John Sexton, Appellant v. State of Florida, Appellee

Summary

The court affirmed Sexton's first-degree murder conviction after rejecting challenges to the limitation of cross-examination, exclusion of reverse-other-crime evidence, admission of hearsay and postmortem-injury evidence, and the sufficiency of the evidence. It held that the nonunanimous death recommendation required reversal of the death sentence and a new penalty phase because the record did not establish that the jury unanimously made the findings required for capital punishment, and the error was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Justice Pariente concurred by emphasizing the mitigating evidence and inability to determine the jury's unanimous findings; Justice Lawson concurred specially without substantive discussion; and Justice Canady, joined by Justice Polston, would have found the capital-sentencing error harmless.