Michael Duane Zack, Iii, Appellant v. State of Florida, Appellee; Michael Duane Zack, Iii, Petitioner, v. Julie L…

Summary

The court affirmed the denial of Zack’s successive postconviction motion and denied his habeas petition. It held that his IQ scores, all above the relevant margin-of-error range, made him unable to satisfy the significantly subaverage intellectual-functioning requirement for intellectual disability, and that the trial court properly denied relief without an evidentiary hearing. It also held that the later jury-trial rule governing capital sentencing did not apply retroactively because Zack’s conviction and sentence became final before the relevant constitutional decision. Justice Canady, Justice Pariente, and Justice Lawson concurred in separate opinions addressing the intellectual-disability analysis or the retroactivity reasoning.