Kentrell F. Johnson, Appellant v. State of Florida, Appellee.

Summary

The court affirmed Johnson’s convictions for kidnapping and first-degree murder but vacated his death sentence. It held that Johnson fully performed an agreement under which the State promised not to seek the death penalty, and that the State could not avoid that promise by prosecuting him in another circuit or by asserting that the victim’s body would have been discovered anyway. The court rejected Johnson’s remaining guilt-phase and direct-appeal claims, including his challenges to venue, the prosecutor’s DNA argument, the juror strike, collateral-crime evidence, and the sufficiency of the evidence.