Florida's Death Penalty Sentencing Scheme

In Trease v. State, 768 So.2d 1050, 1055 (Fla. 2000), the Court upheld and clarified Florida's death penalty sentencing scheme as to the consideration of mitigating factors. Appellant's fourth, fifth, and sixth claims--that the burden is shifted to the defendant to prove the mitigating circumstances, that the HAC aggravating factor is applied in a vague and inconsistent manner, and that the murder in the course of a felony aggravating factor creates an automatic aggravating factor in all felony murders, resulting in arbitrary application of this aggravating factor must be rejected based upon this Court's recent decision in Floyd v. State, 808 So.2d 175 (Fla. 2002). In Floyd, this Court denied the defendant's burden shifting argument, see id. at 186, his argument challenging the HAC aggravating factor as vague and overbroad, see id. at 187, and his murder in the course of a felony argument, see id. at 186.