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 because the evidence did not establish their required elements, but held those errors harmless in light of the remaining aggravators, the mitigation, and the unanimous death recommendation. The court also upheld denial of suppression, the sufficiency of the evidence, denial of a continuance and mitigation-specialist funding, and the constitutionality of the challenged sentencing provisions. Justice Pariente concurred separately to emphasize the importance of mitigation specialists, while Justice Quince concurred in part and dissented in part, concluding that the sentencing error was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.