Court Declining to Give Standard Instructions on Statutory Mental Mitigators

In Duest v. State, 855 So. 2d 33, (Fla. June 26, 2003), the court rejected a claim that the trial court erred in declining to give the standard instructions on the two statutory mental mitigators, and pointed with approval to special instructions given by the trial court on the mitigators in terms comporting with the evidence. The court noted in Duest that the trial court did not suggest that the jury should give the mitigating factors any less weight than if it had received the standard instructions on the corresponding statutory mitigators. See id.