Criminal Cases Involving Killing the ''Wrong'' Person

In Sweet v. State, 624 So. 2d 1138, 1142 (Fla. 1993), the defendant shot and wounded Cofer, his intended victim, and killed a neighbor while both were trying to escape an apartment Sweet was attempting to enter. This Court rejected Sweet's challenge to the cold, calculated, and premeditated (CCP) aggravator on grounds that the person he killed was not the subject of his planning, and stated: "Sweet was probably surprised by the presence of Cofer's neighbors, and planning is not the equivalent of shooting skill." Id. at 1142. In Howell v. State, 707 So. 2d 674 (Fla. 1998), this Court approved a CCP finding on evidence showing that a bomb contained in a microwave oven, which was intended for a different victim, killed a Florida Highway Patrol trooper during a roadside investigation. Finally, Bell v. State, 699 So. 2d 674 (Fla. 1997), involved a retribution killing of the wrong person in a case of mistaken identity.