Dale Glenn Middleton, Appellant v. State of Florida, Appellee

Summary

The court affirmed Middleton's first-degree murder conviction and death sentence. It struck the avoid-arrest and cold, calculated, and premeditated aggravators, but held those errors harmless because the remaining aggravators, mitigation, unanimous death recommendation, and sentencing findings supported the sentence. The court also upheld admission of Middleton's confession, rejected his sufficiency and penalty-phase claims, and found any jury-factfinding error harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Justice Pariente, concurring, urged liberal appointment of mitigation specialists but found no reversible error; Justice Quince, concurring in part and dissenting in part, would have found the sentencing error harmful.