported the CCP aggravator and the murder convictions, the death sentence was proportionate, and any error concerning statutory mitigation or the search was waived, invited, or harmless. The court also independently reviewed the murder evidence and found it sufficient under both felony-murder and premeditated-murder theories.