Death Penalty Where Trial Court Found the Same Four Aggravators One Statutory and Eight Nonstatutory Mitigating Circumstances

In Wike v. State, 813 So. 2d 12 (Fla. 2002), the Supreme Court of Florida upheld the death penalty where the trial court found the same four aggravators present here, one statutory mitigating circumstance, which was given little or no weight, and eight nonstatutory mitigating circumstances, two of which were accorded "some" weight. See id. at 16. Further, this Court has upheld the death penalty in cases where the prior violent felony, heinous atrocious and cruel (HAC), cold, calculated, and premeditated (CCP), and avoid arrest aggravators were present, even though the trial court also found multiple mitigating factors. See: Buzia, 926 So. 2d at 1207-08 (upholding death sentence where trial court found, in addition to other aggravators, prior violent felony, CCP, HAC, and witness elimination, and seven nonstatutory mitigators, two of which received "substantial" weight); Lott v. State, 931 So. 2d 807, 811-12 (Fla. 2006) (upholding death sentence where aggravating factors found by the trial court trial court included prior violent felony, CCP, HAC, and witness elimination and the trial court found six mitigating circumstances, according three of them "considerable" weight). This Court has also upheld the death penalty for murders in which fewer aggravating circumstances and more mitigating circumstances were found than in this case. See Duest v. State, 12 So. 3d 734, 738 n.3 (Fla. 2009) (death sentence upheld where trial court found prior violent felony, HAC, and pecuniary gain in aggravation and twelve nonstatutory mitigating circumstances, two of which received great weight). Moreover, CCP, HAC, and prior violent felony are three of the weightiest aggravating factors in Florida's statutory sentencing scheme, see Morton v. State, 995 So. 2d 233, 243 (Fla. 2008); Sireci v. Moore, 825 So. 2d 882, 887 (Fla. 2002).