Death Penalty Despite Extreme Emotional Disturbance

In Bowles v. State, 804 So. 2d 1173 (Fla. 2001), the Court affirmed death as a sentence when the aggravators were: (1) prior conviction of two violent felonies; (2) defendant was on felony probation when the murder was committed; (3) the murder was committed during a robbery and for pecuniary gain (merged); (4) heinous atrocious and cruel (HAC); (5) cold, calculated, and premeditated (CCP). See id. at 1175. The trial court in that case rejected the statutory mitigators of extreme emotional disturbance and the defendant's diminished capacity to appreciate the criminality of his acts at the time of the murder. See id. at 1176. The trial court assigned weight to the following mitigating factors: (1) abusive childhood (significant weight); (2) defendant's history of alcoholism (some weight); (3) defendant's lack of a father figure (some weight); (4) defendant's lack of education (little weight); (5) defendant's guilty plea and cooperation with police (little weight); (6) defendant's use of intoxicants at the time of the murder (little weight); and (7) the circumstances which caused Bowles to leave home or his circumstances after he left home (no weight). See id.