Brown v. State

In Brown v. State, 755 So. 2d 616 (Fla. 2000), the Court denied Brown's claim that counsel was ineffective for failing to call additional family members and friends to testify concerning his abuse as a child and low intelligence where the defense expert at trial testified at the evidentiary hearing that the additional evidence would not have changed his testimony. Importantly, the additional evidence Brown claimed should have been introduced during his penalty phase was introduced, though not as extensively, at the penalty phase. Id. at 637. Further, the trial court in Brown denied Brown's claims by noting, at least in part: "The essence of the Defendant's allegation seems to be that the experts' opinions would have been given greater weight if they had additional records upon which to base their opinions at trial, but the psychologist who testified at the hearing stated that although the additional information might have been helpful, his opinion was unchanged." Id. at 635.