Thomas Rigterink, Appellant v. State of Florida, Appellee

Summary

The Supreme Court of Florida affirmed the denial of postconviction relief on all claims. It held that counsel were not ineffective for failing to pursue meritless guilt-phase defenses, for selecting a positive-character mitigation strategy, or for failing to object to several items of evidence and penalty-phase arguments. Although counsel performed deficiently by failing to recognize that Rigterink was in custody when he made one pre-warning statement, the court found no prejudice because the statement could have been used for impeachment and the later confession was admissible. No separate opinions were filed.