Ralston Davis v. State of Florida — Polston, J., Concurring in Part and Dissenting in Part

Summary

Justice Polston agreed that Davis’s first-degree murder convictions should be affirmed but would also have affirmed the death sentence for Proby’s murder. He reasoned that the cold, calculated, and premeditated aggravator was supported by Davis’s advance purchase of a rifle, threat to kill Proby, deliberate arrival with ammunition, and shooting of her twenty-three times, and that the sentence was proportionate. Justice Quince, concurring in part and dissenting in part, would have upheld the convictions but reduced the sentence to life because the heinous, atrocious, or cruel aggravator lacked competent, substantial evidence.