Willie James Hodges, Appellant v. State of Florida, Appellee

Summary

The court affirmed the denial of postconviction relief on Hodges’s murder conviction, concluding that his ineffective-assistance claims failed because counsel’s challenged decisions were reasonable, lacked deficient performance, or caused no reasonable probability of a different trial outcome. The court nevertheless vacated the death sentence because the sentence was imposed under Florida’s former capital-sentencing scheme and the nonunanimous death recommendation could not be treated as harmless under the governing jury-trial requirements. Justice Canady, joined by Justices Polston and Lawson, concurred in affirming relief concerning the conviction but would not have required a new penalty phase because he would not apply the governing capital-sentencing decision retroactively.