Dale Glenn Middleton v. State of Florida

Summary

The court affirmed Middleton's first-degree murder conviction and death sentence. It struck the avoid-arrest and cold, calculated, and premeditated aggravators because the evidence did not establish that witness elimination was the sole or dominant motive or that the killing was preplanned, but held those errors harmless because two substantial aggravators remained and the sentencing order showed the court would have imposed death independently. The court also upheld the confession's admission, the denial of a continuance and mitigation-specialist funding, the sufficiency of the evidence, and the challenged capital-sentencing provisions.