Leo L. Boatman v. State of Florida

Summary

The court affirmed Boatman's first-degree murder conviction and death sentence after rejecting challenges to his competency, judicial impartiality, voir dire, evidentiary rulings, jury waiver, the sufficiency of the evidence, and the penalty-phase findings. The court held that the record supported premeditation and the cold, calculated, and premeditated and heinous, atrocious, or cruel aggravators, and that any alleged evidentiary or jury-selection errors were waived, harmless, or unsupported. The court also rejected constitutional challenges to Florida's death-penalty scheme and Boatman's request for comparative proportionality review.