Opinion
Case No. SC03-243.
May 25, 2004.
Lower Tribunal No. 85-I-476.
Arthur Dennis Rutherford appeals the circuit court's order summarily denying his successive motion to vacate judgment and sentence wherein he challenges the validity of his death sentence under Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584 (2002). This Court has rejected similar claims in Bottoson v. Moore, 833 So.2d 693 (Fla.), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 1070 (2002), andKing v. Moore, 831 So.2d 143 (Fla.), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 1067 (2002), and subsequent cases. Furthermore, one of the aggravating circumstances found by the trial court in this case was commission during the course of an enumerated felony, a factor that is an "exception to a Ring analysis" because it "involve[s] facts already submitted to and found by a jury."Robinson v. State, 865 So.2d 1259, 1266 (Fla. 2004). The circuit court order is hereby affirmed.
WELLS, PARIENTE, LEWIS, QUINCE and CANTERO, JJ., concur.
ANSTEAD, C.J., dissents.
BELL, J., recused.