Darious Wilcox v. State of Florida & Darious Wilcox v. Secretary, Department of Corrections

Summary

The Supreme Court of Florida affirmed the denial of Darious Wilcox's initial rule 3.851 postconviction motion and denied his petition for writ of habeas corpus, leaving undisturbed his death sentence for the 2008 murder of Nimoy Johnson. The court held penalty-phase counsel was neither deficient nor prejudicial in preparing mitigation, presenting background and mental-health evidence, or stipulating to the prior-violent-felony convictions, and that counsel properly relied on a competency evaluation before Wilcox waived counsel and represented himself at the guilt phase. It rejected his Hurst-based challenges, concluding that Poole supplies the governing standard, is untouched by Erlinger, applies retroactively without due process infirmity, and is satisfied by the guilt-phase jury's unanimous findings establishing the in-the-course-of-a-felony aggravator. His Brady/Giglio and newly-discovered-evidence claims failed, as did all eight habeas claims asserting appellate-counsel ineffectiveness.