John Sexton, Appellant v. State of Florida, Appellee

Summary

The court affirmed Sexton's first-degree murder conviction, rejecting challenges to the limitation of cross-examination, exclusion of reverse-crime evidence, admission of hearsay, and admission of photographs and testimony concerning postmortem injuries. It independently found competent, substantial evidence supporting both premeditated murder and felony murder. Because the death recommendation was nonunanimous, the court held that the capital-sentencing error was not harmless and vacated the death sentence for a new penalty phase. Justice Pariente concurred in the result while elaborating on the mitigation and harmless-error analysis, Justice Lawson concurred specially, and Justice Canady, joined by Justice Polston, would have found the sentencing error harmless.